Animating the Imagination

This lesson is adapted from a guide produced by Youth Media International in cooperation with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to teach animation.

Activity One: We plan to try this with two approaches:
1. The teacher sets the scene, then students animate the end of the story where their character chooses how to respond to that situation or,
2. Students animate an original work such as a poem.
(Whether to have students work alone or in small groups is determined by the teacher's resources and preferences.)

Student first must script the storyline then use flip-books to begin their animation on paper (either index cards or pads of paper.)

The teacher will show clips from animated movies such as "Chicken Run" or "Toy Story" and discuss how characters showed emotions and moved body parts. There are also classroom Claymation movies on TeacherTube. Cartoons are shorted versions of animations.

Activity Two: Either the teacher can provide materials or the students can bring in their own to develop backgrounds and decide what to use in their animation. Begin using Stop Motion photography using a digital camera to capture still images.

Activity Three: Use iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to put still images into a video format. Include narration either by adding text to slides or recording voice/music.