Retell a Scene from Big Al using Scratch Jr. (1st Grade)

Students read a story with their teacher. The teacher creates a storyboard from the reading, and students recreate their own storyboards of the same story. Then, students choose a scene and retell it using Scratch Jr.

Lesson Outline

Background Knowledge

Students should have had an introductory lesson in Scratch Jr. where they learned about:

• Navigating in the app
• Adding, deleting and changing the appearance of characters.
• Changing the background
• Working with the paint tool to make unique characters.

A good first lesson is Activity 1: Throw a Dance Party from The Official Scratch Jr. Book.

Part 1. Read Big Al

• Teacher reads Big Al to the class.

Part 2. Re-Read Big Al and Create a Storyboard

• Teacher re-reads Big Al to the class.
• Teacher stops at key scenes of the story and creates a storyboard.
  • (The storyboard can be created in advance, and scenes can be revealed as the teacher reads the story.)

Part 3. Students create storyboards

• Using the teacher’s storyboard as inspiration, students create their own.
  • (Be sure to limit the number of panels to no more than 6.)

Part 4. Students re-create one scene in Scratch Jr.

Part 5. Students write about their scene

• Using prompts or sentence frames, students write about their scenes.I chose this scene from the story because ….
  • This scene is important because …
  • In this scene Big Al ….