Bust a Rhyme: Can Code This – Da Na Na Na!

Prerequisites

• Learners should have previous experience with ScratchJr

Technology

• Devices/iPads/Tablets with ScratchJr

Before the lesson…

• Review key coding concepts and ensure you are confident describing them to your group
• Reviewing the Canada Learning Code lesson “Rhyme Time” may be beneficial
• Provide learners with opportunities to write poems and rap lyrics

Day 1 - Writing our Raps

1. Allow learners to listen to rap music (preview songs before playing to ensure they are kid-friendly).
2. Brainstorm a list of ideas that learners could write a rap about. Tell them that this is a theme. Some examples of rap themes may include:
   • all about themselves
   • their friends
   • school
   • favourite sport
   • it’s not fair…
   • their teacher
   • a current event
   • taking a test
3. Learners will write their own raps. Provide rhyming dictionaries or online resources like Rhyme Zone.

Day 2 - Finalizing our Raps

1. Learners can continue writing and revising their rap lyrics.
2. Have learners practice lyrics as they will be recording themselves on ScratchJr.

Day 3 - Coding our Raps

1. Review blocks (see Reference Guide or Learning Tips). Blocks can also be printed and displayed.
2. Have learners create a new project.
3. Learners will delete the cat, and replace it with another sprite (character). If the rap is about themselves, they can add a sprite that looks like them or take a picture of themselves. Learners can experiment with size, different standing positions, etc.

   This is a video on ‘Putting a Photo in Scratch Jr.’ (by Liza Johnson).

4. Have learners add a background that represents their rap.
5. Have learners add an event block, blue motion blocks, and repeat control blocks to animate their sprites.

   For further support, view the ‘Can I Make My Characters Dance?’ activity card.

6. Learners will then record their rap using the green ‘Play Recorded Sound’ block.
7. Lastly, provide an opportunity for learners to share their rap and coding programs with one another.

Note: if sharing an iPad, learners can create two pages (one for each person)

See Learner Self-Assessment rubric and Educator rubric.

Coding and English

• With a partner, learners can write a rap song with two different voices and then create a program with two different sprites. See the ‘Two Voice Poem Teacher Packet’.
• Explore Rhyme Zone. Does this website use coding? How do you know?

Math/Data

As a whole-class activity, create a Google Sheet/Excel Doc and a graph representing the total number of coding blocks. Have a class discussion about which blocks were the most used and which were the least used? Here is a Google Sheet Template that can be used. Make a copy and add the number of blocks used. Then ‘Insert’ a Bar Graph.

Data (AI & Machine Learning)

• Boingboing.net’s article ‘Rhymes from a high-schooler’s machine learning system trained on Kanye’s lyrics’ is an interesting one. Although it may be too advanced for this lesson, it is worth exploring.
• Learners can explore how computers can rhyme. For example, they can ask the iPhone Siri, “What rhymes with cat?” How did Siri learn to rhyme?

Data (Accessing Information)

• Recall ways in which data and information can be produced by many different actors with different interests.
• Explore top song charts such as The Hot 100 Chart. How do they find this data?

ScratchJr Learning Blocks Reference Guide
https://www.scratchjr.org/learn/blocks

Blocks to be printed/displayed
https://www.scratchjr.org/pdfs/blocks.pdf

Learning Tip
https://www.scratchjr.org/learn/tips

Video on Putting a Photo in Scratch Jr. (by Liza Johnson)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRnBC4mLTAw

ScratchJr Can I Make My Characters Dance?
https://www.scratchjr.org/activities/card02-dance.pdf

Find rhymes
https://www.rhymezone.com/

Two Voice Poem Teacher Packet (pasd.com)
https://www.pasd.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_435476/File/Teachers/Corcoran/communications/Two-Voice%20Poem%20Packet.pdf

Rhymes from a high-schooler’s machine learning system trained on Kanye’s lyrics
https://boingboing.net/2017/02/14/rhymes-from-a-machine-learning.html

The Hot 100 Chart
https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100

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