This week in EDCI 336 we’ve been playing with stop motion films. Stop motion open up the door to so many creative ideas that children and even adults can use throughout their entire school and professional careers. Stop motion films are created by taking a large series of very still pictures with little movement in between each photo. Before this class, I had never experienced stop motion although i had heard of it. We were able to play around with it in class and to my surprise it is much harder than you would think!! You really do have to be quite precise with your prop movement and watch no body items are in the shot!!

Continuing my exploration with stop motion, we were given the opportunity to visit a grade 3 class at an elementary school in a close by community. My group was one of the larger groups with 3 student teachers and 4 students. Each student had a desk pet that they used as our characters for the film. They were so innovative with this project!! When planning, we were given a storyboard worksheet!! This really helped keep my group in line as there were MANY ideas popping up! My poor UVic teacher colleague couldn’t even keep up writing notes because their ideas were expanding so rapidly!!!

After ultimately landing on a plan that everyone loved, we were able to start filming!! The students took turns controlling the characters and setting the scene. They had some amazing teamwork and sharing skills – kudos to them!! It was fun to listen to the students ideas and to see how excited they were to make their videos. They also fully understood how to use the program and were more than comfortable with the iPads.

In the future I plan to use Stop Motion films to keep students engaged and immersed in the activity. I think this is a great way to get students by while also ensuring they are understanding the material. I also love the creative expression, teamwork and positivity they bring. Storytelling is something I really want to explore more in Literacy and I think this could be a great first step!!