The Very Blue Thingamajig in Year 1

Last week, 1F had a poetry presentation to conclude their poetry English unit.   It was a brilliant opportunity for the students to present their poems to a live audience, giving them the opportunity to think about gestures, fluency, expression and the use of costumes and props.  As part of the presentation to parents, they included a screening of the stop motion animations which they had created with their own thingamajigs after reading the picture book “The Very Blue Thingamajig”.

The opportunity to create a stop motion animation was an exciting addition to the children’s study of character during English.  In Prep the year before, many of these children had also used some green screening to record a weather report so this was building on their skill set from this experience.  Additionally, as a result of some parent expertise (Maurice Powell – Video and Animation Professional), quite a complicated work flow  was worked through with the process being supported by various members of our teaching, teacher aide and parent group.  The work flow started with the stop motion animation (when they focussed on their characters and movement), went through to green screening which allowed the students to discuss elements of setting and then was finished with iMovie which allowed elements of character, plot and narrative to be added.   Curriculum connections are listed at the bottom of this post and includes various English connections in addition to Media Arts and Digital Technologies.

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Curriculum Links:

English Year 1 ACARA Level Description includes “Students create a variety of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including recounts, procedures, performances, literary retellings and poetry.”

In the Content Descriptions:

Examining Literature: Discuss features of plot, character and setting in different types of literature and explore some features of characters in different texts(ACELT1584)

Creating Literature: Recreate texts imaginatively using drawing, writing, performance and digital forms of communication (ACELT1586)

Creating Literature: Innovate on familiar texts by using similar characters, repetitive patterns or vocabulary(ACELT1832)

Interacting with Others: Engage in conversations and discussions, using active listening behaviours, showing interest, and contributing ideas, information and questions (ACELY1656)

Interacting with Others:  Use interaction skills including turn-taking, recognising the contributions of others, speaking clearly and using appropriate volume and pace(ACELY1788)

Media Arts

Foundation to Year 2 Content Descriptions

Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text (ACAMAM054)

Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose (ACAMAM055)

Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience(ACAMAM056)

Digital Technologies

Knowledge and Understanding

Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose (ACTDIK001)