Move the frog up the stairs! Loops in ScratchJr

This simple project is a great introduction to loops in ScratchJr.

The goal is to make the frog climb up the stairs (or the “podium”). The frog has to perform the same sequence of movements many times, so the easiest way to achieve it is to use loops in the script.

Here are the animations in action:

Setting up the project

Before your students start coding, they first need to prepare the background for their animation.
It can be challenging to do it right, as they need to make sure that all the staircase steps are exactly the same height and width (it will not be possible to use a loop otherwise).

To make the task easier for them, you can share a project with the backgrounds already set up.
All they would have to do is add a frog character and work on the proper script.

To get this project, fill out the form below. You will get the .sjr file that you can easily open in the ScratchJr app!

Moving the frog

Once your students have their “staircases” ready, they can move on to preparing the scripts.

The first step is to make the frog climb up the stairs.
Once this is ready, they can add another loop to make it climb down.

Here are the solution scripts:

How many steps did the frog take? Time to do the math!

Repeating in a loop is a good illustration of how multiplication works. For example:

The frog takes two steps (or jumps) up and three steps to the right, and repeats this five times.
How many steps up (in total) does it take?
2 x 5 = 10
Ten steps up in total!

Ask your students similar questions to practice multiplication and addition.

Have fun coding! ?