⬇ Getting Scratch
ScratchJr for ages 5–7, on a tablet. Scratch for 8 and up, in a browser or offline. Neither needs an account to start building — an account is only for saving your work online and sharing it.
Scratch is completely free, and always has been. There is nothing to buy, no subscription, and no paid version with more features. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something MIT gives away.
In a browser — the simplest way
Go to the Scratch website and click 'Create'. The editor opens at once. Nothing to install, and it works on a school computer where you cannot install anything.
scratch.mit.edu/projects/editor/ ↗
You can build a whole project without an account. You just cannot save it online until you make one — so use 'File → Save to your computer' to keep your work.
Offline — the Scratch app for a computer
Scratch Desktop runs with no internet at all, which matters if the connection at home is slow or shared. It is available for Windows 10 and later, macOS 10.13 and later, Android tablets and ChromeOS.
This is the download the user of this site should reach for: install it once, and every project afterwards works offline, exactly like the rest of Star Student Builder.
ScratchJr — for ages 5 to 7
A separate, simpler app for tablets, with pictures instead of words on the blocks, so a child who cannot yet read can still program.
Free on iPad, Android tablets and Chromebooks. Start here for Std 1 and 2, then move to full Scratch around Std 3.
Saving and sharing
An account lets you save projects online and share them. Making one needs an email address, and a child under 13 should make it with a parent.
A shared project is public to the whole world, including its code and anything written inside it. Never put your full name, school, address or photographs into a project you share.
📚 The documentation
The official Getting Started guide
A short illustrated introduction from MIT — the one to read first, and printable for a classroom.
resources.scratch.mit.edu/www/guides/en/Getting-Started-Guide-Scratch2.pdf ↗
Scratch Ideas — tutorials and coding cards
MIT's own step-by-step tutorials and printable activity cards for animation, games, stories and music. The best free teaching material there is for this.
The Scratch Wiki
The community-written reference: every block explained, with examples. When you want to know exactly what a block does, this is the place.
Scratch for teachers and parents
Guidance on running Scratch in a classroom, including the free Creative Computing curriculum from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The Scratch community rules
Short, plain and worth reading with a child before they share anything. Being kind, being constructive, and keeping personal information private.
🛡️ Before a child shares anything
- Scratch needs no account to build with, and the offline app needs none at all. Start there.
- A shared project is public worldwide, including every comment and every word inside it. No full names, no school name, no address, no photographs of a child.
- Making an account needs an email address; for a child under 13 that should be a parent's, and the parent should set it up with them.
- The Scratch community is well moderated, but any comment section is still a comment section. Read the community guidelines together before sharing anything.
- Everything here — Scratch, ScratchJr, the tutorials, the wiki and the curriculum — is free. Nobody should be paying for access to any of it.
