Over the last few months pairs of 2nd and 3rd graders have tried their hand at claymation during breakfast and holiday classes.  For the most part, they were left alone to design the models and come up with a story.  We tried storyboarding at first just like video game design, but they liked keeping the story a work in progress.  Next time I’ll have to work with them to do voices.  One of the girls did a hilarious British accent for the wolf in The Three Little Pigs animation.

Nearly all the kids knew about the stop motion process from the show iCarly.  From what I know, iCarly’s brother was trying to make a claymation video, but people kept interrupting him or messing with his models.  This helped the kids understand the patience needed, but not necessarily the patience they were willing to give.  Toward the end I started having the kids practice animation rigid objects like juice boxes to give them an idea of the discrete movements needed to smooth animation.  We’re nearly out of Play-Doh (or clay-doh as the kids call it).  The next group will get a chance to cook up and color their own clay-doh.