Animated Books in Keynote

Add "magic" moving pictures to read aloud stories in order to keep students engaged with the books you read!

As a K-2 librarian, I am always looking for ways to get kids excited about books! This has been the best way I have found by far to keep kids entranced in a book. When reading a book out loud to students, I project the pictures using an Apple TV from my iPad. I started with just taking a picture of each page of the read aloud so that all students would be able to see all the pictures. Then, I started adding animation to the pictures to make a component of each page move. The students are pulled into the story as a character moves across a page or important dialogue dances.

These books are created by first taking pictures of each page from the story and adding the pictures to a blank slide in Keynote (one picture per slide). Then, crop or remove the background so you are only looking at the picture. Afterwards, use the drawing tools or take a screenshot of an important part of the picture (and then add it back onto the full picture). Animate the drawing or the screenshot to make part of the picture move on each page.

Kindergarten through 5th grade students will love these projected as read aloud books. Older grades (4th - 8th) can be taught to make them! Then they can share or read these books with younger students.

Attached is a .pdf that gives more information and contains a link to an in-depth step-by-step video to make them.

Attachments

2 replies

October 06, 2025 Language English

Really clever Laura! Many times I’ve seen large groups of children huddled around a teacher reading and then holding the book up to show the picture. This lets the huddle continue but guarantees that all students will see the images. And that you animate is also a plus as your little learners can visualize some action that the characters might take. Thanks for the step by step and included video “how to”.

October 07, 2025 Language English

What a magical way to bring stories to life! I love how you’re using Keynote to make read-alouds more interactive and engaging—it beautifully blends technology with the joy of storytelling. Having older students create these for younger readers is such a meaningful touch!

Here is a post I wrote a few months ago that gives ideas on how the littlest learners can write their own animated stories! https://education.apple.com/story/250012514

This post contains content from YouTube.

If you choose to view this content, YouTube may collect and process certain personal data. You can view YouTube’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/t/privacy" target="_blank">privacy policy here<span class="a11y">(opens in new window)</span>.</a>

This post contains content from YouTube.

You have rejected content from YouTube. If you want to change your consent, press the button below.