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I'm also looking at using Scratch in a school curriculum starting with children from grade 4 through grade 6. Are there any course ware, workbooks available for those grades?

How old are the children in your class?

Can you give any other suggestions about other programming languages that can be used as kids grow older?

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Scratch is totally awesome, but the huge conundrum has always been where to go "after Scratch". Python isn't it, because its too textural and you can't easily share graphical games unless the recipient also has pyGame installed. Javascript hasn't been it for a lack of appropriate on-ramp, and many of the available resources (eg, CodeAcademy) are too vocationally-based and lack the fun of Scratch.

But there's now a free online tutorial system aimed at "Scratch kids" who want to take the next step. http://s2js.com -- tutors kids through the bits of Javascript they need to know in order to write graphical games that'll run on their smartdevices. It's tutorial, simple development tool, private image storage, and deployment facility all in one.

It's "Javascript as told to Scratchers", and the goal is to provide a bridge that gets them from the delights of Scratch, onto something else that will take them on their journey. S2JS isn't the destination, it's the "enthusiasm transfer tool".

Why not Smalltalk? It was, after all, designed for kids (and look where that got us... Java - pffft!)

Squeak has a comprehensive ecosystem; here's an excellent book for high-schoolers: http://www.apress.com/9781590594919

The complete pdf can also be downloaded from the associated website: http://rmod.lille.inria.fr/botsinc/

Now imagine this combined with hardware robots...

Lookup the concept of turtles: Netlogo http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/docs/dictionary.html and Python https://docs.python.org/2/library/turtle.html

You should take a look at the ScratchEd community - they have a lot of resources for educators: http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/

Also, we have started to build a Scratch Extension system, where Javascript can be used to extend the functionality of Scratch (you can define blocks that call web-apis, etc.) We will have more information about that in 2015.

I run a nonprofit in Arizona where we introduce 8-13 year olds to coding at 10 libraries and other locations. We start the young ones with code.org for a "quick win" and most of them dig into scratch with relish by the second week. I agree with the original post about seeing the creativity unleashed. It's amazing.

After scratch we have seen some of the kids get excited about js mostly through the khan academy resources (have you tried it)? Also code combat has been a recent favorite.

Our older and more advanced coders are ok with codecademy.

Also we have some that really want to get their work out to the world, so after a while on scratch they teach themselves html and css.

We are very particular about not lecturing, not forcing a learning approach, just facilitating as different learning styles find their way.

Also if anyone is interested we are giving away our "code club kit" including resources for starting a code club. It has been the most rewarding part of my career. Just let me know and I'll send it in email.

I'm starting a coding club for a few kids in my neighborhood and would appreciate any help with introduction resources!

just email me at my HN username at gmail and I'll send it

Gimme gimme gimme! alex at themade.org thanks!

just sent. thanks!