Using Animations to Apply Knowledge

Creating animations is a great way for students to apply their knowledge and demonstrate understanding. It also allows students to develop problem solving and decision making skills while being creative and having fun.  I have included a few links to sites to give ideas and a table to show how animations can be used across subject areas.


I Create to Educate

Great student sample I particularly like to animated diagram of the heart.


Sam Animation


Klutz: great ideas for stop motion animation


Animate Clay


RollerMache


Animation for education

Using Animations Across Subject Areas

English

• Demonstrate knowledge of the genre and audience

• Create a Book trailer as an alternative to a book report

• Interpret myths and legends

• Interpret a poem or nursery rhyme through animation

• Create a persuasive animation by focusing on environmental issues

• Bring characters from a novel or play to life by adding them to an animation

• Write a story and adapt to an animation

• Using foam letters to spell words

• Using magnetic words to create sentences

• Use new vocabulary words in context

• Create an advertisement

Maths

• Demonstrate understanding of fractions and percentages

• Display number equations

• Create shapes

• Demonstrate understanding of percentages

• Demonstrate understanding of time

• Create animated graphs

• Use lego blocks for counting

Science

• Demonstrate phases of the moon

• Life Cycles

• Solids, liquids and gases

• Forms of energy

• create a sun safe animation

• Growth of a plant

• Circulatory system

• Digestive system

• Demonstrate a volcanic eruption or earthquake

• Time-lapse video of plant growing, weather changing and melting

• Show understanding of laws of physics

• Show the position and movement of planets in our solar system

• Demonstrate understanding of magnets

SOSE

• Indigenous dreamtime stories

• Re-enact events in history

• Environmental sustainability

• Travel around a map

• Natural Disasters

• Languages Stroke order of script writing

• Characters speaking in the target language

• Create an animation depicting a culture

Art

• Demonstrate colour theory

• Bring an art work to life

• Demonstrate understanding of the elements and principle of design

• Document the creation of an artwork from beginning to end

• Create animation exploring art movements e.g. Surrealism

Music

• Create music tracks for animations

• Demonstrate how to write music

• Demonstrate music theory

Home Economics

• Demonstrate procedures and safety

• Create the illusion that a meal made itself by taking images during the preparing and cooking process.

• Nutrition

Wimp Yourself - Avatar Maker

Here is another fun avatar maker where students can create their own characters which they can then make a story or add them into a comic.

http://www.wimpyourself.com/

Travel Back in Time with Interactive Timelines

One of the things I like about the internet, is it allows resources to become interactive. There are many interactive timelines which are available now, which provide an engaging way to look at history. Teachers can use them on Interactive whiteboards and they can cater for a range of subject areas. Students can explore on their own, find information for a research task or search for items similar to a scavenger hunt.


Conflict History

One in particular is called Conflict History. This site provides a timeline of the conflicts around the world throughout history. The site also provides a map of the world linking the countries involved in the conflict. There is information provided on each conflict provided by Wikipedia. This is a great resource for History and Geography. The scary thing is to see how many conflicts are documented in the 2000s.

British Library Interactive Timeline

Here is another great interactive timeline which can be used across many subject areas such as Ancient and Modern History, English, Science, Art and Music. The site is called the British Library interactive timeline. It allows you to explore collection items chronologically, from medieval times to the present day.


It includes a diverse range of resources divided into the following categories:

• Politics, power and rebellion
• Literature, Music and Entertainment
• Everyday
• Sacred texts
• Medicine, Science and Technology

Once you have chosen the category and the item you can explore further by viewing the image, video or transcript. You can print or download the information as a pdf file.

Here are a few Interactive timelines more worth looking at:



British History

NASA Historical Timeline

Sea Monsters a Prehistoric Adventure

Benjamin Franklin’s Interactive Timeline

Timeline of Google

Australian Screen interactive Timeline

Warhol Interactive Timeline

This site gives information about Andy Warhol and the major events in the world during the 1920s – 1960s.

Interactive Timelines for Art History

Smart History

Art History

Timeline of European Painters

Clay Yourself

There are many sites which provide you with tools to create your own character or avatar. These sites can be used in many ways such as:


• Make own avatar and use in a personal profile listing hobbies, interest and goals.

• Students can use an avatar instead of a photo when posting on the web to protect privacy.

• Teachers could make on of themselves.

• Make own avatar with background and accessories which represent their interests. The students can explain what the visual images represent, eg. A guitar because they love to listen to music.

• Students can divide into pairs and make avatars of each other.

• Students can make their own avatars, print them out and collect them. Shuffle and distribute them out. Students match the avatar to the person who made it.(Great ice breaker activity)

• Use as a character in a game or animation such as flash or scratch.

• Print out the character and pin the joints to make it movable. This could be used as a puppet or could be brought to life in a stop motion animation.

• Make a 3-D interpretation of the character in clay or construction materials

• Re-create characters from a book, film or play.

• Print out avatars with the student’s name underneath and use them to decorate and personalize the classroom.

• Make characters and write a story about them.

• Use them to make comics by adding speech bubbles

• Add interest to worksheets or virtual classrooms

• Design a character and convert the image into an artwork. It could be used in a screen printing activity, painting or drawing.

• Or just to have some FUN!



A new site I have come across on twitter thanks to @neslidrmsgl it is called http://www.clayyourself.com/  . The great thing about this site is it has a 3D look as though you are made from clay. You can save your final character; the site also has a name generator and a script writer for a story where you fill in the missing words. This is a fun site to have a play with.

For more Avatar making sites go to this slideshare link.

Jimmi Rocks, Under the Sea Adventures

I have been busy finding a collection of Virtual World Games.  There are many to choose from and there are now games which are designed specifically for kids and have educational components.

Here is one I found interesting it is called Jimmi Rocks, Under the Sea Adventures.

 http://www.jimirock.com/

This site focuses on the Underwater theme and allows students to navigate and explore within a virtual world.  Students can learn facts about sea animals, create art, play games, communicate with others and earn points to decorate their own underwater world. 

Parents or teachers register and they then have the option to :

* Accept and Request Buddies

* Limit time on Games

* Set Safe or Open Chat

* Monitor Child's Activities

There is a free option which can be upgraded to a paid mebership.

 

This site provides opportunities to develop literacy skills, creativity, decision making and to develop knowledge about sea creatures and the world in which they live.

There are different places to visit and in each place is a book which you can read and are given options to select to continue the story.

This is the list of activities students can engage in.

Choose and design an underwater character.

Learn about Sea Creatures.

Paint a Sea Scape

Learn about sea creatures a Sea School

Visit Dive Sites

Answer a quiz about the dive sites

Write a message to be sent in a bottle.

This site would be great for primary school students and possibly lower secondary.  It is excellent if you are working with underwater themes.  It addresses subject areas such as science, art and SOSE.

Poisson Rouge

http://www.poissonrouge.com/

This is an engaging interactive site with a lot of potential. It includes music, art, colours, matching games, astronomy, letters, numbers and time to just name a few. You can click on each image to take you to a game.

When you click on the keyboard it takes you to a music game.  When you click on a key on the keyboard the note is written on the staff above. 

When you click on the clock, you go to this game where you can move the hands on the clock and the corresponding digital time is displayed.

Being an art teacher I love this one, when you click on the stain glass window with the fish on it, you go to a virtual art gallery.  You can then look at four different artworks created by Pollock, Warhol, Mondrian and Escher.  When you click on each one you can interact or create a work.

Create a Jackson Pollock inspired work or

alter the colours on Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe prints

When you click on the little people you can create your own choir and harmony.

Click on the telescope and discover constellations.

Click on the picture and explore optical illusions.

The paint and brush will take you to a colouring activity.

You can even mix colours and clean your brush in the water.

There are many more activities available on this site.  I spent hours on it, imagine how engaged children world be.

Turn yourself into a cartoon!

Here are just a few avatar creators I like to use.  I created this glog for my students who were making a personal profile on themselves and one of the tasks was to create an avatar. For more avatar creators go to http://www.slideshare.net/shend5/creating-characters

Online Drawing Tools

I have often used Glogster in class and love to use it as a form of a Digital Portfolio for students to reflect on their work.  After seeing the blog, Bits and Pieces Place, I saw how great it is as a source of links.  I wanted to create a list of links for online drawing tools, so I thought this could be a fun way to do it.

Planning based on students' interest

To help me plan the curriculum for the year, I tried an activity to find out some information about my new Year 10 Art Class so I can best cater to their interests. That way tasks are relevant and students are engaged in learning and motivated.


I got this idea from a Professional development workshop I went to. I gave students a green, orange and red card.

On the green card, students were asked this question, “What aspects of art do you like or feel most confident in?

On the orange card they answered, “What would you like to know more about?”

and finally on the red card they answered, “What do you dislike or feel less confident in?”

I had a list of art electives on the board to help them or they could add their own.

As you can see I added the resposes to wordle.  The larger the word the more times it was mentioned.  I also showed the class the results.  I see I am going to have to make sure Theory lessons are exciting.

Using Cartoon Avatars in the Classroom

There are many sites available which provide you with options to create avatars, which are comic representations of people. Avatars can have many uses in the classroom. Here are some suggestions.

• Make own avatar and use in a personal profile listing hobbies, interest and goals.
• Make own avatar with background and accessories which represent their interests. The students can explain what the visual images represent, eg. A guitar because they love to listen to music.
• Students divide into pairs and make avatars of each other.
• Make own avatars, print them out and collect them. Shuffle and distribute them. Students then find the person who corresponds with their avatar. (Great ice breaker activity)
• Print out avatars with the student’s name underneath and use them to decorate and personalize the classroom.
• Make avatars of characters from a book, film or play the class is looking at.
• Make avatars and write a story about them.
• Design an avatar and convert the image into an artwork. It could be used in a screen printing activity, painting or drawing.
• Use as a character in a game or animation such as flash or scratch.
• Print out the character and pin the joints to make it movable. This could be used as a puppet or could be brought to life in a stop motion animation.
• Make a 3-D interpretation of the character in clay or construction materials
• or just to have some FUN!

I have found a range of sites which could be used. I mainly looked for free sites which don't require registration. I have also added an example of each and given a brief description. Your choice of site will depend on the age of your students and the task you want to use it for.

Face Your Manga
Representation: head and shoulders
Design Options: some choices
How to save image:do a screen capture or email it to yourself by adding a nickname, year of birth, country and email address. The image is then sent in jpeg form.
Age Group Suitability: This site would be more suited for older students in high school due to some of the images available.



Portrait Avatar Maker
Representation: full body
Design Options: many choices
How to save image: Click on Alignment and choose the file type you prefer. Click on the final design and then save to file. No registration needed.
Age Group Suitability: suitable for any age





Portrait Illustration Maker
Representation: head and shoulders
Design Options: many choices
How to save image: Click on Alignment and choose the file type you prefer. Click on the final design and then save to file. No registration needed.
Age Group Suitability: older students, some images may not be appropriate



Portrait Icon Maker
Representation: sitting at a desk
Design Options: many choices
How to save image: Click on Alignment and choose the file type you prefer. Click on the final design and then save to file. No registration needed.
Age Group Suitability: older students



TizMe
Representation: full body
Design Options: many choices
How to save image: do a screen capture or register.
Age Group Suitability: older students mainly due to clothing options.





Bless This Chick
Representation: full body
Design Options: many choices, makes females only
How to save image: screen capture or email it to yourself.
Age Group Suitability: all ages



WeeWorld
Representation: full body
Design Options: a great variety and includes accessories to show interest and hobbies.
How to save image: Click on a WeeMee, screen capture or register.
Age Group Suitability: all ages


Create a Simpsons Avatar
Representation: full body
Design Options: a great variety and includes accessories to show interest and hobbies.
How to save image: To start click on Create your Simpsons Avatar and then choose New character. To save you can download a jpeg version, email it or print.
Age Group Suitability: Probably more suitable for upper primary and secondary.


Simpsonize Me
Representation: full body or head and shoulders
Design Options: requires you to upload an image
How to save image: Email or export
Age Group Suitability: Probably more suitable for upper primary and secondary.


Anime Face Maker
Representation: head and shoulders
Design Options: good design choices
How to save image: screen capture
Age Group Suitability: all ages

South Park Studio
Representation: Full body – based on the South Park Animations
Design Options: good design choices
How to save image: screen capture
Age Group Suitability: Probably best for upper Secondary.



Avatar Maker
Representation: Head
Design Options: a few choices
How to save image: screen capture or email
Age Group Suitability: upper primary and secondary



Mess Dudes!
Representation: Full Body
Design Options: a few choices
How to save image: screen capture is the easiest
Age Group Suitability: upper primary and secondary


My Avatar Editor
Representation: Full Body
Design Options: a few choices
How to save image: Export and save as jpeg or png
Age Group Suitability: all ages



Doppel Me
Representation: Full Body
Design Options: a few choices, more if you register
How to save image: Screen Capture or register
Age Group Suitability: Upper primary and secondary




Why Robbie rocks
Representation: Full Body
Design Options: a good range of choices
How to save image: Click on next to look at different categories. To save use Screen Capture or register
Age Group Suitability: secondary students




Windows Live Minimize Me
Representation: Head, emoticon
Design Options: limited choices
How to save image: To save use Screen Capture or save to file
Age Group Suitability: any age





Elouai Doll makers
Representation: Full Body
Design Options: There are many options and categories one includes Harry Potter characters
How to save image: save to file as a gif file
Age Group Suitability: any age








Build Your Wildself

Representation: Full Body
Design Options: a few options including animal parts
How to save image: screen capture or email it as a gif file
Age Group Suitability: Primary school students







Mini Ego
Representation: Full body
Design Options: a small range
How to save image: Screen Capture or register
Age Group Suitability:all ages






Muggins
Representation: Full Body
Design Options: There are many options and colour changes
How to save image: screen capture
Age Group Suitability: any age



Wirefly
Representation: Head and shoulders
Design Options: a few choices, realistic.
How to save image: animated avatars for download to phones or use as 2D with a screen capture
Age Group Suitability: secondary students



Voki
Representation: Head and shoulders
Design Options: a few choices, animated avatars and you can add text which convert to speech
How to save image: email final design, embed into a blog or website or do a screen capture.
Age Group Suitability: secondary students




Dream Avatar
Representation: Full body
Design Options: a large range
How to save image: Screen Capture or embed in blog or websites
Age Group Suitability: upper primary and secondary






Anime Character Maker
Representation: Half Body
Options: a good range
How to save image: Screen Capture
Age Group Suitability: upper primary and secondary










Lunaii Doll Maker

Representation: Head and shoulders
Options: a good range
How to save: Screen capture
Age Suitability: upper primary and secondary