Stop-motion animation with Poms Poms completed

One of the most amazing things about teaching kids how to tap into their creativity is witnessing the progress of what happens while they make art.
I wish that when you watched this video you could hear their voices when they said things like "Let's throw French fries on him!" when one of the pom poms broke and they took the little broken yarn pieces and added them to the video. Or that you could see them discussing with their peers what was going to happen next in the movie. I was amazed at how quickly they personified the pom poms as they morphed into little characters.
I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!!!

Pom Pom stop motion!!

It's been a busy month in the art room! We integrated a fundraising project into our regular color theory unit and got lost in the love of pom pom making.

 

Pom poms....my goodness I can't seem to get enough of making them! I have personally been crazy obsessed with making them since last spring. My three kids have caught the fever as well so they begged me to teach it during art. I bought a slew of Clover pom pom makers (trust me, Clover makers are the only way to teach a room full of young people) and an ever bigger slew of yarn and we got to work! It takes a bit for the kids to adjust to it but they catch on quick! I love that the kids are required to work with a simple contraption and that the yarn can take on such a transformation.

 

I have much more to share about pom poms but for now here is the brief beginning of the pom pom stop motion animation we have been fooling around with during classes. Not all of the kids want to participate but if they have done stop motion animation before they are jumping at the chance ;).

 

I love turning these little, fluffy nothings into characters. They crack me up!

 

Enjoy!!!!!

 

Mermaid Town claymation

The movements in this one are awesome!!This team is first grade girls ;).

"Mermaids and Me" claymation

Another group of kindergartners (I know you agree with me that these kids are such talented, hard workers!! How incredible are they??)- this group is four girls. They left no detail unexplored.....everything that they could think of that they would see in the sea they included. Details are important so I was very pleased! These kiddos only come to me on a part time basis so you can see how efficient they were- super proud of you guys!!

"Aliens vs. Humans"..claymation

Ah- this epic battle was invented by two kindergarten boys ;). Listening to them talk out their idea was so great! They decided that their film would begin on the moon and that eventually the aliens would defeat the humans, although I think they changed that while they were filming and the humans won. I adored all of the characters they made and how well the two of them bounced ideas off each other- such a great team!! Enjoy!!!

Here is another one!- Red Riding Hood claymation

Ah! This is so adorable! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!! Three girls made this one....they are all insanely talented and so much fun for me to work with. Two of them are in 4th grade and one is in second grade. I know these films are short but pay attention to the details if you can....the glasses on the wolf after he eats grandma are so cool! The detail and hair on the wolf are incredibly life like. The eyes on Red Riding Hood and the little pants on the woodcutter----I love it all!

The second grader gave me the music choices and when she wanted the songs to enter into the film- I had to use her spelling for Beethoven since I didn't remember how to spell it ;).

"BFF" claymation about puppies!

Ah- this one is so sweet!! It's named "BFF" and it about girls and their dogs ;). The craftsmanship is insane- notice the flowers and the crazy detail on the puppies! These students are 2nd and 3rd grade.

Claymation- "The Big Race", second graders

This one is an energetic, fun Claymation portraying an intense car race. The group includes my 2nd grade son and his friend J, also in 2nd grade (love them!). They knew each other in preschool and both liked hot wheels back then....their interest hasn't waned ;)). Every once in a while, since this is an after school class, I have to bring my younger son over from our school's preschool. On the days he was there J and R made him feel so included and special- they even wrote his name on every paper ;). Very well done boys!

Minecraft Claymation by two hard working 4th graders!

I'm very excited to finally start posting the Claymation videos! This first one is from my two spectacular 4ht graders- A and J. They not only produced their own awesome film- they also shot most of the other student's films as well as edited them (added music, titles, split frames, etc.) in Windows Movie maker for me. I'm so impressed and thankful!! Thank you A and J!!

Claymation- making our films into books

The last time I taught Claymation I realized that the students were not getting enough time to film their entire storyline. Time is a challenge because each 5-10 seconds of movie time takes about half an hour to shoot.


In order to give the kids the opportunity to really work through their full story, I decided to have them write books portraying their films. We used our storyboards that we made at the beginning of the session as a guide. I printed out still shots from their movie and we used those as the illustrations. A few kids still wanted to draw which was totally fine with me!

This class spans ages from Kindergarten to 4th grade- I sure love seeing their writing and the way they designed their books! Some students ran one sentence through a few pages (love!). I had a first grader use tape to "separate" the space between her writing and where the picture would go (she is such a fabulous spatial thinker!! really cool to see her ideas!). A second grader used exclamation points perfectly to accentuate how intense the car race was going on in his film- all of them were amazing!!

Here are some examples......

                              the story board for the"Aliens vs. Humans" book above

        The following pictures are the covers they designed for their DVD ;))

 How clever is adding the bar code and the price for US and Canada!!?? Awesome!!

Claymation enrichment class

 I got home tonight from our fourth class out of the five Claymation classes in this session thinking about how busy today's class was ;)....but also just how wonderful the learning opportunities are when we are making these mini-movies. It is really neat to watch!

We started the session in week one by viewing a few Claymation movies and explaining to them how stop motion animation works. Then we began to develop our characters and stories on brainstorming worksheets. After their idea was developed, I had them illustrate/sketch their characters before they manipulated the clay. I feel like sketching first is such a great way to sort through and gain new ideas!

By the time they got to the clay there was so much fabulous energy in the room! Listening to each group discuss their plots and what details their characters would have was great!

Here are many of the characters produced.....

 

The following week I gave them blank storyboard worksheets and we worked through 9 "stages" of their story that would eventually become their movie. They sketched and wrote notes covering their story from beginning to end. I'm hoping that this will help them when they are animating to use as a guide if needed. The following pictures are some of the absolutely precious storyboards and more completed characters. LOVE!!!!!