Animated!

I haven’t been posting much this year, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t lots of great things going on in the library. This has been a particularly exciting week!

This Fall, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders come to the library twice a week, once for Library and once for Technology. This week in Tech class, 4th and 5th graders got the chance to become creators of content by creating short animated films. If that sounds familiar, it should! Fourth graders have been working with Mrs. Ford during recess to make stop-motion animation videos. The animation they explored this week in Technology is all computer-generated, but it uses a lot of the same concepts.

Let me tell you, they were riveted! It was really difficult to get them to stop working and shut down their computers at the end of class–a sure sign of a successful Technology lesson.

But why animation? Two reasons! First, I wanted to give the students a chance to experience being a creator of content. This is such an important skill–it’s absolutely vital for 21st century learners. Second, I’m trying to get them into the habit of exploring new technologies and programs on their own, without step by step directions. We’ve talked a lot about the fact that the best way to learn many computer programs is to get right in and try it through trial and error. I gave pretty minimal instructions on how to use this animation program, and waited to see what they’d come up with. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. They really rose to the occasion and came up with some really interesting videos.

Want to try it for yourself? We used the Animation Studio at Abcya.com.

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