Stop Motion is a fun, easy activity for students to create with. Students love the product created and as a teacher I love how easy it is and how “impressive” the final creation is. Many teachers are intimidated by the thought of stop motion animation and, honestly, I was a little nervous at first, too.
Stop Motion Studio is one of the most popular apps for stop motion animation. It is available as an Apple app or Google app and the best news is it’s FREE! (It does have some in-app purchase opportunities but I’ve never felt the need for them.) It’s so easy to use…even my first graders picked up on it quickly.
I introduce stop motion animation by doing a directed drawing video. I do this because the videos naturally break down the drawing step by step for the students. We practice drawing each step and stop to take a picture in between each step. (Remembering to take a picture between each step is the hardest part! The good news is….even if you forget to take a picture it doesn’t mess up your video.)
Art for Kids Hub is a fantastic resource for directed drawings. It’s one of my favorites because in these videos the “teacher” draws with kids so the students see how the adult is drawing and how the kid is drawing. I’ve found that sometimes the students are hard on themselves because they can’t make it look exactly like the adult’s drawing. They can get frustrated and want to keep starting over. They enjoy seeing that their drawing is similar to the kid’s drawing in the video.
This resource has a wide variety of how to draw videos…holidays, everyday objects, favorite characters, among many others. These videos are also beneficial for reluctant artists that get discouraged because “they can’t draw.”
There are additional resources available on the website. You can also follow them on Twitter @ArtForKidsHub.
Some other directed drawing resources:
- Epic!
- Draw So Cute videos
- Ed Emberley books
Once the students finish the drawing they can add to it. Here are some suggestions:
- add color and continue the stop motion video by taking a picture after each section is colored
- add a message like “Happy Valentine’s Day” or “I Love You”
- add their own drawings or decorations
- App smash (add music and create a movie with Apple Clips, add it to DoInk and have them record themselves wishing their family a happy Valentine’s Day)
When the project is complete the students share the video with their family. We typically do this via Seesaw but the videos can also be emailed. This is a fun project that students and families both enjoy. What makes it even better is that this lesson idea (and stop motion) can be tweaked to fit most subject areas.
As always, I look forward to hearing how this worked for you in your classroom and how you tweaked it to make it better.
Primarily Techie 