Animation in Early Years
We’ve put together some ideas to help incorporate stop motion animation into lesson plans for reception classes.
Communication, Language and Literacy
- Animate a nursery rhyme, song or part of a story
- Animate the letters in their name whilst saying the sounds out loud
- Explore and experiment with sounds, words and texts
- Retell narratives in the correct sequence, drawing on language patterns of stories
- Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking and ideas
- Use language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences
- Listen with enjoyment and respond to stories, songs and other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems
- Speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control and show awareness of the listener
Creative Development
- Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials – including animation
- Match movement in animation to music
- Explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions – creating models, props, scenery for use in animated films
- Use their imagination in art and design, music, dance, imaginative and role-play and stories – all of these aspects can be used in the planning and creating of an animated film
Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
- Say and use number names in order in familiar contexts
- Animate number songs
- Make counting animations
- Use language such as ‘greater’, ‘smaller’, ‘heavier’ or ‘lighter’ to compare quantities
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
- Create an animation to show how an animal moves
- Make an animation to show understanding of different forms of transport
- Make an animation showing a simple life cycle
- Make a weather symbol animation to a weather song or rhyme
- Find out about and identify the uses of everyday technology and use information communication technology and programmable toys to support their learning
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
- Work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing fairly
- Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group
- Make an animation to show good manners, sharing or other social story
- Use animation to explore different points of view
Physical Development
- Handle tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with increasing control
Animation in Primary Education
Stop motion animation is a fascinating learning tool in all K12 classrooms and especially through Key Stages 1, 2 and 3.
Literacy
- Planning stories
- Developing understanding of narrative structure
- Animated stories
- Story telling
- Animated poems
- Develop speaking and listening skills
- Hotseat / Interview an animated character
- Create an animated Wanted Poster
- Animated instructions or explanations
- Animate onomatopoeic words
- Create an animated alphabet
- Demonstrate what a sentence is through animated words and punctuation
- Animate a blurb for a book – persuasive writing
- Create a film trailer – persuasive writing
- Making adverts – persuasive writing
- Illustrating spelling rules
- Create moving characters that can be used as a stimulus for a poem or play
Numeracy
- Demonstrate fractions
- Bonds to 10 / 20
- Animated times tables rap
- Explain division
- Doubling and halving
- Looking at 2D and 3D shapes
Science
- Animate a life cycle (i.e. seed germination)
- Animation of earth, moon and sun
- Animate what happens in an electric circuit
- Illustrate vibrations producing sound
- Explain states of matter
Geography
- Illustrate the water cycle
- Make an animated weather map
- Show a route on a map
PSHE
- Crossing the road safely
- Bullying scenarios
- Fire safety advert
- Electrical safety
- Illustrate dangers of drugs and alcohol
- How to care for your pet – animated instructions
- Develop team work and cooperation
RE
- Animate a Bible story or prayer
- Animate a hymn
- Animate a story from a festival
- Show how a Muslim prays through an animated character
History
- Recreate past events – moon landing
- Interview famous people from the past
- Illustrate characters and situations – Victorian children
- Show contrasts – rich and poor in Victorian times
PE
- Illustrate the rules of a game
- Make an advert about playing fair
- How to jump and land safely
- How to kick a ball
- How to hold a tennis racket / cricket ball
Music
- Record a composition to accompany your animation
- Add sound effects
- Choose appropriate music from a collection to enhance your film
DT/Art
- Experiment with different ways of creating the set for your animations
- Make props for your set