Scratch.mit.edu
I first encountered Scratch with an opportunity that came through my email, it was labeled "Learning to be Creative" and it was offered through Scratch for teachers and other adults to follow a series of lessons and share what they learned or even just talk about what sparked our interest. I enjoyed all the sharing and ideas others came up with. This was lead by students and leaders at MIT Labs and the first place I ever heard the "Lifelong Kindergarten" concept.
Then I was hooked I wanted to teach my students code by using Scratch. It is not always easy but it is always fun. Some of my students have blown me away with their creativity, artistic abilities, and super coding skills!
I have even used a program called CS First with Google and Scratch in collaboration, my fifth graders are using the program and are learning Game Design. These games start off as simple and build their skills up to help them learn and understand even more complicated code to create amazingly fun games.
Here are some fun photos of my students using Scratch:
