Snapshot of learning for FrameByFrame
Children retell their stories through animation
Contributed by Bev Douglas, Onehunga-Cuthbert Kindergarten
Focusing Inquiry
Children in the early childhood free-play environment communicate their creative ideas using many artistic mediums including dramatic role-play, collage, paint and adhesives. Storytelling is embedded in social play and children are also supported and encouraged to use digital tools and software to record their experiences.
In this learning project a child had been exploring her ideas about animals - body parts, animal groups and their homes. The conversation with the teacher focused on questions of interest to the child, for example, how many legs, what kind of skin or fur, how animals see and hear and where they might live?
Teaching and Learning
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During free-play a child at the glue gun station started making animals that she could identify - a lamb, a giraffe and a cow. Materials were available that could be adapted for creating the animals, including ice cream sticks, sheepskin pieces, craft eyes, cardboard cylinders. Throughout the process, videos from National Geographic Kids, online educational videos and original videos created in the centre were accessed by the teacher in response to the questions. Also a digital microscope was used to explore insects in more detail.
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The teacher encouraged the child to enter further into her imagined world and make up a story that involved the characters she had created.
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The story was documented and formatted onto a page for the child’s portfolio where it could be revisited. This was also shared with peers. The teacher introduced the idea of creating an animated version of the story, to further link the literacy project with the created artifacts. Interest from peers expanded the project to involve a small group of children.
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FrameByFrame, a free software download for Mac, was chosen for its simplicity. Children of this age group can manage the ‘capture’ process with minimal adult support. As the story was read the children posed the animal models and created scenes that they then captured using a laptop and camcorder on a tripod.
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The teacher worked with the children to edit the movie using iMovie HD (some detailed editing was later required by the teacher). The author of the story dictated the script (with teacher support) using an external microphone and the audio recording function in the iMovie software. Children discussed the kinds of sounds that would enrich the story, and selected some to include from the ‘sound effects’ list in iMovie. The teacher completed the process by exporting the iMovie project as a Quicktime movie. This was used for whole group viewing, and later added to the children’s video library.
Learning Inquiry
This interactive experience enabled the children to create and re-tell a story from beginning to end. Consequently the children had the opportunity to engage with and plan components at each stage of the process to tell their story. By taking on the role of film directors and videographers the children were encouraged to think through the details of sequencing events and give expression to the conversation of the animal characters.Through role-play they also experienced the adult world of professional jobs. They also observed how digital technology might be used to support and extend their creative ideas in new ways.The children needed to practise collaborative skills to achieve their common goal. They experienced some possibilities for extending the project including more complex ideas and transferring this learning experience to other topics of interest.
The completed project was shared with their families in a format that demonstrated the many different forms of creative expression explored by the children. In one home the video was shared on a closed circuit family T.V. network for extended family members to enjoy.
FrameByFrame is ideal for this age group because of its simplicity and easily interpreted screen presentation. With some practise, children could manage it independently. The ‘drag and drop’ function in iMovie HD can also be managed by young children, and the screen layout easily understood, iMovie ’09 could be another option here. Also MovieMaker and I Can Animate.
Options for animation software can also be viewed on Software for Learning
