8 winter themed projects to keep kids busy over the Holidays

Whether you’re in Argentina or Antartica – you can keep children and teens busy this holiday season with these fun coded projects! Create snowball throwing or skiing games in Scratch, make animated snow scenes in Blender, code carols to get you in the festive spirit or develop a sensor and alarm project to catch Santa!

Scratch

1. Use Scratch to create a skiing game in which you have to avoid randomly appearing obstacles to score points!

2. Make a game in which you have to throw snowballs at a target, while altering the angle and power of your throw.

3. Create a memory game involving jazzy jumpers!

Remember Scratch 3.0 launches on January 2. It is currently available in a trial (Beta) version. Be sure to check it out in advance so you’re ready to go come next year! Find out all you need to know about Scratch 3.0.

 

Blender

4. Learn how to animate a car driving through a snow scene using Blender.

5. Once you’ve animated your snow scene, learn how to render it with this project.

If you love Blender or animating with other 3D design tools, you’ll be delighted to hear we’ve just announced a new category for Coolest Projects International 2019. Over the past few years, we’ve noticed participants becoming increasingly interested in 3D design and animation projects so we’ve created a category this year for you! Travel bursaries to Coolest Projects are currently open, with project registration opening on January 7, 2019. Find out more at coolestprojects.org

 

Sonic Pi

6. Code the carol Twelve Days of Christmas using Sonic Pi. You can use a computer or a Raspberry Pi with  earphones or a speaker to code some holiday tunes and help get you in the festive spirit.

 

Python

7. This is great fun and a great way to start learning how to code with Python. Create a beautiful landscape of snowflakes using Python Turtle.

Raspberry Pi and Scratch

8. No more propping your eyes open with matchsticks to try and catch Santa! This Scratch program uses a low-cost infrared sensor to set off an alarm when Santa sneaks into your room. This resource a great introduction to using simple sensors with the Raspberry Pi, and it can be adapted for lots of other projects.

Happy coding!