Stop motion

Hello Teachers! How are you? Today we will learn how to create a special video: a stop motion video.

Do you know what stop motion is? It is an animation technique that consists of simulating the movement of static objects by using a series of consecutive still images.

In my opinion this could be very interesting and motivating for our students.

Let’s find out how to create this kind of video:

We have already made the storyboard that will help us with the organization to create the video. You can see the storyboard in the previous blog post.

The first thing you need to do to create the video is a technological device, for example a mobile phone  or a tablet and then you have to download the app Stop Motion Studio.

Stop Motion Studio is a free app that allows you to create movies frame by frame with Timeline .It is easy to use; you can add text, filters, effects and sounds among other things. 
One thing that I would improve in this app is that to use some of these options you have to pay, but the price is affordable.

We as teachers can create this kind of video to explain some topic, but in my opinion is better if we teach to our students how they can create it.

I would do stop motion videos with fourth, fifth  and sixth courses of primary education, because I consider that for the lower courses it can be difficult.

In this case, we have created an example of a stop motion video in which you can see how a pulley works. It is made for fourth grade because they are studying the simple machines ( the lever, the pulley and the inclined plane). In groups students can choose a machine and create a video in stop motion and explain to their classmates how it works for the Natural Science subject

The video is called The ants and the pulley and is made by Irene  and me.

We have never made a stop motion video before, therefore to create this video we had to practice several times and move the pieces little by little to get the best possible result. The app Stop Motion Studio makes it easy to assemble the photos, the music and the visual effects.

With this activity we can achieve two objectives that the students learn to create videos in stop motion and that they understand how the lever, the pulley and the inclined plane work.

Nowadays we believe that it is essential that students learn to handle new technologies from an early age.