You can move a character diagonally in Scratch Jr to create smooth animations. This is a great way to glide an object or person upwards and downwards, without the movement looking choppy. Make it slide in a continuous line, instead of walking in a zigzag pattern to the top of the stage, by going one step right and then one step up.
About Scratch Jr and Coding
Scratch Jr is an app that teaches coding to kids. It is designed for children ages 5 and up. Scripts are made by connecting blocks of instructions together. Although, Scratch Jr can be used by beginners to create simple animated scenes, the program can also be applied to design graphic stories and games. Scratch Jr is ideal for jump starting an understanding of programming concepts before learning how to build more complicated projects with other apps such as Scratch.
How to code diagonal movement in Scratch Jr is an advanced programming skill. It is suitable to teach students this technique only after they have mastered the basics. As a prerequisite, they should already know how to build a script that moves a character left, right, up, and down.
Moving diagonally is more complicated to code because it requires a character to have two scripts that run at one time. The first script moves the character up (or down). The second script moves the character left (or right).
The character moves right and up AT THE SAME TIME.Steps to Move a Character Diagonally in Scratch Jr
The instructions listed below are from the project, TechnoWhiz published by TechnoKids Inc. TechnoWhiz has a collection of Scratch Jr activities designed to introduce programming basics in a fun way for kids. The steps are part of the Session 1 Extension Activity.
- Open a new project in Scratch Jr.
- Build the first script. It should move the character to the left or right. In the example below the character will move right forever.
- Build the second script. It should move the character up or down. In the example below the character will move up forever.
- Run the program.
- Stop the program.
Tips for Modifying the Program
You can have the character move a short distance instead of loop forever. To do this, build scripts that have the SAME number of steps. For example:
Glide a character diagonally five steps.