Stop Motion Animation

Students in Room 12 have been hard at work for the last two weeks and now have lots to celebrate! Working in small groups, students successfully created an informative Stop Motion Animation (through the perspective of a dinosaur) that helped to demonstrate their understanding of how the history of the Earth’s surface can be explained by examining its layers.

Students began by collecting research on a number of different dinosaurs that used to roam on the land that is now called Alberta millions of years ago. Once students had gathered enough information for each dinosaur, they then went on to pick a dinosaur of their choice that they would use to help them share their knowledge and story.

From here, students were required to write a script that answered specific questions related to how the history of the Earth’s surface can be explained by examining its layers. Mrs. Swan modelled this through the use of her own script. Students were encouraged to provide feedback on what she was doing well and what needed improvement. When students were confident in their own writing abilities they were invited to begin writing their own scripts. Students were expected to embed some of the relevant research they had collected earlier into their scripts to help back up their ideas. After completing their first draft, students worked hard to edit and revise their scripts before publishing good copies.

Students then went on to storyboard their script. This was done to help with the creation of their Stop Motion Animation film. Students understood that each storyboard scene needed to match their script. In addition to this, students were required to show what Alberta used to look like millions of years ago when the dinosaurs roamed the land!

Next, students worked collaboratively together to sculpt their dinosaur out of clay. This was both a fun and challenging experience for many. From here, students were finally approved to move onto the next stage in this process which was the stop motion animation filming. Students spent two afternoons working in the Learning Commons with loose parts from the “Loose Parts Lab” refining their videos. Our last stage will be to share our completed projects with our Grade 1 buddies next week!

Please be sure to ask your child about this multidisciplinary project and what their take-aways were.