The Scratch programming language is an introductory programming language for students. It is also a visual concurrent programming language, where multiple threads are executed simultaneously. Synchronization in concurrent languages is a complex task for novices to understand. Our research is focused on strategies and methods applied by novice programmers for synchronization using Scratch, mainly variables and messages. The projects of the students as well as recordings of their actions during the laboratory course compose the research data. It is shown that novice programmers are able to use messages more adequately than variables in order to coordinate the various objects of their programs.