Increasing Engagement using Stop Motion, Green Screen & Seesaw

Increasing Engagement using Stop Motion, Green Screen & Seesaw

Students’ level of engagement usually impacts their success. In an effort to increase engagement, we attempt to modernize traditional learning tasks using technology when possible. Directly related to engagement are opportunities to collaborate with peers. For this reason we often bring our two classrooms together to participate in collaborative learning activities.

This particularly activity or set of skills was chosen because we have observed that the ability to retell events, sequencing, is often difficult for young students. By living the process, step by step, students are able to experience greater success retelling events or steps in order.

Shelley Scheck and I are Primary French Immersion teachers at Bertha Shaw Elementary School (SK-1 & Grade 2) and we strongly believe that it is important to model collaboration for our students. Our teaching styles, although different, compliment each other and provide an authentic opportunity for us to model co-learning strategies for our students. Throughout the year, it is not uncommon for one of us to send a student to each other’s class to seek advice or support for a problem. It is important to us that our students understand that nobody is expected to have all the answers and that learning is an ongoing process that continues long after grade 1 or 2.

Learning Goals:

1. Students will be able to use the “Stop Motion” app to capture the process of building a snowman.

2. Student will be able to add a relevant background to help “set the scene”.

3. Students will work collaboratively with a partner.

Grade Level: SK-3

Activity Duration: 60-70minutes

Materials Required:

• iPad with the following apps installed: Stop Motion, SeeSaw, GreenScreen by DoInk, 
• Example of a Stop Motion video:  https://youtu.be/KIuGnDl9DUE?si=j9s6nTyPOFP3Y52n
• Plasticine (variety of colours)
• For the background, a solid colour large format folder, cardboard, wrapping paper to place final plasticine object on/in-front of to “key/cut-out” the background. 

Becoming familiar with the technology

Students must explore the “Stop Motion” app using a task that is familiar to them. For this, we used the concept of building a snowman. (We live in Northern Ontario, snow is very familiar to them.). We’ve also had students use Stop Motion to create a video of a plant growing and then add a a different background. Here are 2 examples of student videos. Keep in mind this is the first time they’ve combined Stop Motion and the Green Screen App. 

https://youtu.be/yiVdvelsOE4?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/jGpB78W1t94?feature=shared

Step 1: Preparation (15-20 minutes)

• For the snowman, get white (body), orange (nose) black (arms, hat, facial features) plasticine
• For the background, find a solid large piece of paper in a colour NOT used in the plasticine. In this case we used a blue piece of construction paper. Large file folders also work well.
• In pairs or as a team, start build the body parts of the snowman, being as creative with the look as you want. Students do not assemble the snowman yet.

Step 2: Creating the video (20-30 minutes)

• Open the “Stop Motion App” and select “New Movie”.
• Student must now assemble the snow man, taking a minimum of 10 pictures each time new piece is added. To encourage collaboration, students take turns being the “builders” and “photographers”, switching roles, and repeating the steps, until the full snow man body is built.
• Students must ensure that the snowman or “subject” is always positioned in the same grid of the frame. The importance of this is best understood upon the viewing the final products.

Step 3: Adding a background setting (20 minutes)

To model one teacher air plays the process while the other monitors students and supports oral instructions. 

• Using “Green Screen” by Do Ink app, students choose the “+” at the top right of the screen to “create a new project.”
• Students will import their video.
• Students add a background image. For example, if the scene is set in the daytime, the background will reflect that. It can also reflect the season.

Students upload their final product to “Seesaw”, enabling families and teachers to view the final product. We’ve also done a mini movie screening on our Smart Boards, using AppleTV and iPad to AirPlay student creations. During this process, we stop and teach mini-lessons of areas of needs that we observe.

Possible Next Steps (mini-lessons)

• How to make the video last longer? (Take more than 10 pictures per step.)
• How to ensure the “subject” is stationary in the frame? (Ensure to use the “grid” feature in Stop Motion. Use an iPad stand if available.)

Step 5: Independent Application

Students are now able to use these engaging tools during “centre time” to show their understanding of various concepts (see cross-curricular connections below).

Impact and Cross-Curricular Connections 

Science

• Students can represent the various stages of a life cycle (plant, animal) using clay.

Visual Arts and Literacy:

• Students represent a part of the story using clay, capturing the process using “Stop Motion”.
• Students use Lego pieces and create a stop motion video of their design process.
• Students can add in voice annotations focussing on specific unit vocabulary or add text, using “Green Screen”.
• Journalling: Students create the scene and video of a lived experience, then write about it.

Click here to see another engaging STEAM lesson idea from fellow DSB1 educator @Julie Hutnick-Whitehead.