Leading up to Halloween, Dr. Katy Nichols, Lower School Music Teacher, tasked her students with an innovative three-part challenge: create a spooky stop-motion animation movie, write a soundtrack, and record the music to accompany the new visuals. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn how composers add soundtracks to visual works,” said Dr. Nichols. After showing her students examples of stop-motion animation, they were “pumped about it, super excited, totally engaged, ready to be on board” with the project, she said.
In preparation for the lesson, Dr. Nichols worked Robyn Williams, Lower School Coordinator of Instructional Technology, who created tutorial videos for making the stop-motion movies. Students used Google Slides to dive headfirst into the project. “We had students who were leaders, and they showed each other how to duplicate the slides, how to slowly move the images, and how to add transparent images,” explained Dr. Nichols. “They totally collaborated with one another. I was so proud of them.”
Music needed to be added in order for the movies to be complete. Dr. Nichols taught the students the introductory music first, using Orff instruments to learn the melody. Students then wrote their own, original “candy” rhythms, reciting the names of popular candy and using the syllables to help keep the rhythm.
The blend of music, technology, and visual storytelling had students captivated. “They wanted to come in during recess,” said Dr. Nichols. Students kept asking to come back to music to make their movies longer and longer. “They really wanted to get it done!”
Well done, Rams!