Last semester, we had our club members use cameras and iMovie to create stop motion films. See posts from this experience: Meeting 11, Meeting 12, Meeting 13 & 14. This was an awesome experience, but way more time consuming than when we had last year's club explore stop motion using the Lego Movie app. See the post from this experience: Meeting 7. Mrs. Colte and I decided to use the Lego Movie app again with this new group because we only get the students once a week for an hour. We wanted them to explore stop motion without it consuming several club meetings.
First we briefly went over the basics of what stop motion is and how to use the Lego Movie Maker app (note: can currently only be used on iPads). Next, pairs of students were given the Lego book Chain Reactions and an iPad. We realized a little bit in, that we did not have enough Legos! No problem!!! We simply had the students get things from around the room so that they could create their stop motion short films=success!!!
While I like using cameras, tripods, and movie making software for stop motion the best, Lego Movie Maker is the best bet for an elementary classroom. Students can experience filming and creation in a much simpler and quicker format.
Films made during our hour long class session can be seen in the playlist below. Enjoy!