Portfolio: 4 Projects to Show — Scratch L4

Four portfolio cards, one per Level 4 cluster: Pen/drawing (B), Music/sound (C), Multi-Level Platformer (D), and one project of your choice from Animation, Arcade, or Trivia (E/F/G). Each card gets a three-to-four sentence description. Four projects prove variety; descriptions prove reflection.

Learning Goals 3 min

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

Name the four big skill clusters of Level 4 your portfolio has to showcase: Pen/drawing (B), Music/sound (C), Multi-Level Platformer (D), and one Animation, Arcade, or Trivia project (E/F/G).
Pick one existing project from each cluster — your best work, not just your most recent — and put all four into a single Scratch studio that becomes your L4 portfolio.
Write a three-to-four-sentence description for each portfolio project explaining what you made, which L4 cluster it demonstrates, and the one signature skill it proves you have.

Warm-Up — "show me what you can do" 7 min

Imagine a cikgu from a different school — someone who's never seen any of your work — opens your Scratch profile for the first time. They click on a project at random. They have 30 seconds. What do they see?

Three possible answers:

A half-finished sketch from week 3, with one sprite, no win condition, and a missing sound. They close the tab.
A random remix where you swapped the cat for a turtle. They close the tab.
Your best finished project — title screen, working game loop, polish, a sensible Notes & Credits paragraph. They click another one of yours.

If they only see option 1 or 2, they walk away thinking this student is at the beginning. If they land on option 3, they keep clicking — and they see four of your strongest projects, one from each cluster of L4. Now they think this student finished Level 4 and can build real things.

Reveal the answer

That's the difference between a profile full of stuff and a portfolio. A portfolio is curated. It's the four projects you'd want the cikgu to land on by accident — gathered into one studio, with descriptions, so the visitor doesn't have to land on them by accident. Today's lesson is building yours.

New Concept — one project per cluster 15 min

A Scratch portfolio is just a studio (which you met in L04-45) curated to four projects, each chosen to showcase one of Level 4's big skill clusters. Four projects total. Not five, not ten. Four.

Why four? Because four is the smallest number that proves variety. One project proves you can finish one thing. Two looks like a hobby. Four covers the main shapes Level 4 trained you in — drawing, sound, games, and storytelling. Anyone who plays all four learns that you can do different kinds of code, not just one trick.

The four clusters your portfolio must cover

Cluster	L4 lessons	Pick a project that…	Signature feature
B · Pen / drawing	L04-06 to L04-11	uses the Pen extension to draw something on the Stage — a kolam pattern, a spirograph, polygons, anything generated rather than imported.	Pen down + repeat loop
C · Music / sound	L04-12 to L04-16	uses the Music extension to play notes or drums — a theme song, a sound-reactive animation, a beat-maker.	play note / play drum
D · Multi-Level Platformer	L04-17 to L04-24	has more than one level, gravity, jumping, and uses the level variable to switch backdrops and enemy patterns.	level variable
E/F/G · Animation, Arcade, or Trivia	L04-25 to L04-44	shows off storytelling, game-recreation, or a quiz — pick the one cluster from these three you're proudest of.	varies by pick

What each portfolio project should prove

Each of the four projects is doing one specific job: proving you have one specific skill. Not "this project is good" — that's too vague. Specifically: "this project proves I can use Pen to draw a pattern", or "this project proves I can compose a multi-instrument theme song". The cikgu reading your portfolio is checking off skills.

What the four projects look like at a glance

Four tiny representative stacks — one from each cluster — to show the flavour of what each portfolio slot demonstrates. You won't write these today; you'll pick projects you already built that already contain these patterns.

Cluster B — a Pen project's signature shape: a closed loop that draws a polygon.


when flag clicked
erase all
pen down
repeat (5)
  move (80) steps
  turn cw (72) degrees
end
pen up

Eight blocks. Draws a pentagon. The Pen palette + a repeat loop is the cluster-B signature. Your portfolio's Pen project will be bigger — but the pen-down + repeat + turn loop will be inside it somewhere.

Cluster C — a Music project's signature: a note sequence.


when flag clicked
set instrument to (1)
play note (60) for (0.5) beats
play note (64) for (0.5) beats
play note (67) for (1) beats

Five blocks. Plays a tiny three-note phrase. The Music palette + play-note sequence is the cluster-C signature. Your portfolio's Music project will be a full melody with rests and changing instruments — but this pattern is the seed.

Cluster D — a Platformer's signature: the gravity loop.


when flag clicked
set [velocity-y v] to (0)
forever
  change [velocity-y v] by (-1)
  change y by (velocity-y)
  if <touching color [#00aa00] ?> then
    set [velocity-y v] to (0)
  end
end

Eight blocks. The smallest possible gravity-and-ground loop. Your portfolio's Platformer will have multiple levels, enemies, and checkpoints — but at its centre is this exact pattern, repeated and elaborated.

Cluster E/F/G — pick one. Here's the Trivia (G) signature: ask-and-wait + answer-check.


when flag clicked
set [score v] to (0)
ask [What is the capital of Sabah?] and wait
if <(answer) = [Kota Kinabalu]> then
  change [score v] by (1)
  say [Betul!] for (1) seconds
else
  say [Cuba lagi!] for (1) seconds
end

Seven blocks. Asks one question, checks the answer, scores it. The cluster-G signature — and the kernel of a whole quiz game. Animation (E) and Arcade (F) clusters have their own signatures from L04-25 onwards.

The description format

For each of the four projects, you write a three-to-four-sentence paragraph in the studio description or in each project's Notes & Credits. The cikgu reading it should know in 20 seconds: what is this, which skill does it prove, and what makes it polished.

Use this template:

"[Project name] is a [type of project] that [what it does]. It demonstrates my [cluster name] skill — specifically [signature feature]. The hardest part was [something honest]. I'm proudest of [one specific thing]."

Four sentences, four jobs: what, which skill, what was hard, what's great. The honesty about the hard part is what makes the cikgu trust you — it shows you reflected, not just shipped.

Common portfolio mistakes

Picking your newest projects instead of your best. The last thing you made isn't always your finest. Re-play your old L4 work and pick the strongest from each cluster, even if it's three months old.
Picking four projects from the same cluster. Four platformers might be impressive — but a portfolio that's all platformers proves only platformer skill. Spread across the four clusters on purpose.
Leaving descriptions blank. An undescribed portfolio project is a guessing game for the reader. The whole point of curating is to tell the visitor what each one demonstrates.
Including unfinished projects. A portfolio project must have a title screen (or at least a clear start), a working core loop, and an end state (win, lose, or "restart"). Half-finished work belongs on your profile, not in your portfolio studio.
Forgetting the Music extension. Many students breeze past cluster C without making a project they're proud of. If you don't have a music project, build one this week before the L4 assessment — the portfolio needs four, not three.

Worked Example — Priya's portfolio 12 min

Priya is an L4 student in KL. She's at this lesson and she's going to assemble her portfolio in eight steps. Watch what she picks and how she writes about each one.

Step 1 — Open her Scratch profile, scroll through every L4 project

Priya has 19 projects from her L4 work. Some are great, some are doodles, some are half-finished. She makes a quick list on paper — project name + which cluster it belongs to. 19 names, 19 cluster letters.

Step 2 — Group them by cluster

Priya's groupings come out like this: 4 Pen projects (cluster B), 2 Music projects (C), 5 Platformer attempts (D), 3 Animations (E), 1 Arcade recreation (F), 4 Trivia/Quiz projects (G). She has at least one project in every cluster — good.

Step 3 — Pick the strongest from each portfolio slot

For each slot, she asks one question: "If a stranger only ever played one of my projects, which one do I want it to be?"

Pen slot (B): "Deepavali Kolam Generator" — generates a random rangoli pattern. Polished, eye-catching, uses recursion in a my-block. ✔
Music slot (C): "Negaraku Variations" — three-instrument arrangement of the national anthem with tempo changes. ✔
Platformer slot (D): "Petronas Tower Climb" — 4 levels, gravity, double-jump, a boss on level 4. Her favourite project. ✔
Choice slot (E/F/G): She has all three to choose from. Picks "Cikgu Quiz Bowl" (G) — 30 questions, lifelines, high-score list. Proudest of the question-loading logic. ✔

Step 4 — Create a Scratch studio called "Priya's Level 4 Portfolio"

From her profile, + Create → Studio. Name it clearly. Studio description (one paragraph): "My four best projects from Level 4 of the Advaslearning Hub Scratch program — one per skill cluster. Built between January and May 2026, KL."

Step 5 — Add the four projects to the studio

Click Add projects. Drop each of the four in. Studio now shows four thumbnails in a tidy row.

Step 6 — Write the four descriptions using the template

For her Pen project, she writes (in the project's Notes & Credits):

"Deepavali Kolam Generator is a Pen-extension project that draws a random kolam pattern every time you hit the flag. It demonstrates my cluster-B (Pen/drawing) skill — specifically, using a custom my-block with recursion to draw nested petals. The hardest part was stopping the recursion before it crashed Scratch. I'm proudest of how no two runs look the same."

Four sentences. What, skill, hard part, proud part. She writes the same shape of paragraph for the other three.

Step 7 — Add a tiny representative stack from each project to the studio comments

Optional but powerful. Priya posts one small screenshot of the signature stack from each project as a comment in the studio. For the Music project, it's a four-block play note sequence from her main melody:


set instrument to (4)
play note (67) for (0.5) beats
play note (69) for (0.5) beats
play note (72) for (1) beats

Four blocks from Priya's Negaraku Variations. Posted as a studio comment with the caption "the opening of the main melody".

The cikgu visiting the studio now sees: four thumbnails, four descriptions, four tiny signature stacks. They could read for 10 seconds or 10 minutes — both produce a clear picture of what Priya can do.

Step 8 — Open the studio in incognito mode and read it as a stranger

Priya opens a new private window, logs out, navigates to her own studio URL. Reads it as if she'd never seen it. Asks: "If this were someone else's, would I be impressed?" Yes. She's done.

What Priya just built: a one-URL answer to the question "what did you learn in Level 4?". Anyone — a teacher, a parent, a future-self in 2027 — can open that link and see four polished projects with clear descriptions. That's a portfolio.

Try It Yourself — three portfolio drills 15 min

🟢 Easy

Goal: On paper, list every L4 project you've built so far. Beside each one, write the cluster letter (B, C, D, E, F, or G). Count how many you have per cluster. Circle the strongest project in each cluster.

Think: You're not building the studio today — just discovering what you have. Many students find they're missing a cluster entirely (most often Music). That's useful information: this week, build one project in the missing cluster before the portfolio is due.

🟡 Medium

Goal: Create the actual studio. Name it "[Your Name]'s Level 4 Portfolio". Add four projects, one from each portfolio slot. Write a studio description of one or two sentences saying what the studio is.


when flag clicked
say [Welcome to my Level 4 portfolio!] for (3) seconds
say [Four projects, four skills, one studio.] for (3) seconds

Optional bonus: build a tiny welcome sprite project to add as a fifth pinned item — purely as a friendly greeting. Three blocks. Not one of the four "real" portfolio projects.

Think: Don't worry about descriptions yet — those are the Stretch task. The Medium goal is just existence: a studio with four projects in it. That's already more than 80% of L4 students will have built.

🔴 Stretch

Goal: Write the full four-sentence description for every one of your four portfolio projects using the template from the lesson (what / which skill / hard part / proud part). Add each description to the corresponding project's Notes & Credits. Then add a single representative signature stack screenshot to each project, with a caption explaining what it does.

Think: Writing about your own work is harder than writing the work. The honesty about the hard part is usually the sentence students cheat on ("the hardest part was nothing, it was easy"). Don't cheat. The hard-part sentence is the one cikgus and other students relate to most.

Mini-Challenge — "Hafiz's lopsided portfolio" 5 min

The five-platformer problem

Hafiz really loves platformer games. His L4 portfolio studio currently contains:

"Platformer 1: KL Skyline" — 3 levels, gravity, double-jump.
"Platformer 2: Cameron Hills" — 5 levels, ice-physics, moving platforms.
"Platformer 3: Mount Kinabalu" — 4 levels, wall-climbing, weather effects.
"Platformer 4: Penang Bridge Run" — endless-runner mode.
(Empty slot — he keeps meaning to add a fifth platformer.)

All four are genuinely good. But his cikgu opens the studio and frowns. Why, and what should Hafiz do without throwing away his beloved platformers?

Reveal one valid solution

Hafiz broke the variety rule. His portfolio proves one skill — platformer-building — four times over. The cikgu sees four near-identical thumbnails and reads it as "this student can only build platformers", which is unfair because Level 4 covered seven other clusters Hafiz also passed.

The fix: keep one platformer — the best one (probably Cameron Hills, his most ambitious). Replace the other three with one project from each missing cluster — Pen (B), Music (C), and one of Animation/Arcade/Trivia (E/F/G). If Hafiz doesn't have a finished project in those clusters, this week's job is to build them. The lopsided portfolio becomes a balanced one. Hafiz keeps his proudest platformer; the cikgu now sees four kinds of skill instead of one.

A common reaction: "but I'll lose three of my best projects from the studio!" Those projects don't disappear — they're still on his profile, still playable, still credited to him. The portfolio studio is just the highlight reel. The full discography lives on the profile.

🚀 Mission — Assemble Your Four-Piece Portfolio

Today you put the whole portfolio together. Not "I'll do it at home later" — right now. By the end of class, a stranger should be able to open one URL and see your four best projects.

Audit: list every L4 project you've built and label each one with its cluster letter (B, C, D, or E/F/G).
Select: pick the strongest one from each of the four required slots. Replay each before deciding — your memory of "which was best" is sometimes wrong.
Describe: write the four-sentence template (what / which skill / hardest part / proudest of) for each chosen project in its Notes & Credits.
Assemble: create or update your portfolio studio, add the four projects, and open it in an incognito window.

✅ Done when: your portfolio studio has exactly four projects (one per required cluster), each project has a four-sentence Notes & Credits description, and the studio URL opens cleanly in an incognito window with a real title, real thumbnail, and real description. Going further: share your studio URL with a classmate and swap feedback — read each other's portfolios as if you were the cikgu. What skill does each project prove? Is the description honest about the hard part?

Recap 3 min

Your L4 portfolio is a single Scratch studio containing exactly four projects — one Pen/drawing project (cluster B), one Music/sound project (C), one Multi-Level Platformer (D), and one project from Animation, Arcade, or Trivia (E/F/G). Each project is your best in that cluster, not your most recent. Each gets a three-to-four-sentence description in its Notes & Credits using the what / which skill / hard part / proud part template. Four projects prove variety. Four descriptions prove reflection. One studio URL becomes the one-link answer to "what did you learn in Level 4?" — for cikgus, parents, future students, and your future self.

Portfolio: A curated collection of your best work, gathered into one place with descriptions, so a stranger can understand your skills in a few minutes. In Scratch, it's a studio with four projects.
Studio (Scratch): A Scratch feature for grouping multiple projects under one URL with a shared description and comment thread. The container your L4 portfolio lives in. Covered in detail in L04-45.
Skill cluster: One of Level 4's named groupings of lessons that all teach a related family of skills — Pen (B), Music (C), Platformer (D), Animation (E), Arcade (F), Trivia (G), and so on.
Signature feature: The one block, pattern, or technique that defines a cluster — pen-down + repeat for Pen, play-note for Music, the level variable for Platformer, ask-and-wait + answer-check for Trivia.
Portfolio description: A short paragraph (three to four sentences) written by you, in each portfolio project's Notes & Credits, explaining what the project is, which skill it demonstrates, the hardest part, and what you're proudest of.
Curated: Carefully selected, not exhaustive. A portfolio is curated — you pick four, not forty. The act of choosing is part of the value.

Homework 2 min

The Studio Build. Between now and the next lesson, your portfolio studio needs to exist with at least four projects in it.

Audit your L4 work: list every project you've built, label by cluster.
If any of the four required clusters is missing (most often Music), build a small project in that cluster this week. It doesn't have to be huge — even a 30-block project that demonstrates the cluster's signature pattern is enough.
Create the studio: "[Your Name]'s Level 4 Portfolio". Add the four chosen projects.
Write a description for each project in its Notes & Credits using the four-sentence template.
Open the studio in a private window. Read it as a stranger. If anything looks unclear, fix it.

Bring back next class:

The URL of your portfolio studio.
A note saying which cluster was hardest to fill (and what you did about it).
Your answer to: "Which of your four projects do you want a visitor to play first, and why?"

Heads up for next class: SCR-L04-48 is the closing lesson of Level 4 — and the closing lesson of the whole four-level Scratch curriculum. We walk back through every cluster of L4 (and the whole journey from L1), name the highest-leverage skill from each, and you collect your graduation card. Bring your portfolio URL — we'll share studios in class.