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Elementary Starter Code
Elementary Starter Code

Starter code helps students begin lessons with pre-made code, sprites, or backdrops, saving time and focusing on targeted skills.

Eli Hernandez avatar
Written by Eli Hernandez
Updated over 3 months ago
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Overview

Starter code refers to the program that students will start with at the beginning of a lesson. In some cases, students will start from a blank program. In other cases sprites, backdrops, or code blocks may be included for students to use during the lesson in order to quickly help them work with the targeted skills.

Sprites, Backdrops, and Sounds

Images or sounds can be provided as starter code. This is to save students the time of finding, creating, or uploading their own media so that they have more time to focus on programming.

Photo illustrating Sprites and Backdrops being used as starter code.

Pre-Made Code

Some lessons contain pre-made sequences of code to help students quickly engage with the targeted concepts of the lesson. This pre-made code will not need to be modified during the lesson. If you have time, you can preview these sections of code with students to discuss their functionality.

Photo illustrating pre-made block code.

Code Banks

Code banks are provided in some interdisciplinary lessons to allow students to easily access the needed blocks. Some or all of the blocks needed for a program will be placed in a box labeled Code Bank. Students can add to their program using these blocks, instead of searching for them in the block library.

Photo illustrating a code bank in a specific exercise

Resetting the Program

A student may accidentally modify or delete a part of the starter code in a way that is too difficult to reverse. See the tips below to help students reset the starter code so that they can re-start their program.

  • Students can use the keyboard shortcut (Command + Z for Mac or Ctrl + Z for Windows) to undo their most recent action in Scratch (but not in ScratchJr). Students can repeat this shortcut multiple times to undo multiple actions.

  • Reset a student's program to the original starter code from the lesson’s assignment page. To navigate to the assignment page, start in your class section and select the Progress tab. Then, click on the name of the lesson to get to the assignment page. Press the 3 dots in the corner of the thumbnail and select ‘reset’.

Photo demonstrating how to reset a student's program.

Photo demonstrating how to reset a student's program.

Pushing Starter Code to Students From Ready-to-Go Lessons

Teachers can have students practice along with them using examples from a Ready-to-Go Lesson. When looking at one of the example slides from the lesson plans, teachers have a few options:

  1. Push To Students - this will create a new program in students' Playground which they can run, edit, and save

  2. Copy Link - copies a direct link to the example code that students can click on and then run or edit the code

  3. View Solution - display the solution to this specific step in the exercise

arrows point to 3 buttons on bottom of slide view

Clicking the play button loads the project inside the slide presentation. Here, you can edit and run the code as a class example:

gif shows pressing play button and editing code blocks in scratch

Video Demo of using Starter Code Inside a Ready-to-Go Lesson

CodeHS Elementary Curriculum is included with an Elementary License. If you believe you should have access to the Elementary Portal, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager, or send an email to hello@codehs.com.
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