The Official ScratchJr Book is a companion to the free app (Scratch) and makes coding easy and fun young children (ages 5+). Kids learn to program by connecting blocks of code to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Each chapter includes several activities that build on one another, culminating in a fun final project. These hands-on activities help kids develop computational-thinking, problem-solving, and design skills.

Here's what I like about The Official ScratchJr. Book:

It targets a very young audience - ages 5 and up

It can be useful for parents and teachers and librarians - especially those who might find coding to be intimidating

Unlike the Hour of Code (which I love and have used as a resource for library programming), The Official ScratchJr Book focuses more on inspiring creativity than learning the nuts and bolts of logical thinking

The above statement notwithstanding, it still can be used to learn the nuts and bolts of simple coding and logical thinking

If your kids are looking for a follow up to the Frozen Hour of Code project, "Code with Anna and Elsa," The Official ScratchJr Book is probably a good place to start (if you have a tablet that can run the ScratchJr app)

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