Another Scratch Day

Scratch Day 2017

Remember last year, when we celebrated Scratch Day?
Or maybe you haven't heard of Scratch? This link will take you the page About Scratch, and this will show you where events celebrating Global Scratch Day are taking place.

Scratch Day 2018

Maria is still writing programs using MIT's online program that teaches computer programming. Her favorite Scratch activity is illustrating in vector lines. She's also learned to animate, and she likes using code to create games. Last May she volunteered, again, to teach what she knows about vector line illustration and graphics in Scratch, at the Global Scratch Day event in our area. As a group inspired by outreach, peer-mentoring, and making, playing and sharing... we love Scratch Day, and we are gratified to see our young maker, Maria, bring her skills and enthusiasm to this event where she enthusiastically and skillfully teaches new and intermediate programmers about the exciting possibilities in computer programming.

This year saw an even greater turn out for Scratch Day, compared with last year. There were more participants, and happily, more volunteers. Everything is overseen by Ido Tuchman, with help from Leslie Goldman, and a lot of professional engineers and programmers.

They've got a great venue, but if this continues to grow, we may need an even bigger space for next year!

Ido welcoming everyone to Scratch Day!

Maria's class, Vector Graphics, was in the second session of the day, so she stepped in to give one on one support to a beginning Scratch student. In no time, they had finished the tutorial, then moved on to developing an original game.





Not being too sure what the skill levels in the class would be, Maria decided to let her class be interactive and spontaneous. She shared her background and interest in Scratch, and then announced that she would like to share how games and programs can be enhanced with custom art and animations. Taking suggestions, and answering questions, she developed a lesson for a vector graphic animation. There was time to keep everyone caught up in the lesson, while adding more to the project, as the classe's skills and interests developed. The class and lessons stayed fresh, and engaging.

By applying her patience, practical knowledge, and her love of the subject, Maria was able to effectively teach and motivate, and make the lesson fun. And since the classes were larger than last year's classes, Maria was happy to have an assistant, Lucas, a Boy Scout, familiar with Scratch. They made a good team.

Maria brings her love of learning to her class, and it's infectious.

Every layer, and line of code used, created this vector graphic and animation, and was developed on the spot, based on ideas and questions from the class.

Scratch is a free learning tool from Mitch Resnick and the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. If you've ever wondered about writing code, creating software, being a programmer, we hope you will, no matter your age, visit Scratch, and give it a try. It's simple, encouraging, and made for sharing.

Here's what a local newspaper had to say about Scratch Day 2018. We can't wait for Scratch Day 2019!

Maria continues to enjoy Scratch, to illustrate, write code, to create games... this one was my Mother's Day gift! Move the teacup to catch falling chamomile flowers, and when the cup is full of flowers it becomes a cup of tea! She wrote this for me and my love of chamomile. And here she is sharing the game with her Tutu.




On a long train ride, Maria used Scratch to illustrate this original character...



And today, after we talked about the senseless death of a young woman, Maria, quietly reflecting, went to her desk, where she made art, in memory of Nia Wilson.

We send our deepest sympathy and kindest thoughts to Nia Wilson's family. We ache to think of anyone missing the chance to follow their dreams. No family should have to experience losing a child, and for it to be such a vicious and dark act, a crime of hate, makes the loss even more heartbreaking. We hope that there is even the smallest comfort for them knowing that their loss is felt, and mourned, that we are speaking Nia's name, lovingly, respectfully, and with grief for her family.

Making With Friends

Make! Make! Hooray!
Leo and his needle felted beard man!
When we are really lucky, we manage to get ourselves up to the best Maker Faire event of all, Maker Faire, Bay Area, otherwise we love hosting Bird House mini faires, here at home, any month of the year! We throw open the doors, bring out our works in progress and invite friends to bring and share their own projects. Between the potluck, and all of the creative energy, it never fails to be a productive and inspiring day.

We love requests for activities, questions, ideas. This time, Izzy wanted to bring out her wool felting... a craft she recently discovered and already excels at. We love wool... wet felting, needle felting! It was our very first exhibit and activity we ever shared at a Maker Faire, and we still love sharing our supplies and enthusiasm. We learned, in Wisconsin, how much fun friends and wool can be.

Simon getting in the needle felting zone... it's quite meditative.

Maria made a fat cat. We thought it was a cat's head, with a tail coming off the back, but she explained that the cat's body was so round and full, it looked as though it was only ball. I need to get a picture of the funny little guy!

With some old train rails, magnets, and metal balls, Alex set up a demonstration that all of us tested, experimented and played with, and thoroughly enjoyed. It's a Gauss rifle... and with the transference of energy from one marble, on the left, making contact with the magnets, the last marble on the right is projected forward, quickly. Simple. Smart.

Ido and Leslie, Simon, Bex, and Spencer arrived, with lots of great potluck food, and the makings for a brand new Junkcade project. Junk + Arcade: Ido's brilliant convergence of assorted household articles assembled and combined with video games, written in Scratch, to make an arcade game! It's ingenious, and loads of fun, to build and to play!

(Look for Junkcade, and many more awesome exhibits at the North County Mini Maker Faire, June 17-18.)

Geoff and William were recruited into the Junkcade build, and happily took to it... some wood working, wiring, assembling, William got a soldering lesson, and Geoff wrote code.



Love those spatula controllers! I think everyone is winning.

Since Scratch is open source, and everyone is encouraged to share, there are a lot of fun games to choose from, but possibly the coolest thing is that anyone using Scratch could develop their own games. Maybe BOoM Nerds will write a game specifically related to the Junkcade theme and aesthetic.

Speaking of everyone winning... Leslie discovered the Zen of needle felting. Trust me, the satisfaction and creativity that flows in needle felting wool is wonderful, compelling, good.

Bex agrees! Making, with friends, is the best excuse for opening your doors, and inviting everyone in.


It's fun to look back at some other Making with Friends events...

April 2012: Making the Most of Our Lemons!

December 2014: Think, Tinker, Play, Make, Program!

June 2015: Backyard Mini-Make

June 2016: Make Light: Start Fires

Global Scratch Day in Session!

For about 2 years, Maria has been enjoying Scratch, a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, and today she participated in a very special event celebrating the tenth birthday of the Scratch program, Global Scratch Day. Using Scratch, Maria has been learning to program, or write code, which has given her the opportunity to illustrate, write games, create animations, and engage in an online community of fellow coders. And today she taught Working With Vector Graphics, Advanced Workshop, portrait making.

The Benevolent Order of Makers was proud to be represented by Maria, and to participate in this great event. It's our first Scratch Day event, and it will not be our last!

Not only did we get to spend the day with family and friends, like Bex and Spencer, but we were surrounded by all kinds of enthused and energized people who were eager to learn, eager to teach, eager to share. The exchange of ideas and knowledge is probably one of our favorite incentives for being a benevolent order of makers.

We are so glad to have friends like Ido...

and Leslie... they brought their happy Scratch Day enthusiasm and experiences with them when they moved here from New York. Now we know what a Scratch Day can be, we are already looking forward to next year.


Maria and Simon~

Getting started.

Maria chose to share her knowledge of making portraits, using vector shapes, with more advanced Scratchers. To prepare for the hour long workshop she created different elements that coders could assemble, and make their own. She also wrote key notes and directions on two white boards. Geoff and I were on hand to help... Geoff for technical support, and me to move chairs, and take pictures. Really, she knows Scratch, and managed her lesson plan and preparations all on her own.

Tutu, Aunt Holly, and cousin Iz joined the class, which was a nice bonus.


During the afternoon session Maria decided to be a student and take on Pen... Pen blocks are for controlling the pen tool in Scratch. This class gave Maria new skills and confidence in using functions to create graphic patterns and geometric shapes.

Geoff, Nadav, Maria, and Simon~

Maria is fine tuning her project to share at the end of the day. A great aspect of Scratch is keeping things open, so people can share what they've made, how it was done, and learn from other Scratcher's projects, too.

The day, and the activities, the people we met, all of it raised our thoughts and confirmed our hopes and plans. We love our community, we love the integrity and drive of people who want to teach and learn, grow and share, and we are eager for more... more Make, more Scratch, more sharing, thinking, tinkering, playing, testing, failing, moving forward, creating, and BOoM!

Global Scratch Day!

Cairo kitty heard we were scratching and he came to have a look. Cairo, like most cats, loves a good scratch. What he didn't understand was that sometimes when we scratch we actually Scratch! Writing code, animating, making games, and creating vector line art, programming with MIT's Media Lab. If you have never Scratched, and would like to learn how to code, there is a wonderful opportunity to learn more... Look for a Scratch Day event near you! There is a global network of events to celebrate this 10th anniversary of Scratch. And it's not just for children... any beginner can get familiar with programming and writing code, using this free, open-source, and engaging program.

Maria still talks about owning a restaurant. She still thinks of dancing, writing, gardening, and cooking. There are a lot of things Maria is interested in, for now, for the future. But, consistently, for a couple of years, when anyone asks about her plans, her solid answer is, I want to be a programmer and an artist.

This recent vector line drawing was done using Scratch, from MIT. Her skills grow by leaps and bounds... so much so that she's been invited to teach a course in Scratch programming for Scratch Day, which is a global network of events to celebrate Scratch.

Here is the original photograph she was inspired by...

Benevolent Order of Makers is a proud of Sponsor of Scratch Day!