Learning Goals 3 min
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
- Write an Instructions box a stranger can follow without asking you anything.
- Write Notes and Credits that thank the people whose work you used.
- Share a project safely, keeping personal details out of everything you publish.
Warm-Up 7 min
Sharing puts your project in front of people who cannot ask you questions. Everything they need has to already be written down.
Quick-fire puzzle
Box B is four short lines. Work out what each line is actually for, and which one people forget most often.
Reveal the answer
Line one says how to start. Line two says what to do. Line three says how to stop. Line four says what winning looks like.
The forgotten one is line three. Players who cannot work out how to stop assume the project is broken, and they leave.
New Concept — the writing around a project 15 min
A shared project is more than its blocks. It also has a name, an Instructions box, a Notes and Credits box, and the picture people see before they press anything. All four are your job.
Instructions: start, do, stop, win
Four lines in that order covers almost every Level 1 project. Write them as commands to the player, not as descriptions of your code.
“Click the roti to score” is an instruction. “I used when this sprite clicked” is a fact about your blocks, and the player does not need it.
Credits are not optional
If you used a sprite someone drew, a sound someone recorded, or an idea from someone else’s project, say so. It costs one line and it is simply the right thing to do.
Scratch library art belongs to the Scratch Team and does not need crediting, but a remix of another person’s project always does.
Sharing is a decision, not a button
Once a project is shared, anyone can play it, remix it and comment on it. That is the good part and it is also why you check with a teacher or someone at home before you press Share.
You can unshare at any time, and doing so is not a failure. It is just a decision you are allowed to change.
Why it matters
A project nobody can work out is a project nobody plays. The writing takes ten minutes and it is what turns your work into something other people can actually use.
Worked Example — publish Catch the Roti Canai 15 min
Open your game from Lesson 43. Nothing about the blocks changes today. Everything we do is writing.
Step 1 — Fix the name
A name should say what the project is. Compare these three and pick the one you would click.
Step 2 — Set the opening picture
Click the green flag, let the game reset, then press the stop sign and save. Whatever is on the Stage at that moment is what everybody sees first.
Step 3 — Write the four instruction lines
Start, do, stop, win. Write them as short as you can make them.
Step 4 — Write Notes and Credits
Three or four lines. Say who helped, what you used, and what you would add next.
Step 5 — Read it back as a stranger
Read your own instructions pretending you have never seen the project. Every time you think “well obviously they would know that”, they would not.
Step 6 — Check before you share
Ask your teacher or someone at home before pressing Share. Then check the four things: name, opening picture, instructions, credits.
Step 7 — Give feedback to two other people
Play two classmates’ projects and leave one useful comment each. “Nice” helps nobody. “I could not tell how to stop it” is a gift.
What changed: your project went from something you can demonstrate to something other people can find, understand and play on their own.
Try It Yourself — three writing tasks 12 min
Goal: Write the four instruction lines for Cat Chase from Lesson 44.
Start, do, stop, win. Keep the whole thing under thirty words, and use the word “you” at least once.
Think: the “win” line is hard for a game with no ending. What could you say instead that still gives the player a target?
Goal: Rewrite a bad instructions box into a good one.
Think: “it took me ages” belongs in Notes and Credits, where it is genuinely interesting. It just is not an instruction.
Mini-mission: the cold read. Give a partner your instructions on paper, with the project closed, and ask them to describe the game back to you.
Write down every difference between what they describe and what your project actually does. Each difference is a line you need to fix.
It works if: after one round of fixing, a second person describes your game correctly from the instructions alone.
Think: the differences are almost never about wording. They are about things you knew and never wrote down.
Mini-Challenge — comments worth leaving 5 min
“Say something useful”
Play two projects and leave one comment each. A useful comment has three parts, and it takes about a sentence longer than a useless one.
It works if:
- Both your comments have all three parts.
- Neither one uses only the words “nice”, “cool” or “good”.
- Your suggestion is small enough that they could do it in one lesson.
- You would be happy to receive the comment you wrote.
Recap 2 min
A shared project is four things before it is any blocks: a name that says what it is, an opening picture saved from a clean reset, four instruction lines covering start, do, stop and win, and Notes and Credits that thank whoever helped. Instructions describe what the player does, never what your code does. Nothing you publish should carry your full name, school or contact details, and you check with an adult before pressing Share. And a comment is only useful if it names something that worked, something confusing, and one small thing to try.
- Instructions
- The box telling a player how to start, play, stop and win.
- Notes and Credits
- The box thanking helpers and naming work you borrowed.
- Opening picture
- The Stage as it was when you saved. The first thing anyone sees.
- Remix
- Building on someone else’s shared project. Always credited.
Homework 1 min
Read someone else’s writing. Instructions are easier to judge on a project that is not yours.
- Find a shared Scratch project you did not make and read its instructions before playing.
- Play it and note every moment where the instructions did not prepare you.
- Rewrite its instructions in four lines, doing better than the original.
- Check your own project for anything that should not be public.
Bring back next class:
- Your four rewritten lines for someone else’s project.
- Your answer to: “What did the original leave out, and how did that change your first two minutes of playing?”
Heads up for next class: SCR-L01-48 is the last lesson of Level 1 — everything you have learned, in one place.