2015 5th Grade Stop Motion Animation Shorts

Stop motion animation is a yearly favorite for 5th grade. This year's collection of 16 short films was posted on YouTube last week. 

I let students have a lot of freedom with this project. They split into four groups per class and are in charge of creating the entire film. They are responsible for brainstorming, writing, creating backgrounds/sets, creating characters, animating, video editing, and adding voices. It's a pretty extensive list of things to do and the project tends to drag out for a while. 

I'm thinking of changing it around quite a bit for next year. I love the creativity involved, but I don't love how long the project takes and the fact that some groups just don't work well together- especially for a longer amount of time. 

My 4th grade classes didn't wind up having time for flip books this year. Right now, I'm looking at probably combining flip books with the stop motion project. I'm going to still use groups, but the groups will create a longer traditional style animation instead of stop motion. I'm still kicking around theme ideas, but I'm really excited to try something new. Until then, enjoy the video from this year. It's hosted on YouTube, so it may not work on school computers for some of you. 

Download my lesson plan here!

5th Grade Stop Motion 2013-14

Stop motion is back again! This project is one that I don't think can ever go away. I would have a full-scale revolt on my hands and it would be lead by about 125 5th graders. 

I went away from doing strictly "claymation" last year and I really liked the results. I set up the project the same this year. Each class broke into four groups. From then out, the entire project was in the hands of the group. Each group brainstormed, sketched, created sets & characters, drew storyboards, filmed, edited, and recorded voices. It can be a task making sure that 100% of the students are fully engaged all the time, but that was mitigated a bit by the very real threat of a two page artist report! (For the record, 4 students know quite a bit about a famous artist of their choice now!) 

I've also included a couple images of some storyboard work for one group to give everyone an idea of some of the preparation that is necessary for the 5th graders to create their animation. In my experience, this is quite a long project. With everything that needs to be done, the prep and filming alone take a couple of months. I'm going to work on shortening the project next year. I want to do it in a way that still allows for a lot of creativity, but with less total time taken. 

Download my lesson plan here!

5th Grade Stop Motion Animation

At long last, the 5th grade is finished with their stop motion animation project! This project requires dedication because it certainly isn't short at all. In the past, I've split each class into job groups and had each class make one portion of a four part animation. This year I decided to change things up. 

I wanted to give my students more freedom in both the writing and animation process. I dedicated part of my budget this year to purchasing three more digital cameras and tripods. This allowed me to have four separate animation groups in each of my four 5th grade classes. Each group wrote a script, made characters and sets, filmed, and digitally edited their own animation. 

I really liked most of the results this year. I even make a cameo in one! The video you're seeing includes the work of all 16 groups. The major difference between previous animations and the work from this year is that the previous work was designed to have a storyline that made a little more sense to the audience. What makes sense to a 5th grader doesn't always make total sense to the rest of us! 

Check out the full lesson plan here!

5th Grade Stop Motion Progress

Animating gummy bears who come out of a
lake and build a village out of dominos. 

This groups is animating lego people on a moon base.
The background is made from a cardboard box and construction paper.

New year, new way of doing a stop motion animation project. This is the fourth year I've undertaken this project with my 5th graders. It is the project that all other kids in the school look at in awe and can't wait to do. In the past, I've just had one digital camera, so I was somewhat limited as to my options for filming. I split the class up into different job groups and they all worked together to make one animation. The work always came out great, but I felt like there wasn't enough freedom. 

This year, I spent a chunk of my budget to get three more cameras and tripods. Each of my 5th grade classes broke up into four groups. Each group gets to write, design, and animate their own stop motion project. Since modeling clay for 100 kids could get out of control cost-wise, all of the animations are being done with other materials this year. I have groups animating with legos, candy, paper, etc. The pictures above were taken during the first day of filming this week. 

I'll post the finished animation in a few weeks. We still have a couple more weeks of filming along with editing in iMovie. That is another change for this year. In the past, I've always edited the whole project myself. I'm nervous/hopeful/excited about the potential results. I can't wait to show them off.