The students
had to read the chapters again and again to find the
details they needed for their movies!
Each
group had to summarize two chapters into 30 - 60 seconds
of video. They had to think hard to decide what scene was most
important to tell the story!
Student
groups worked together to make sure all of the movies
created a cohesive summary of the book. The character Little Man
was used throughout the scenes so the students decided that one
person would create the clay puppet and all of the groups would
share so that Little Man looked the same in all of the scenes.
Students
brought props from home to add details to their movies.
Students
wrote a summary narration for each movie and recorded
themselves reading this narration. This was added in the video
editing stage.
As
students created their movies they also wrote "the making
of" reports on the process. Read them here! |
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4th/5th Grade Classroom
Mueller Elementary School
Instructors: Beth Adamson, Tonya Witherspoon
Spring 2002
Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry
By: Mildred D. Taylor
Mrs. Adamson's 4/5 class at Mueller
Elementary School studied the book, Roll of Thunder,
Hear My Cry.
Students split into six groups; each
group taking two chapters of the book. Their goal
was to re-tell the story in clay animation. After a
discussion about stop motion animation and how many frames
it would take to create one second of video (12 frames)
and how many pictures that would add up to if they wanted
thirty second videos (at least 360) the class began
brainstorming.
Each group created:
- Storyboards
- Sets
- Characters
- Narration
- "The Making Of" Report
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See the movies!
Would you like to know more about
the clay animation process and what we learned?
Read our behind the scenes, "The
Making Of" reports written by each student group.
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|
Brainstorming...
Students created storyboards
on paper to show the action they planned for their
movies. The also made a list of characters, sets, and
props they would need.
Building the Sets...
Each group of students got one
tri-fold piece of cardboard. They covered the cardboard
with paper. Students drew, painted, and colored a
background on each side of the cardboard. This allowed
each group to have two sets for their movies.
Creating the Clay Puppets...
Students created armatures out
of pipe cleaners, styrofoam balls, and aluminum foil. Van
Aken clay was used to cover the armatures. Magnets were
sculpted into each characters feet for stability. The set
had a metal floor so that the magnets would help hold the
characters upright.
Animating...
This classroom project was
completed with one desktop computer and one webcam.
Student groups took turns shooting their animation frames.
The students used
Stop
Motion Animator (SMA) software to capture their
animation frames.
Video
Editing...
After each scene was filmed the students edited out any
shots with hands, added narration and sound effects, and
put the scenes together to create their final movies.
Students used a lapel microphone and Windows Sound Sound
Recorder to record their narration. We used
Video Framer
to edit the video together. |
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