Stop Motion Animation with iPads

I have been wanting to try out stop motion animation with my students for some time now, but I have always been a bit intimidated to do so. I was not very familiar with the different apps available, I did not have access to iPads at school, and I just wasn't quite sure how to put it all together successfully into a lesson. However, I knew my students would be absolutely thrilled to try something new so I started researching and downloading different apps and experimenting with them at home. I also came across this amazing guide to stop motion animation in the art room: A Complete Guide to Stop Motion Animation . This was such a huge help to planning out my lesson!

I ended up having students bring iPads from home since we did not have them available at school. Students who did not have iPads borrowed mine or shared with a partner. To introduce the lesson we looked at a variety of stop motion animation videos and discussed them as a group. I also showed the students this great tutorial for Stop Motion Studio (the app we used in class) by Watchwaddle on YouTube:

The students were then ready to write out their stories, plan characters and materials, and design their sets. Each student chose something different to work with and all of their stories were unique! I had a student use legos, another brought in stuffed animals from home, some worked with clay, while others wanted to draw and color their own characters.

We had so much fun with this! I am looking forward to incorporating iPads in the art room more frequently in the future with a variety of fun apps for students to experiment with. I am excited to share about what we are up to next!