Category: video

Distance Learning & iStopmotion

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Throughout Distance Learning and the Covid-19 pandemic I’ve been pretty lucky to have technology at my finger tips thanks to the school I work at. My favorite engagement activity with students has been with a stop-motion animation workshop using the app iStopmotion. It’s sadly not free but costs $9.99 but is definitely worth it.

I love you can easily bring household objects, toys, food or any that’s inanimate to life in how the app provides onion skinning so you can see shadow images of the last picture you took. The most important thing to remember when doing anything with stop-motion is keeping your camera still. I used a can of beans to hold up my iPhone so the animation appears seamless. My demonstration animation utilizes items from my kitchen. You can also easily export your project and then bring it into iMovie on the iPhone or on a computer to add titles and sounds!

Stop-Motion Animation in the Classroom

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Starry Night

My first passion in life was experimenting with the moving image. I even majored in film at the University of Michigan to learn as much as possible about the medium. I got my start in the classroom teaching animation and I truly became enraptured with all the different ways to use materials and techniques to make the impossible, possible.

Below are some of my favorite pieces of student work from when I used to teach at the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School where I worked with 4-6 graders as part of the Arts Selective Program.

Looking

I always ask students to think of conflict as they construct their narratives o help guide them in the process. Experimenting with materials is also key, which is what I love so much about the Starry Night piece. The entire process was filled with trial error and her hard work really paid off.

Having tripods is key to completing strong stop-motion projects! I also find the iPad app iStopmotion is a great resource due to the onion skilling option. This really helps younger students visualize the stop-motion process. I have my students move their animations from iStopmotion into iMovie to add sounds effects and titles so they can have more control.

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