Process

We knew that we wanted to find a meaningful way for students to delve into animation and our related arts colleagues loved the idea of collaborating together on the project. We put a rough framework around the process and then dove in with our theme.

Our theme for the year is kindness. We ready nearly a dozen books that had elements of kindness. Each week we made connections and collected examples of characters, settings, problems and resolutions.

This collection helped us as we began the next stage of our project.

One of our amazing reading facilitators shared a story quilt she had created to help students visualize the components of a story. This helped as we began to imagine how we would create and share stories of kindness with our audience.

Before we created physical characters to animate, we dreamed up what we thought they might look like. We sketched our designs out and explored how we might be able to make them effectively move. We made some 'sloppy copies' of our characters first and then improved them after some experimentation.

Storyboarding allowed teams to begin thinking about the BME, or the beginning, middle and end, of their story. Each of these three parts was then subdivided again into three parts. Each of these sections was then illustrated and described to help the creators visualize as they began to animate.

Stop-motion animation is something most of our students had explored previously, but we decided to try a new app simply called Stop Motion this year. It is kid-friendly, free and amazingly simple to use. Free exploration gave them time see how the various components of the app worked and helped them visualize the process.

When they had become familiar with the tools, we brought our characters and basic set pieces into the mix.

Our storytellers created two versions of their films.. First they made a 'sloppy copy' to examine how the characters would interact and to help us decide what set elements would be needed to make the story. After refining these elements, the final films were created.

Many of the classes were able to compose original soundscapes in music to accompany their films. One class created an original song around the theme of kindness to accompany the opening titles for their grade.

Our film festival was a chance to highlight student voice, creativity and kindness! A cadre of parents and students helped literally 'lay the red carpet out' for our young filmmakers. Students posed on the red carpet for paparazzi on their way into the the 'theater' throughout the day! Grade level films played at the top and bottom of the hour and classes signed up to enjoy the festivities and celebrate one another's films. Our school television studio reporters on hand to interview students and teachers. The local paper even came to interview several students. It was a truly magical day!

This festival truly was a process. ALL of us learned and grew together. We used Flipgrid to capture our thoughts on the process and reflect on our individual growth. You can see some of the highlights of this on the reflection tab.