Further challenges and possible home learning activities: Ask the children to make their own creative videos that detail how to make or use something. This will help the children understand the detail that is included in the videos such as the car making one they have all used. It’s not as simple as it looks!
Alternative Apps/Software to those recommended Week 6: PowerPoint or any similar software/app that allows the children to write their learning journey.
Year 2 (Ref: 202)
Apptivity Name: Mythical Creatures (The golden age of animation)
Summary: The children will learn about the history of and different types of animation. They will firstly produce a story about their made up mythical creature and then create their animation out of Clay/Plasticine or Paper using Animate it.
Key Computing Terminology: eBook An electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a computer or a specifically designed handheld device.
Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object so that it appears to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement.
Computing POS Reference:
IT1 - Use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content
Discuss examples of animation and techniques used.
Show presentation (Presentation ref 202.1) and discuss what animation and stop frame animation is.
Discuss the process of stop frame and how to achieve a smooth animation by using small movements and lots of photos e.g. 12 pictures = 1 second of film.
Children can identify different types of animation.
Children understand the process of stop frame animation.
How have you produced that?
What is Stop Frame Animation?
2
Develop their creatures.
Talk about mythical creatures used in films and stories such as the Gruffalo or Shrek. Tell the children that they will be creating their own mythical creature.
In groups, ask the Children to discuss and feedback on some mythical creatures they like from film and animation.
Ask the children to start planning what their creature will look like on paper. Ask them to think about why it is mythical and what makes it so special and write this down on their paper. This will serve as a basis of the story that they will develop.
Children can take photos of their work to document what they have created so far.
Children develop their creature on paper.
What creature have you created?
What is special/ unique about your creature?
3
Plan the story.
In pairs, give the children a story mountain (or other appropriate story planner) and ask them to come up with a plan for their animation.
Children can take photos of their work to document what they have created so far.
Children are able to plan a story they can animate.
What happens at the ... beginning, middle, end?
Using available material such as clay, plasticine or paper, ask the children to make their creature.
Using Clay or Plasticine:
The Creature must to be made so that parts of the body of the creature can be manipulated to simulate movement etc, if it’s poorly made then the legs etc might fall off.
Using paper:
The creature must have some moving parts like a tail, arms, legs, tentacles. To do this, draw the limbs separately, cut out and re attach to the body using split pins so you move the limbs in the animation.
Backgrounds:
These are just used as backdrops and can be used to tell the story.
Children can take photos to document what they have created so far.
NB All elements of the animations must be stored in a safe place until the next session.
Children produce creatures and backgrounds for their animation.
Have you considered the colours of the background and the characters for filming?
What parts of your characters move?
Why have you made parts of the characters move?
5
Produce the animation.
In this session, the children must set up their animation.
Show children how to use Animate it.
The key to a successful animation is to ensure your camera and your backgrounds are not moved i.e. they stay in exactly the same place, this can be done with blue-tac for the backgrounds and for the ipad use some masking tap to tape the ipad cover to the table. Once completed, the children can export and save their animation to the camera roll.
Children create their own short animations?
How have
6
Children showcase their animation.
Each group can present their animation to the whole
class.
Reflection and storytelling:
Using Book Creator or PowerPoint (or similar) ask the children to write a learning journey based on what they have done and learnt including photos and their recordings. Ask the children to reflect on their learning successes.
This video may be useful if you need to demonstrate the use of Book Creator:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znrlTHDzr6s
Children present work to class.
Further challenges and possible home learning activities:
N/A
Alternative Apps/Software to those recommended
Week 5: Any stop motion animation app or you can use a stills camera and put photos together in iMovie or Movie Maker
Summary In this project, children learn about how the internet works and how the internet is used for communication.
Children will develop an understanding of how wikis work and will then be given the opportunity to create their own wiki in small groups encouraging collaborative writing.
Next, the children will review examples of blogs online, learn the basic elements of creating a blog and will then create their very own.
Children will then evaluate and review each other’s blogs in a final presentation.
Key Computing Terminology: Blogging: A personal website/webpage which an individual records opinions, links to other sites, etc. on a regular basis.
Wiki: A website developed collaboratively by a community of users, allowing any user to add and edit content.
Computing POS Reference:
IT3 - Select, use and combine a variety of software (including internet services) on a range of digital devices to design and create a range of programs, systems and content that accomplish given goals, including collecting, analysing, evaluating and presenting data and information
DL3 - Understand the opportunities [networks] offer for communication and collaboration
DL4 - Be discerning in evaluating digital content
DL5 - Use technology safely, respectfully and responsibly; recognise acceptable/unacceptable behaviour; identify a range of ways to report concerns about content and contact
What is required? Week 1:
Internet Access - http://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/26674356049
Children have a basic understanding of how the internet works and how they can access it.
Ask the children to work in groups and discuss how they think the internet works.
Groups to feedback to the class.
Present how the internet works on a very basic level, this YouTube clip gives a good introduction:
http://thekidshouldseethis.com/post/26674356049 Discuss how everything is connected to everything else via code e.g. HTML and devices like tablets and smart phones are also computers.
Children discuss and feedback how they think the internet works.
Through animated clips discuss how data /information is transported around the world creating the internet.
What is data?
How is data transferred on the internet?
2
Children create a mind map of how they can communicate on the internet.
Show the children the difference between web 1.0 and 2.0, summary below for a more detailed presentation see ref 19.1.
1.0
Read, download, consumer, keep to yourself, watch, static pages that don’t change, locally installed applications that work on your PC.
2.0
Write, upload, publish, share, participate,
dynamic pages that do change, web based application, work on the internet.
Discuss what communication tools are available now and how you might use them. See Resource 19.2 for a list of examples for your reference.
Children create a mind map on Popplet or other mind mapping software to illustrate their learning so far.
Discuss how the internet has changed how we interact with it.
Discuss different websites used to communicate and create.
What are the different ways we talk to each other on the internet?
What does email mean?
Children create a mindmap of sites discussed.
Sign-up to https://www.wikispaces.com. You will then be able to create a wiki space for each group to contribute too.
Show examples of how wikis are used and how they work. Using highlighted words or key words to link to other pages in Wikipedia etc. Explain that Wikis use HTML to link key words together.
Introduce the pros and cons of mass collaborative tools to share information and knowledge. Also discuss the responsibilities that go with publishing content on-line.
Split into groups and decide upon a theme for their wiki, for example around a current topic they are studying in class or an interest of theirs. Children to start populating their wiki.
More information about collaborative writing can be found here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_writing
Understand how links work on websites and the code behind it.
Identify issues around sharing information on the internet.
Employ one or more of the collaborative writing methods to write a wiki.
Why do we use the internet to communicate?
What are the advantages of online communication?
4
Children can create a basic wiki.
Sign back into their wiki space and complete their site.
What is a blog?
What is a post?
5
Children are able to explain what blogging is
Introduce the idea of blogging (web –logging), look at some examples including twitter (micro blogging) and Facebook.
Groups can now decide through research what blogging site they would like to test (must be a site that can be accessed in school). Edmodo could be used as a Facebook alternative or WordPress and Blogger offer more functionality.
Examples of blogging sites
http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/16/best-blogging-services/ Ask the children to create their blogging site.
Children understand what a web-blog is.
What do mean by blogging?
Why would you write a blog?
6
Children publish their blogs and evaluate them.
Groups to finish the sites they were working on in session 5.
Demonstrate all sites created and ask the children to explain what the main features are and if they would use their chosen site again and why.
Class can evaluate and reflect on what they have learned from this process through discussion.
How did you create your blog?
What would you do differently next time?
What would you change about your blog?
Further challenges and possible home learning activities: Children could research other blogs and wikis that are available and are relevant to the theme of their blog. What are the differences between the two?
Alternative Apps/Software to those recommended Week 2:
Alternative to Popplet – Microsoft Word or PowerPoint – or simply pen and paper
