Home » stop motion in the classroom

Tag: stop motion in the classroom

stop motion animation for students

Discovering STEM Careers Through Stop Motion Animation for Students [ep.145]

Discovering STEM Careers Through Stop Motion Animation for Students [ep.145]

stop motion animation for students

Check out the full episode on Discovering STEM Careers Through Stop Motion Animation for Students:  

 

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Stop-motion animation is one of the oldest animation techniques, so why teach it in your STEM classroom? Is it even possible to make stop motion animation meaningful for students? In today's episode, I'm sharing all the details about stop motion animation for students and how to make it a meaningful experience in your STEM classroom.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • Why you should teach stop motion animation in your STEM classroom
  • Examples of stop motion animation lessons for students
  • The tech needed for implementing stop motion animation for students

Resources Mentioned:

Some items are linked to my Amazon Affiliate account. When you purchase through my link, there is no added cost to you, but I receive a small commission in return.

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

Stop motion is one of the oldest animation techniques out there. So why use stop motion in your classroom? Also, how can you make the lessons meaningful instead of just having them take random pictures of random things moving? And doesn't it take a lot of technology to make it actually work? I have all the answers for you inside of today's episode.


Listener Message [00:01:00]:

Naomi, you are a lifesaver. I have used your products for about 5 or 6 years now, and they always come out with great compliments from all of the kids. This week, I heard the best compliment I had to pass on to you. It was when we were using some of your engineering Makerspace mats, and the kids said, where do you come up with these ideas? Question mark. I just find such pleasure having you in my back pocket whenever I need fun STEM activities for my kids. You are amazing.


Naomi Meredith [00:01:39]:

Thank you so much, Kristen, for your extremely kind message. It absolutely made my day and especially hearing your voice is absolutely so sweet. If you wanna leave an audio note Just like this one or even ask me a question, head on over to naomiemeredith.com/voice and record away. The first time that I ever did stop motion animation was when I was actually a student. Stop motion animation is really old. And as I said in the intro, it is one of the oldest animation techniques out there. And this is what filmmakers actually did when they wanted to make objects move. So if you think about the movie Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer or the show Gumby, those are really good examples of stop motion animation. And so when I used stop motion animation, I was in middle school, and we had this little camera, little digital camera, And we had a bunch of Lego minifigures and Lego bricks, and we had to tell a story using those materials.


Naomi Meredith [00:02:53]:

And I'm pretty sure my video was something like the Lego minifig was walking along and got in a Car and then someone was trying to steal the car. I don't know. Something like that. Remember, there was a car, but there were so many pictures that we had to take to make it look smooth. So stop motion isn't new, but why should you even teach it in your STEM classroom? Because, Sure. You could have kids just take pictures of random things, make a move just like what I did, and not have it connect to anything. We're gonna talk about actual examples later in this episode, so hang tight because that's not exactly what you're going to be doing with students. But even thinking aside from the lessons, there are a lot of benefits when teaching stop motion.


Naomi Meredith [00:03:42]:

The biggest one that I have seen is that it's a great way to teach patience to your students. If they want a video that is going to look really, really good, you have to take a lot a lot of pictures and tiny tiny movements. Like, a lot. Like, I'm talking like 100 pictures. So it really is teaching that patience. Likewise, it does take a lot of problem-solving because if you know you want your objects to look and move a certain way, You have to problem-solve as to how you are going to break this down where the objects can move so that it can get to where you want it in the end. So it's a lot, especially for elementary students. They have to visually think through that process before it even happens. And what's really cool too is, yes, it's called stop motion animation, but most of the work is done in front of the camera, not behind the camera, in front of it. Because they are manipulating these pieces to make it work you have to stay on top of it and really stay focused because if you make these really huge jumps with the movements of your things, It's gonna look really weird in your video. So students have to really think through in front of the camera how this is all going to work together.


Naomi Meredith [00:05:11]:

And with that, the technology is super, super, super easy. It's funny because I taught a stop motion summer camp club for a few summers. I actually built the curriculum for that, which you can grab that whole entire lesson plan and more about stop motion animation. I have a getting started with stop motion book ebook that I made, which I'll link in the show notes. It's in my TPT shop, but It was funny because some kids who were signed up for my club had done variations of stop motion animation, But what they were doing is that they were just taking pictures with their iPads and then swiping through it really fast to show the movements. Well, they had hundreds of pictures in their camera roll, and, I mean, that gets really annoying. It takes up a lot of storage. So The technology is really easy, and we're gonna talk about what devices and all of that in a second, but it is so easy Because everything is done in front of the camera, like I said. So let's explore more about those lesson plans and how to make it meaningful when it Comes to stop motion animation. Now when I was thinking through how I wanted to use stop motion animation in my classroom instead of a summer camp? Because I feel like you have a little more leeway in an after-school club and a summer camp, and it's a really great time to explore, I highly recommend if you need ideas for that.


Naomi Meredith [00:06:40]:

But when it comes to the actual classroom, whether you're a STEM teacher or a classroom teacher, And you wanna have something meaningful, I thought about wouldn't it be cool if I connected these stop motion animation lessons to STEM careers. So when I was planning out my whole k through 5 STEM year-long plan, I knew that there were certain standards I needed to hit in this area where it was really talking about modeling a concept and what is a better way to model than through animation. And so I knew I wanted to use those standards where it talks about showing the process of things. And then, as I was digging in deeper when I was creating my year-long plan, which you can get the entire plan for free. And it's at Naomimeredith.com/yearlongplan. When I was going through that, I thought, oh my gosh, “How cool would that be if all of these lessons were connected to STEM careers?” Researching about a career could be boring. I guess it depends on what the career is. It could be boring, but what if you flipped it around and students are taking on the role of the career? Same kind of concept. They're learning about what this person does in the job, but they are looking at it through a different lens. Side note, if you need more support when it comes to STEM careers in general, I have my whole audio workshop that is all ready to go as soon as you get in there, where I talk through the whole process of setting up a STEM career day from start to finish.


Naomi Meredith [00:08:20]:

Also, I have an upcoming podcast For kids called the STEM Career Quest podcast, which could even be a research tool when students are creating their stop motion animations. So when they take on that role as the STEM career and they're showing what types of things that person might be learning and it connects to the standards, It makes it really really exciting and also not random. I don't know if you've guessed this already or said it a lot on here, but I am not about doing random things in the classroom. I really wanna ensure that the lessons that I am teaching are Extremely meaningful and purposeful, they are connected to standards, and also they are exciting for kids, and they want to learn about them. So what do you actually need when you are setting up a stop motion lesson? Well, not as many materials as you might think, which is awesome. All about streamlining and keeping it simple. So first are devices. And I will say, if you have some sort of tablet, it does work the best when it comes to stop motion animation. If you don't, I have another option for you.


Naomi Meredith [00:09:38]:

It works best just because of the layout of the camera. If you do have a tablet, you wanna make sure that there's some sort of stand where that keeps the device steady because you actually do not want the kids holding the device and taking pictures because they can't get the same exact angle every time and then it actually messes up the pictures because They're starting and stopping in different places and it doesn't really make sense. So whatever tablet you have, you want a way for it to stand up. Whether it's the case that the actual tablet is in or if it has a stand on there, that's excellent. Maybe you can buy an actual tripod where you can actually have the tablet go flat while it's in the air. That's what I did. I wrote a grant for tripods that actually would hold the device, so I'll link that as well as a good option for you. When you're on the app, you just need the free app called Stop Motion Studio.


Naomi Meredith [00:10:33]:

You really don't need to buy it. I had the paid version. The teacher before me had purchased it, and it was already on the tablets. There are some extra Editing features, but really not necessary and with the time you have with kids, you might not even have enough time to use all those extra features. The free one is really, really, really good. So that's what you need if you have tablets, and then if you are using laptops or Chromebooks, If you have an outside camera on the outside of the device, that's awesome. That will help a lot, but you might not, so the layout might get a little bit trickier but not impossible. One thing that I've tried with stop motion on my computer is If you have the device laying flat like normal and then you tilt the screen down, and then you could put like a whiteboard or something on top of the keyboard, then you could have the camera, like, really focusing in on the things and then if you have an external mouse, You could have that plugged in, and then it could click the shutter button on the screen so that way you're still using that Chromebook camera and it's all set up for you and it's not moving around? So that's a good workaround; you just have to play around with the angles.


Naomi Meredith [00:11:49]:

And a Pretty decent app that I found, and at the time of this recording, it's free from what I can see. It's called Cloud Stop Motion, and it looks like they have things that they will support educators with when it comes to setting up accounts and everything. So Check that out. You do wanna have some sort of software where it will put the pictures in order. When you export the pictures, it will make it into a video. That's the whole point of creating an animation. If your devices don't have a camera, there are some external camera options. One popular camera to use with students, and you could actually use this camera for video too, is the Hue document camera.


Naomi Meredith [00:12:30]:

And I know it says document camera in the name, but it actually is just a camera. So all it is is a USB port, it plugs into your device, and it's all set up and ready to go? And they actually have a bundle where you can get the Hue document camera and the software, which will have the whole stop motion software in there so it can connect together. You do not need 1 for every kid, so if you're looking into the option of An external camera, you can maybe write a grant for I would try at least for 12 if you typically have 24 kids, 1 per every two students. So you could start there, and that's a great option, especially if you are teaching all the kids in the school, You'll get a lot of use out of them, and also if you're hoping to do more video projects or if you're doing something like the school-wide video news, which I also have a workshop about that, then you're gonna use those cameras a lot anyway. So, if that's something you're looking for, that's definitely worth the investment. Okay. And then what do the kids actually use to make the animations? Are they using Lego bricks? What are they using? Toys? Sure. You can use that if you would like. No problem.


Naomi Meredith [00:13:47]:

Having a variety like that and having those physical props is really fun, and sometimes Kids will bring in their own things to use in their videos, so it's definitely up to your discretion if you wanna allow that. I also love the Crayola modeling clay, so not the air-dried clay that's soft and fluffy, but the actual modeling clay. It's really inexpensive, they have class kits, and it doesn't dry out, which is amazing. When I taught my summer camp, I got a kit of modeling clay, and then I divided up all the colors so they had a bag of colors they could mix and match so you could actually blend colors together and they had their bag of modeling clay if that was an option and if the bags were left open, it Didn't matter because it didn't dry out. If you're teaching all of your students in this school, that might get a little bit expensive. My trick with stop motion is I actually use paper, and I have students draw their props. I might even have some things that are already predrawn that they can color and cut out. And so, that is my biggest trick and tip, and it is so, so easy to store, they lie flat, and you probably have unlimited paper, and so that's actually what I use for the props. So now we have all of the materials covered, and devices, What do you actually do in these stop motion lessons and connect them to STEM careers? Let's talk through it. I am going to talk through each grade level, starting with 5th grade, and give you an overview of the lesson and what they are trying to accomplish in their stop motion lesson. All of these lessons will be linked in the show notes, and I also have a bundle of them together.


Naomi Meredith [00:15:43]:

So if you're hoping to do stop motion k through 5, You have all of the things laid out for you, all of the planning documents students will need, all of the note taking sheets. So as they are learning about these concepts, when they're taking on the role of the STEM career? They have an easy way to keep track of it. Starting with 5th grade, they are taking on the role as an ecologist. So somebody who is Studying the Earth's landscapes and how it all connects together and all the different things and what they are doing in their stop motion video is How can they can create a stop motion about Earth spheres and how they interact with each other? When you're talking about Earth spheres, you have the different things like the biosphere and then all the things within that, the water, The grass, all of those different spheres, and they have to visually show how it connects together, and they're creating that model. So Not only are they learning about the spheres and what is in them, they had to visually show a way how they could explain that to somebody else, which Takes that levels to a whole other dimension because oftentimes I've seen with this actual standard Is that they're just labeling pictures of the spheres and then the end, they probably won't remember. So this is making that really interactive. In 4th grade, they are taking on the role as a tsunami warning specialist, and they are learning about the concept of Waves and waves in 2 ways. So they're thinking about, yes, a tsunami makes a wave based on an earthquake happening underwater? So we have that water wave, but also are really looking in that role is they are looking at the Hypes of waves and the data that a tsunami actually makes when it is Becoming closer and closer and closer, so they're taking on that role.


Naomi Meredith [00:17:46]:

So students will actually have examples, and I this one was interesting to plan. I did a lot of research on impactful tsunamis throughout history And even made a map where it shows where it's at, more information, a timeline of what happened with the tsunami And students will pick 1 of the tsunamis to show in their video, but also explain what a tsunami is, How it works and how the waves the wavelengths are actually shown in that video. So really taking on that role of the tsunami warning What do you need to know about all of this and also educating others how can you stay safe. So my students really really had a fun time drawing the waves. And really anything with natural disasters, they're like, yeah, I'm all about it even though it's a little scary. And I live in Colorado, so I have to remind kids, like, we don't get tsunamis in Colorado and if we did get one in Colorado, that's, like, really, really bad. So they were super into this lesson and, really liked seeing and learning about waves, The different kinds of waves, so, those 2 kinds of waves in a different way. 3rd grade for their stop motion animation is they were taking on the role as a Paleontologist. And instead of doing, like, let's dig up fossils out of this dry clay, That's cool.


Naomi Meredith [00:19:17]:

They're really telling a story of how fossils are formed from living things long ago. In my little example video, I show a snail living his happy snail life and then sadly passes away and he had the right time, right conditions where he ended up becoming a fossil? And so students will actually learn about the different types of fossils and have those resources And then they will have examples of different fossils that have been, found throughout time And students will actually, think about, okay, so there was this fossil formed, what was the story? It's like they kinda have to infer and make up, How did this living thing live its life and then how did it go from that to eventually being a fossil that we found? So paleontologists do use evidence to infer, so they are doing that while they are creating the research and the script and props for this project. For 2nd grade, I feel like this is one of my favorite ones, but I love animals. And so I had a lot of fun planning this one And also challenging too because a lot of times you've probably seen with these standards, there's not a lot of kid-friendly resources is out there so I just end up making it so that my students have benefited and so can yours. And so Students in this project are learning about different types of pollinators so they are taking on the role as a zoologist. They are studying different types of pollinators, some that are commonly known like bees, but some that are not fruit bats, which is one I learned about. And they actually have the articles that I wrote, short out articles that help explain what the animal is, how do they pollinate, and why is it helpful? So there are short articles already in there and the audio is read to them so I actually read the article. And so students actually will choose one of those pollinators and then they will show in their stop motion animation how that animal helps with pollination. In 1st grade, students are taking on the role as biomimicry researcher. Biomimicry is when inventors are looking at nature and how Things in nature work to help inspire their ideas.


Naomi Meredith [00:21:40]:

So, for example, you have a turtle and they have a shell, and the shell protects that turtle. Well, with the helmet, the helmet we could say, I don't know if this is actually true, but we could say that a helmet Takes elements from a turtle and its shape and its purpose to help humans keep their heads safe when they're riding a bike. And so students will have different examples of biomimicry. Again, I wrote the articles in a kid-friendly way, recorded my voice, But different examples of inventions that use biomimicry in our everyday lives and things that you See, like windmills and reflectors. And so students in their video will actually show a human problem being solved with biomimicry? And it could be an invention that is already out there or even more fun, They get to plan the invention and then show it through their videos. So a lot of problem-solving in that one. And finally, we have our Cutiepie kindergartners, and they are taking on the role as a meteorologist, and they are creating a stop motion animation to show the weather from the week? And maybe it's things that, like, you have to look up the weather from the past week and then put in the data in the weather journal that's I did for them and, of course, talking about different types of weather and then they're gonna show that in their stop motion animation. You could do where you live.


Naomi Meredith [00:23:13]:

Now if you live somewhere really sunny all the time, that would be a really boring stop animation. So look up a place like Colorado, Look up Colorado in December or maybe January 2024 because we've had weird weather, so you say, hey, we're making a stop motion of Colorado weather because you get different things every day. It will snow in the morning and then be sunny that afternoon. So, they are making that stop motion animation to show the weather. As a recap in this lesson, we talked about how you can actually have meaningful stop motion animations in your classroom as it relates to STEM careers and then really showing those standards where it talks about modeling a concept. So we talked through, first, the origin of the stop motion careers lessons, next, we also talked about ways to set this up and getting the materials re ready, And finally, we talk through all of those different challenges. All of those lessons will be linked in the show notes for you? And then also if you are looking for more ways for students to connect their experiences to different STEM careers, I invite you to my STEM career day workshop, where I walk you through the entire process, give you all the templates of how to set that up in your classroom, And then also, make sure to keep an ear out for my upcoming kid podcast, the STEM Career Quest podcast where each week I will be interviewing guests Who have real life STEM careers and who are talking to kids to help inspire them. Thank you so much again, and I will see you in the next episode.

 

stop motion animation for students

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is an online K-5 STEM Coach in Colorado supporting elementary teachers world-wide navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there. With over a decade of experience teaching, 5 years teaching elementary STEM, along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM Certificate, Naomi helps teachers world-wide to navigate best practices, strategies and tools out there. 

She offers a variety of tools to help teachers feel successful teaching STEM to their elementary students through lesson plans, online courses, coaching and speaking events.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM, innovation and hands-on learning in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!

stop-motion-used-in-the-classroom

How is Stop Motion Used in the Classroom? [ep.47]

How is Stop Motion Used in the Classroom? [ep.47]

stop-motion-used-in-the-classroom

Check out the full episode on How is Stop Motion Used in the Classroom:  

Embed YouTube video here

Subscribe to the podcast HERE on your favorite podcasting platform.

Have a STEM question? Leave a voice message for the podcast!

Episode Summary

Stop motion requires minimal materials for students to be successful but involves a high level of creativity and critical thinking.

This episode is a presentation from an online summit I spoke at in the past, the Teach with Tech Conference.

In this episode, I provide an intro to stop motion animation, a list of tools to get started, an explanation of student examples, and ways to extend this lesson even further with other resources.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • What stop motion animation is
  • Tools to get started with stop motion in the classroom
  • Ideas for how to use stop motion in the classroom

Resources Mentioned:

Some items are linked to my Amazon Affiliate account. When you purchase through my link, there is no added cost to you, but I receive a small commission in return.

Episode Transcript: 

Naomi Meredith  00:00

Stop motion animation is one of my most favorite units to teach students. It requires minimal materials for students to be successful, but involves a high level of creativity and critical thinking. Well, the audio from this episode has never been heard before on this podcast. This presentation is from an online summit I did in the past the teach with tech conference, you'll get an intro to stop motion animation, a list of tools to get started explanation of student examples and ways to extend this lesson even further with other resources. 


Naomi Meredith  00:32

And stop motion is one of those things that I feel like anybody can do. It's not as hard as you think. So what in the world are we doing today? Well, I'm going to give you an introduction to stop motion, so you can be an expert on it. I'm also going to be showing you some tools to get started with stop motion in your classroom, which these are minimal tools. And so that's great news. I also have some student examples to share with you and then some other extensions to take your stop motion to the next level when you're ready. Or if you're ready already, this is for you. 


Naomi Meredith  01:37

So in short, what in the world is stop motion animation? Well, stop motion is a lot of pictures played with tiny movements really, really fast to make things look like they are moving on their own. So you probably have seen examples of this, which we will show. But basically all those tiny pictures are doing all the animation for you. So animation experience is not needed. Anyone can make it look awesome. You're probably more familiar with stop motion than you think. These are some examples of stop motion used in popular movies. Oftentimes I will show clips for my students because they are amazed how fluid the movements are, they can't believe that a computer didn't do all the work. Gumby is stop motion animation with all of its interesting characters. So that is probably one you're familiar with. A year without a Santa Claus, they use a lot more puppets, and that also has stop motion animation. And then chicken run, and all those movies along those same lines are also made with stop motion animation. A big misnomer is that the LEGO Movie is not made with stop motion animation. It was actually made to look like it was created that way because LEGO is typically used in stop motion animation with kids, so they wanted to give that feel. But it actually wasn't made that way. It was made with real animation. 


Naomi Meredith  03:10

So when you're thinking about this technology tool, why in the world should you use it. It's so old, who cares? Actually, there are some benefits to it. Stop Motion brings stationary objects and topics to life. It also doesn't require a lot of tools. So that is great news, especially as teachers, we don't always have access to unlimited resources. You can pretty much use anything when it comes to stop motion. The biggest thing that I love about this is that it teaches patience and problem solving. And I'll show you some picture examples with this. But the critical thinking and problem solving happens in front of the camera. The kids aren't spending a whole lot of time on their device until they start editing. But to make a really great video, it takes so much patience and problem solving for it to make sense. Those are things we want for our kids. Right? The technology piece. There's lots of different options out there. What I've started with is this free app stop motion studio. This works amazing, and it's a great place to start. Actually when I came into this STEM position in the first year, when I tried stop motion animation, I downloaded the free app on our iPads. Then the next year I was looking through my app management system and I actually had this one purchase from the previous teacher. I had no idea the kids had no idea and we were very successful with this free version. So totally go there. You don't need to upgrade. As of right now, during this presentation, you can get it on iPads, Google Play, and Kindle Fire depending on your device compatibility, all for free. Start with the free. If you are able to let's say you have one iPad or two iPads in your classroom and you don't mind upgrading, you can buy the Stop Motion Studio Pro. It has additional editing options and LEGO faces that you can add on so has like more real animation to add in your stop motion. There's also the options of green screen and you can do more editing within the app, I will show you some other apps at the end. So if you are just using the free version, I'm going to show you some other options if you don't feel like upgrading. 


Naomi Meredith  05:42

Now with the Stop Motion Studio Pro again, it is compatible on these three types of devices. Then you can also purchase the software for computer programs. So this would be best with for Macs and Windows, if you are able to upgrade or if you write a donor's choose or if you have a classroom budget, the HUE Document Camera, which I know has other benefits outside of stop motion animation. So it might be worth the investment. But the HUE Document Camera also has an option of stop motion animation software. And so each of those can be bought separately, or it can be bought together as a package. I'm not an affiliate, I'm just giving you free information. But this might be an option as well. So again, if you are a classroom teacher, or even a STEM teacher, if you bought one of these cameras and had a station in your classroom, that could be an option. So don't feel like you have to have a device for every single student. In fact, stop motion works very well when it comes to collaborating and assigning roles. So that might be just something to keep in mind, depending on your situation. So lots of different options out there. If you even wanted to go super cheap, you could take a lot of pictures on a phone, like if you really trust your kids with a phone or if you have old little tablets that don't connect to Wi Fi or don't have cell service, you can take a lot of pictures that way, and then swipe through and it looks like it's moving. So I've heard of kids actually doing that before they come to my class. And they're so grateful to have the app, but you don't even need to have a special app to do this. So when it comes to the materials you can use, these are just some options to get started. Honestly, you can just use paper as a prop. I will actually show you an example of how paper was used in stop motion. So these are things that kids could bring from home. Again, if you have donations, or you have a little budget, these are great places to get started. There's actually a whole YouTube channel for stickbots. It's a brand and there are some good clips on there kind of filter through and watch them first before you show the kids. But these have little string on them and it moves their joints so they move a little more human like so that can help when kids are trying to make a video of a person walking it moves a little bit better than a minifigure.


Naomi Meredith  08:09

Play-Doh is a great option as well because kids can mold and change their characters. I love Play-Doh and then I also discovered Crayola has a great modeling clay. What's great about modeling clay is that it doesn't dry out so they can leave their creations for a week. I had an after school club for stop motion animation, and kids would make things with modeling clay. We would leave it high up on the shelf and then they came back to their work and it was perfectly fine. It's very inexpensive. It's actually a little bit cheaper than play-doh. So keep an eye out for that Crayola modeling clay. LEGO, of course, amazing kids love it. Great option to build settings, characters, all sorts of things. Masking tape is great on hand if they're trying to tape things to the background, construction paper, and of course many fakes. There's lots of knockoffs of minifigs on Amazon so that you can look into that, depending on your class or school roles, even encourage kids to bring that from home and really encourage mixing these mediums. They can really bring their settings and their videos to life. So behind the scenes, here's what it typically looks like in my classroom. The other thing I really love about using stop motion is that all the work is done in front of the camera. So you can see an example right here. I had iPad stands, which again, this isn't something you have to have, but we had an iPad stand they zoomed in, they would move it like take make their little setting, move their character, take a picture, move their character take a picture. 


Naomi Meredith  14:53

They were back and forth the whole time, but it doesn't have to be silent in my classroom. I know that can be hard when you're filming and there's 25 kids or they're trying to make video goes stop motion is that recording the sound, you can make a stop motion video without sound. And it's great. I have an example of that also to show you, and all that if they do want to add sound that can be done later. And usually, with timing wise, you have one group that finishes really fast, they might be out in the hall adding sound, the rest of the class is working away, and they can talk and collaborate that way. So that's what I love, it doesn't have to be completely silent to make this work. Here's another example. This iPad, I believe, has a stand on the back. But I've seen kids actually make iPad stands with Legos to make their iPad stand up. So being inventive in a different way. But you can see that they've zoomed in on their screen on their setting. And you can't even really see all this background actually wanted part of it in there. But there's just a lot of little materials in their thing. If you kind of can see in this picture, there also is a LEGO base plate. And a little tip that I have seen kids use is each peg on the base plate, they move it one by one, to make their story look more fluid. So the tinier the movements, the better the video is going to be. Here's some all other behind the scenes, this is from after school club that I hosted. This is actually that modeling clay that I was talking about. And since we had more time for this project, we actually filmed our videos using blue screen or green screen. So we still use that stop motion app. You can use the free one again. But we made sure that we filmed it in front of a background that we could change later. The reason why this is a blue screen is because if you can kind of see here, the stamps of these flowers are green. And we didn't want them to disappear when we change the background. And this is actually a blue t shirt that we had. And so we're going to change that later. And this image right here, I do have one of my walls painted green in my classroom. So we push the table up against the wall, we use the green face plate. And then she started filming her video here. And what was funny about this one, she actually decided she liked it without changing the background. So she actually left it like this and didn't end up changing it. Here's what a screenshot of a stop motion video would look like. This is actually the stop motion studio. This is from their website. And so this is what the app would look like. Very, very, very simple. So the kids would this one is already finished. But typically the image would be behind them. And there would be a red button for them to press once they have their object in the place that they like. So they move their character little take a picture, move a little ticker picture. This one has 101 frames, which we call them frames, that is great. You really want to encourage this, like I said before, the tinier the movements, the more pictures you take, the better your stop motion video is going to be. When kids are first getting started, they typically will take about 15 to 30 pictures. And at first glance, you're like, Oh, that looks really awesome. But they're usually really choppy. And they're over in two seconds. So the better the more patient and the smaller the movements, the better their video is going to be. So these videos can take time, you can get it done probably in a couple of days. But if you really block out that time, if you can get them done and have them be really awesome. So you might be a classroom teacher, you don't teach them. And you're thinking, Well, why would I even use this? Like this is so cool, but how can I even use stop motion. If I were to go back to the regular classroom, as myself, I would use that motion. And here's why. You can use this in so many ways. This is just to get your wheels turning, you can show the comprehension of the story by retelling it through stop motion, comprehension and main idea and summarizing are big standards for kids. Why not have them show it in a different way through stop motion, it can help kids of all different comprehension levels. And you can even pair those kids up in differentiated pairs. That would work so great. So try set motion for one of your units. Fairy tales worked very well for this. You can also have kids show vocabulary or vocabulary words from the text. And again, that is another way to bring it to life instead of just drawing I know not all kids love to draw. Why not have them create those vocabulary words and maybe the other kids in the class can try to guess what word they're trying to show. Stop Motion can  be another way for students to publish their final piece, they could create a stop motion to visually show their writing. So maybe as they maybe they do still type a final piece. And then they add a stop motion to go with it. And they could put a little QR code in their published piece to show kids the animated part of it. So that would be really, really fun. A great extension to writing. You could also use this in math. So with stop motion, you could have kids visually show a word problem and what's actually happening happening in the word problem. So if Tommy has 100 watermelons and gets rid of 50, how many legs does he have left? Well have the kids make a stop motion animation, and then they could show the work to solve it. And I bet you would have some great submissions for that. And that helps with that comprehension. Again, you can also have students show visually how things grow and change over time within science. And I have a similar example to this that paper example I'll show you in a little bit. But you could have them show a process. So if you're doing lifecycles, you can have the kids just with paper, draw each stage of the lifecycle and show that through stop motion, you can even again with that, instead of doing the circle form of the lifecycle, you can have them actually show the progression of it growing up, I've had kids do both. Both are pretty awesome. So that can bring those kinda like I guess, a little more boring, which I never think science is boring, but maybe it's boring for some of you to make it more fun with stop motion. And then if you're doing some history, you could have them create a stop motion of historical events on a timeline. So each group could have a different point on the timeline, acted out with stop motion, and then they could you could show those stop motions in order of when it happened to help them connect something visual to the abstract idea. So here's the fun stuff. Student examples. Here is one we did with fairy tale. So I mentioned fairy tales are a really good one for stop motion. This is like one of the best ways to get started. Have kids pick a fairy tale that they are familiar with and show it visually with stop motion. This one you probably can guess is, you guessed Jack in the beanstalk. You are correct. I love this one because this little guy he didn't speak a whole lot in my class. But his video was so clear and made sense. And he made his little beanstalk with the LEGO mixed up the greens and then wrapped around some modeling clay to make the vines. I was like, oh my goodness, can I take a picture? And he's all Yeah, so thank you little guy. This one with comprehension. I'll show you a little bit is where we took a story we took the day the crayons came home or the day the crayons quit. I've done both. And each group had a different part of the story. This is a good story you can break up if you haven't read the book. Go get it. It's amazing. It's hilarious. But each group had a different page and they had to create the character this character is made with modeling clay paper and then a marker cap and then no crayons were harmed in the making of this video. We hung that up in our classroom. And then we put all the videos together into one. So it's actually a stop motion retelling of the story. I'll show you a little bit you will have access to this video. But just so you can kind of see what's going on. We added them some sound of course. Come home by Drew and Al. Parents, Charles and Charles to taught me to always make room for everyone.


Naomi Meredith  19:00

They wanted to read it together. One day we're happily coloring together with a strange stack of postcards arrived for him in the mail My name is the only close so you didn't get the point they ended up doing some editing later. So this is like towards the end this took a week in a club. But and we also filmed with green screen. And so that was just another way that we could bring a story to life each kids work separately and then we brought it together as a group so that was really really fun and they were so excited to show their families. Couple other examples fairy tale. This challenge was pick the fairy tale and you have to create a stop motion and we have to guess what it was. There is no sound in these videos. So I will show you you can see the answer already. But this is Little Red Riding Hood no Sound, we didn't have any grade for the wolf. So that was the hunter getting them off. And then began. So that was a 13. Second video, there was probably about 200 pictures taken and four kids actually worked on this stop motion. And they were from different classes. This was an after school club, but I've done this regular class too. Okay, this one tortoise and the hare. So they mix together LEGO and clay, and they found the eyeballs from the LEGO bends. This one is pretty smooth, I think they took about 300 pictures, and it's only 16 seconds. So you see, the more pictures you take, the smaller the movements, the better it's going to be. So those are linked down below. Again, you can also use paper as a medium, when you don't have a lot of materials like or money to spend paper is also a great option. So we will pull up this one is how a fossil is formed, I probably won't show the whole thing. This one is pretty long, and they have sound if it will pull up for us. So they actually wrote words, they wrote a letter took a picture, data, great job selling fossil, and did little movements along the way they wanted to add sound we just did not have time. So you can get the point that one is a minute long. And then here's another one. So it's showing a process. This one was about the human body for fifth grade. So fifth grade, they studied each studied a part of the human body, and then they had to explain all about it with a stop motion. The kids in this group were amazing artists, I was just shocked they did not trace it. But this was all done was stop motion and paper. And this was done with the free app the year I didn't know I had the paid one. One thing you notice there's a lot of flashing in the background, I suggested to them to put paper on a solid background. So they wouldn't have that flashing, but it's pretty smooth. So great stop motion example right there. You kind of seen this in the examples I've shown you but you can have other extensions. So if you want to add in green screen, you could upgrade to the Stop Motion Studio Pro. Or if you just want to go ahead and purchase the Green Screen by DoInk, this is a wonderful green screen app for any project anyway, I would suggest purchasing that that would be worth your investment very, very, very easy. And great for kids to see how green screen actually works. They also have an animation app. So not stop motion animation where you take tiny, tiny pictures, but you can actually add layers of characters and cartoons on top of your work. So that's again, another great investment. iMovie actually has the addition of green screen I haven't played around with it yet. I've heard mixed reviews about it iMovie screen, but you also have to have a Apple device to use that. But I love teaching kids iMovie I think it's great for kids to know lots of different platforms so they can transfer that knowledge. So I will oftentimes, I won't always show them in the stop motion app that they can do editing because I want them to learn iMovie and use everything. So that's something I try with them stick that studio is an alternative stop motion app. I've had kids like it some kids not this is also free. I've had more success with the Stop Motion Studio app. But that's just up to you for you can have kids try it out, especially if they've done it before. 


Naomi Meredith  23:33

There's lots of books out there. These are a couple I would recommend for you to check out these were at Michaels. I'm sure you can find them on Amazon, but they have some great tips and tricks for getting started and those be awesome to have in your classroom library for kids to learn more who are interested. Excited to jump into stop motion animation even more. I put together a collection of resources to help you get started. You can grab the video recording of this episode. The video slides I referenced throughout student examples and bonuses for only $5 I wish I could buy a new Kindle book for that cheap. Let me tell you, it's not usually that good of a deal. The bonus PDF includes a plot storyboard for students to brainstorm their stop motion story in a sequential order a project checklists to help students stay on track throughout their project and an anchor chart where you can add ideas as a class when discoveries are made as to what makes a great stop motion animation. If you're looking for even more than that, I even created a special bundle for you that will not only include this whole video replay with bonuses, but a stop motion animation guide to walk you through the whole process with a detailed week long collaborative less than a paleontologist and fossil project and a zoo ologists and pollination Project everything you will need to kick off your stop motion animation journey and using lessons that my own students have absolutely loved. This will be linked in the show notes and you can check it out all here. Naomi meredith.com/stopmotionbundle.

stop-motion-used-in-the-classroom

stop-motion-used-in-the-classroom

 

Related Episodes/Blog Posts:

 

Connect with Naomi Meredith:

 

More About your host, Naomi Meredith

Naomi Meredith is a former classroom teacher turned current K-5 STEM teacher and coach. Her role not only includes teaching over 500 students in her school, but also leading professional development and co-teaching with teachers to help them integrate STEM & Technology.

With over a decade of experience along with a M.Ed. in STEM Leadership and STEM certificate, she helps teachers navigate the best practices, strategies and tools out there.

She truly believes that any teacher out there can learn how to use STEM & Technology in their classrooms effectively. She can’t wait to connect with you and be your guide!

More About The Elementary STEM Coach Podcast

Are you tired of scrolling online for your next great STEM lesson? Do you feel like there is no time to plan, research and test meaningful STEM lessons, so you throw together a hands-on activity and hope that it works? What systems and routines should you set in place to help students be creative, critically think, and collaborate? 

The Elementary STEM Coach is a podcast for K-5 STEM teachers, classroom teachers, GT specialists, and homeschool parents looking for actionable STEM solutions. Each week, Naomi Meredith will share tools, resources and lesson ideas that are actionable in your classroom and create highly engaging experiences with your students. You’ll learn systems and routines that will create control in the chaos and that will keep you organized all year long. 

Your mindless scrolling days are over! Your new STEM-best friend is now here in your ear buds!