Summer Break is finally here for me.  I spent the last three weeks teaching four classes of summer school.  I taught stop motion animation, coding with ozobot robots (two different sections of age groups), and a circuit design class.  And let me tell you, not only did my students learn a lot, I leaned a ton as well.  I developed  classes to offer that I was not an expert in.

I did that on purpose. 

I am a believer that letting students see you take risks, see you NOT being an expert in everything, see you being a learner like they are, is a powerful tool as a teacher.

I first tried stop motion animation this past school year with my fifth graders.  I basically downloaded the app on their iPads and had them “figure it out”.  Their task was to create a visual to promote their “Shark Tank” invention. The students LOVED it, so I thought it would be a great enrichment class to offer for our District’s Summer Learning Program.  I took a different approach with my summer students than I did during the school year.  After all, I actually had time on my hands, 15 hours of dedicated time to let students explore, be creative, take risks, and create.  (Super exciting :))  Below is an outline of what I did for the three weeks:

Day 1-2	Discuss and share what animation is Create a simple flip book Create a multi-page flip book using post it notes Watch several stop motion animation clips Dry erase marker video: https://youtu.be/6vZ0iqUS6sg Paper videos: https://youtu.be/Ww2PyfD4rCk  https://youtu.be/3S4mjRzrZ2U Lego videos: https://youtu.be/LbzA9AdqPls https://youtu.be/wARIk6tFqEk How to video: https://youtu.be/Pw80ki6kc-k
Day 3-4	Start working with group Brainstorm ideas on possible story topics Discuss Story writing – focus on Premise Discuss Story Writing – focus on outline for story – 3 acts total – beginning, middle, end
Day 5	Storyboard/ write script
Day 6	Continue storyboarding/ script Create characters Start working on setting
Day 7	Continue working on setting
Day 8	Play around with app
Day 9-12	Take pictures/film
Day 13	Drop animation into iMovie Record voice over
Day 14	Continue with voice over Create theme music in Garage Band and drop into iMove
Day 15	Share movies with class and on YouTube

 

 

Student movies:

I modified lessons from the site: https://www.nfb.ca/stopmo/ .  You can find the lessons in PDF form here.  These lessons were extremely helpful for me to gain a starting point.  I would also recommend The StopMotion Handbook if you are interested in learning more about stop motion animation.

The outline above reflects how the three weeks played out. I definitely feel that the first days spent discussing animation and story writing are key to a successful end product.   I was surprised how many days it took for the students to “film”, some groups needed more time.  Also, some students left early on the third week, so they were not able to complete the voice overs and theme music. 

I was impressed with the movies that the students made.  Their creativity, risk taking, and teamwork was evident every single day during summer school. 

Now that….Is Positively Techie!

Feel free to share your resources and ideas for using Stop Motion Animation.  I would love to build on my resources :))