5th Grade Claymation

Three posts in three days! This is an absolute flurry of digital activity! I'm still working on getting caught up from the art show. I'll post pictures of the show soon as well.


This 5th grade claymation project has been a favorite ever since I started it four years ago. I don't think the kids would ever let me not do this project. It takes a massive amount of time, but the end result is completely worth it. On top of that, it is chock full of 21st Century Skills! Chock full!

 This year, my 5th grade classes created commercials. Each class created one commercial and I edited them together in iMovie. My students break into groups to write, create characters, and create sets. All students then get to help animate. I pick some of the harder workers to be voice actors later on. This project has actually been finished for a month or two, but I always wait until after the "premier" at the art show before I post it publicly. The video is hosted from YouTube, so you might not all be able to view it at school.


Here is my lesson plan!

5th Grade Claymation

A basement.

A caveman's home.

Really nice city sidewalk set.

A cave woman and an evil bunny!

A minion!

It's high time for a claymation update! I usually start my claymation project about this time of the year, but we're just a few classes from being finished with it this year. I'm very excited to have my first ever student teacher coming in at the beginning of January, so I moved claymation up to an earlier slot in order to accommodate the change of schedule a little better.


What you see above are several sets and characters from the upcoming claymation. 5th grade students are working on making four commercials this year for their project. Each of my four classes breaks up into smaller groups to complete all of the tasks that are necessary for creating a stop motion animation. The groups include writers/storyboard artists, set designers, and character designers. It allows each student to join a group in which they will be most successful. We have just begun filming this week and I'm excited to see the finished animation. I'll post that with full lesson plans when the project is finished.

5th Grade Claymation

This is the giant, culminating project for 5th graders.  Claymation!  It takes about one third of the year to complete, but the students absolutely love making it.  This year, we chose to animate many of the art room rules.  Feel free to use the video in your classrooms if you'd like.  


My students write the scripts (can you tell?), create the characters, build the sets, and voice the characters.  All students chose one job and then work with their specific group for many art classes in order to get the claymation ready to film.  Once filming is ready, I have one table film each day while the other classes work on a separate project.  Each table gets to film one day.  Once all of the filming is done, I edit it all together in iMovie and have the students do voices for the characters.  I always post the final video on YouTube so the students can watch it at home whenever they want.  Note: If YouTube is blocked at your school, the video will not work.  

5th Grade Claymation Update

The 5th grade students are doing claymation again!  Claymation is by far the biggest, longest, and most involved project that I do during the entire year. (Even bigger than the bottle cap project!)  It takes at lest two to three months to complete.  At this point, each class has broken up into different groups to complete various tasks.  Students can choose to be character designers, set designers, or writers/storyboard artists. 

This year, the 5th graders are animating the art room rules.  Mrs. Burton, our phys-ed teacher,  put together a playground rules video that we show to every single student on the first day of school each year.  It is informative and hilarious, so I thought doing something similar for the art room would be awesome.  I've included a few pictures of work in process.  Many of the sets are miniatures of the art room and you will see an eraser and a sponge among the characters.  The students have just begun filming, so the final product will be finished in a little over a month.  I'll definitely post the finished video on here when it is finished.

5th Grade Claymation

5th grade students recently finished a lengthy claymation project.  Students split up into groups to complete various parts of the project.  Groups included writers and storyboard artists, set designers, and character designers.  This project takes a ton of time to complete, but has a big payoff at the end.  If you cannot view the video, it is probably because youtube is blocked on your school or work computer. This year, students came up with the idea of "Clay Idol."  It is a spoof on "American Idol" done entirely with stop motion.  Enjoy!

5th Grade Claymation

5th graders have been hard at work for what seems like months in preparation for their claymation project.  Students break up into three groups that include writers, set designers, and character designers.  Each class creates unique characters as well as two sets to be used in the animation.  All four classes are currently filming, but I haven't posted any 5th grade work for a while, so I will put up some images of characters and sets that are being used.  Look for a post later in the spring of the finished animation.

5th Grade Claymation

Earlier in the year, I posted images of the sets designed by 5th grade students for the claymation project. I have finally gotten around to posting the video online to view. The claymation was a huge success and the students really enjoyed making it. Writing, character design, set design, storyboards, and filming were all done by this year's 5th grade class. Enjoy the film!

5th Grade Claymation in progress...

5th grade students have been working on a claymation project for the past several weeks. Students are working in four groups in order to prepare everything for filming. These groups include writers, storyboard artists, character designers, and set designers. Soon, students will be working together in order to film their stories with the technique of stop motion animation. This form of animation has been around for quite some time and has been made popular by Wallace and Gromit and The Nightmare Before Christmas. The final video will be posted as soon as it is finished.