Lets Animate!

I thought that the animation activity was so much fun and is definitely something I'd like to do in school. We decided to do a 3D animation and make models out of plasticine- which I'm very impressed with if I do say so myself! We haven't quite finished our animation yet, still got a bit more to do, but maybe I'll put it on my blog when it's done for you to have a look at (if I can!).

I believe that creating animations in the classroom is an extremely beneficial activity for children as it not only allows them to get to grips with some fun and exciting technology but has nearly endless cross- curricular possibilities! Art and design is the obvious one as children will be making their models or 2D pictures. Other cross- curricular opportunities could include:
- Literacy; as children could story board their animations and write captions or 'stage directions' for each scene. Also, children could make animations on a book they are studying at the time.
- Children could make animations on any topic they are studying in science, history, geography and even SEAL.

Other skills which making animations require is team work and collaboration as well as taking in the opinions and ideas of others, it also promotes speaking and listening skills. All in all pretty worth while!

Undertaking an animation activity with a class would require the teacher to be very confident about using the technology themselves. I was quite wary of this at first, but the Digi Blue software we used was quite simple, and I think with a bit more practice and fiddling around I would probably feel confident enough to use it in school!

Here is a video I found on Teachers TV about a school that undertook an animation project with their Year 5/6 class:

http://www.teachers.tv/video/2744