Coding For Kids For Dummies

Project 5

Winter Wonderland

Depending on what part of the world you live in, you may see a Winter Wonderland every year — or not at all! Regardless of whether such a scene exists outside your window, you can bring it to life on your computer screen.

Winter Wonderland is an animated scene featuring blinking tree lights, gently falling snowflakes, imported music, and a sky that cycles between night and day. You’ll create your own shapes for the blinking light bulbs and use a pick command to change the bulbs. You’ll also make your own animated shapes for the snowflakes and write a procedure that makes them appear to fall. One thing you won’t need to do — shovel the driveway!

Brainstorm

Winter Wonderland is just one option for your animated scene. You can choose virtually any season, holiday, or place to set your scene, such as

• An autumn scene with falling leaves and a spooky Halloween jack-o-lantern with flashing eyes
• A city street scene with glowing neon signs and gently sprinkling rain
• A birthday party scene with rising helium balloons and flickering flames on the cake candles

Start a New Project

Begin creating your Winter Wonderland scene by starting a new project as follows:

1. Start MicroWorlds EX.
2. From the yellow MicroWorlds EX startup screen, select Free Mode.

   A new project opens.

3. From the menu bar, choose File⇒New Project Size⇒MicroWorlds Standard.

You can customize project ...