Parents' Guide to

PBS KIDS ScratchJr

By Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 6+

Create with coding blocks and a mash-up of characters.

App iPad, Android Free Education
PBS KIDS ScratchJr Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • PBS KIDS ScratchJr App: Screenshot #1
  • PBS KIDS ScratchJr App: Screenshot #2
  • PBS KIDS ScratchJr App: Screenshot #3
  • PBS KIDS ScratchJr App: Screenshot #4
  • PBS KIDS ScratchJr App: Screenshot #5

Community Reviews

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age 6+

Based on 1 parent review

Lebron12James3
Lebron12James3 Parent
April 7, 2022
age 6+

Masterpiece

This movie was terrible. There was no real ending to it, no closure, nothing but nonsense. The grandma is horrible and a jerk to everyone up until the last 7 minutes. The main character just forgiving the grandma for being so horrible without her actually putting in ANY effort to not be horrible was poorly written. Not to mention the lackluster songs, poor animation, shallow characters, and cringey jokes. I don't understand why people love this movie.
See all 1 parent review

What’s It About?

In PBS KIDS SCRATCHJR kids can start with a blank screen or choose a story starter. From the blank screen, they choose characters and backdrops or create their own and then click together commands to direct each character to jump, move, turn, look, and more. They can record custom sounds, too, to make their characters speak. The story starters have characters and backgrounds chosen along with preset commands, but kids can make changes to customize it. Projects are automatically saved.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1):
Kids say: Not yet rated

Favorite characters from familiar kids' shows work alongside kid-friendly block-programming language to introduce kids to coding. Kids will easily pick up on how to use the blocks to direct the characters, and the backdrops and story starters give them a jump start in creating their own programs. The options for creating custom scenes and characters extend the fun and educational opportunities beyond PBS Kids characters. The interface is a bit busier than other block-programming apps, so it may be overwhelming to some kids to be faced with so many choices. Also, if you're looking for coding instruction or training modules, you won't find it here; instead, it's more about the creative process and having fun. Parents who want their kids to focus on the programming aspects may want to guide kids to focus on the code blocks rather than simply moving characters with their fingers, which is possible (and fun) but does not reinforce learning to code.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the language of programming to help make sense of what kids are doing -- calling the repeating command "looping," for example.

  • After kids create a program, have them tell you a story to go along with it.

App Details

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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