From The Classroom

Creating Animations

“Move – Slide – Shot!”

They’re some of the words you might have heard if you were in a Year 3/4 classroom last week when Gregg from Play Animation came in. Each class had 100 minutes with Gregg learning about how to bring the narrative stories they have written to life, through Stop Motion Animation.

It was a jam-packed 100 minutes where the students learned to move a person (character) on a white sheet of paper. The character’s job in this animation was to learn how to ride a unicycle!

Well, you can imagine the animations the students made! In some the character was very successful and rode right across the screen. Whilst in others the character fell up and then down, and then some characters even required medical treatment for the cuts and bruises!

With the assistance of talking and sound effects added to each animation, they were all very entertaining and reflected the individuality of the students.

Since then, each student has been creating a scene from their own narrative stories and bringing them to life through Stop Motion Animation. Hopefully there is time over the next couple of weeks for students to add to these animations, so that more of the story can be told through moving pictures.

All students in Year 3/4 have really engaged in the concept of creativity. Through the Stop Motion incursion and Gregg’s encouragement to each student, they have learned how technology can enhance creativity.

And who knows, we may have a budding PIXAR cartoonist/story teller who is already dreaming about their “Premiere Movie Animation.” And if we don’t, it is a very creative way to use an iPad, paper or even Lego, to create an animated story over the holidays.

Compiled by Julie Tainsh