Block Shapes¶
Run the Block Shapes MicroSim Fullscreen
About This MicroSim¶
This MicroSim presents the five distinct shapes used for Scratch blocks - hat, stack, reporter, boolean, and cap - each shown as a real, rendered Scratch block alongside a short description of its job. The blocks are drawn with scratchblocks.js — the same renderer used throughout this site — so each example is colored by its real Scratch category (Events, Motion, Looks, Sound, Operators, Sensing, Control). Because a shape like "stack" or "reporter" shows up in several different colors across the cards, it helps students see that a block's shape (what it can connect to) and its category color are two separate things.
How to Use¶
- Hover over (or tap, on touch devices) any of the five shape cards to expand it and see two or three example blocks that share that shape.
- Click/tap a card to pin its examples open even after the mouse moves away; click it again to unpin.
- Every card can also be reached with the Tab key and toggled with Enter or Space, for keyboard-only use.
- Click the "Reset" button to unpin the selected card.
Iframe Embed Code¶
You can add this MicroSim to any web page by adding this to your HTML:
<iframe src="https://dmccreary.github.io/scratch-textbook/sims/block-shapes/main.html"
height="505px"
width="100%"
scrolling="no"></iframe>
Lesson Plan¶
Grade Level¶
Grades 3-6 (ages 8-12)
Duration¶
15 minutes
Prerequisites¶
- Has explored the Blocks Palette and the 10 block categories (covered in the previous section of this chapter).
- Can identify a Scratch block as a single puzzle-piece instruction.
- No prior experience telling block shapes apart is assumed — this MicroSim is the first introduction to that idea.
Activities¶
- Exploration (5 min): Students hover over each of the 5 shape cards (hat, stack, reporter, boolean, cap) to see its example blocks and read what job that shape does.
- Guided Practice (5 min): In pairs, students click a card to pin its examples open, then take turns naming a block they remember from Scratch (or from the card list) and guessing its shape before checking.
- Assessment (5 min): Students click "Reset," then, working from memory, sketch or describe the outline of each of the 5 shapes and say what job it does before checking their answers against the sim.
Assessment¶
Student can name all 5 block shapes (hat, stack, reporter, boolean, cap) and correctly describe what each shape does — starts a script, does an action, gives a value, answers true/false, or ends a script.