If you’ve ever tried your hand at animation I’m sure you’ll agree that this animation is spectacular. It was created by the World Wildlife Fund Hungary. I think I’ve posted this earlier but it is one of those videos worth seeing multiple times. I’m sure your students (of all ages) would be interested in seeing this. I know that many Maine schools are still in session. You may want to incorporate into a lesson for the last few days or use it in the fall when you kick off the school year. No matter what, take a look and consider how we’re all connected.
Adam Pesapane, known by the pseudonym PES, is an Oscar and Emmy-nominated American director and stop-motion animator of numerous short films and commercials. In 2013, his short film Fresh Guacamole was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It is the shortest film ever nominated for an Oscar.
Not only is this a wonderful animation but a terrific story as well. You can watch the youtube video and see a video on how the artist created it. You may want to share this example with your students. It will work for all ages.
Check out this great short film of paper animated animals by CLICKING HERE. Read below for some information on the macromessage of wildlife conservation. Definitely consider sharing this with your students. (There may be a short ad before the video starts).
Paper predators and prey spring to life in this visually stunning short from directors Dávid Ringeisen & László Ruska. An ordinary desk and typical office supplies are the backdrop for this micro-universe that carries the macromessage of wildlife conservation. While humans are left out of the piece, their impact is still present in a discarded cigarette butt that sparks an imaginary forest fire and an overflowing wastebasket that pollutes a fantastical rolling-chair river. This piece is part of the filmmakers’ MOME thesis project, the animation department at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest, Hungary and was created for WWF Hungary.
The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. We look for work that affirms National Geographic’s belief in the power of science, exploration, and storytelling to change the world. The filmmakers created the content presented, and the opinions expressed are their own, not those of National Geographic Partners.
Great Falls Elementary School is fortunate to have Allie Rimkunas as their art teacher. Allie is a Teacher Leader with the Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI). I’ve never had the opportunity to see Allie in action in her classroom but I’ve seen her in a workshop setting as facilitator and participant. If you ever have the chance to hang out with Allie, my advice is to, do it! She is so funny and fun to be around!
Allie designed a unit for her grade 5 students working with her intern – creating stop motion movies using ipads with the free app iStopMotion (creator is Cateater) to go along with their One School, One Book project. During January every student in grades 3-5 read the chapter book and younger children used the picture book by the same title, One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.
The schools music teacher’s son wrote and performed the song and Allie broke it up into 5 – 9 seconds that the students illustrated. There were 24 teams of 4 students each and they were assigned 4-9 seconds of the song to animate. They researched the 5 basic types of stop-motion styles, created storyboards, set, and characters and went to work taping. The whole process took about 6 weeks.
Allie had been wanting to try stop-motion for some time but didn’t dare. When she learned that her student intern was a video specialist she decided to be bold and take a risk. Something that we often expect from our students. A student who was a whiz at figuring out the intricacies of the app was a huge help. One of the 5th videos is below.
Turned out that her intern came down sick so Allie ended up learning to edit with a little help from her son. She surprised herself and is proud of the work her students engaged in.
The first graders did shorter movies with a slightly simpler theme. They had to animate a poem and record themselves reciting it. One of the first grade videos is below.
On Google yesterday in recognition of dancer Martha Graham‘s birthday they had a very short animation created by Ryan Woodward. Below is a full song of the animation with the same dancers that is a You Tube and it is sooooooo very COOOOOOOOL! Enjoy!
Argy Nestor
Arts Educator, Blogger, Artist, Connector meartsed@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/view/anestor/
Argy’s Blog
The purpose of this blog is to share stories about people and places; and to celebrate the amazing work (and play) that students, educators, and organizations are doing in and for arts education. In addition, the blog has a plethora of resources and innovative ideas. This forum gives blog readers the opportunity to learn from each other. It is essential that we listen, learn, and collaborate in order to build on teaching practices for the benefit of every learner in Maine and beyond.
Check out this great short film of paper animated animals by 
me arts ed 