Frames has tools that make it perfect for stopmotion, cartooning, claymation, and digital storytelling. While there are a lot of features, it doesn’t have to be difficult to get started.

Like all our tools, you will find Recipe tutorials that can help you learn enough to have the confidence to start with your students. You can follow the tutorial directions to build some really fun curriculum projects, or use them as inspiration. Here are some ideas.

Create a visual poem

Visual poetry is a fun way to analyze word choice and explore meaning and vocabulary. Finding an image that represents a single line or couplet can help students creating (and watching) decode and grasp subtleties in word choice that make poetry so powerful.

While poems like Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled” are favorites of teen angst, poetry that speaks to student’s lives, like “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks or “Last Night I Drove a Car” by Gregory Corso, can help motivate them to dig deeper.

Students love their favorite songs, so consider using lyrics as a form of poetry. While not all lyrics are poetic (or appropriate), you could play “Caged Bird” by Alicia Keyes and show how this contemporary song pulls imagery from “Sympathy” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar.

To implement with students, have them read, reread, and explore the words in each line of the poem, discussing meaning and author’s intent. Then, have students create a visual poem that includes the poem along with illustrations, photos, voice narration, and music consistent with the emotions the poem evokes.

To get started:

• complete the Visual Poetry tutorial
• download the Visual Poetry lesson plan 

Next Project
While the process of research and writing and storyboarding is different,  the process of creating a video for digital storytelling is similar to visual poetry. You can learn more about this exciting approach to exploring history, literature, and narrative writing in the free Digital Storytelling Resource Kit.

Make a stopmotion music video

If you want to get students started learning the techniques of stopanimation, a music video is a great place to start. It doesn't matter if you are using clay, LEGO bricks, or cut paper!

Have small teams choose a song from a favorite band or a list you share with them. Students can develop a character to sing or play music. Teams can work to locate plastic instruments or get crafty with chenille stems, bottle caps, and paper.

Take 6-10 pictures of the clay characters singing and playing instruments against a colorful background. Import the entire folder of images to start building the animated video, then use the Clone tool to duplicate the frames and add the soundtrack.

Next Project
Once students have created a movie this way, they would simply need to learn how to record their voice to create personification claymation. 

Introduce yourself with alliteration

If you are looking to begin using Frames for cartooning, you need to get students to work with the drawing tools. Florida educator Ingrid Jones does a fun All About Me Alliteration project over two class periods that teaches students to build their own characters and begin learning to animate.

Students can follow the steps in the Animated News Report tutorial to learn how to draw a face and animate a talking mouth. The new Frames 6 library even includes "Moving Mouth" files you can add to your face to animate using a single frame.

You are now ready for projects like this
To help her elementary students identify verbs, Texas educator Amy Clark has her students create a "Verbs are Words that Move" animation project. After choosing a verb and animating it, she also asks her students to come up with a fancy word, or synonym for their verb.

Once students know how to use the drawing tools, path animation, and text effects, they have the frames skills necessary to interview an artifact, modernize a fairy tale, or create an animated video biography.

Don't wait to get started!

There are few things that engage students more than animating with Frames. Use this exciting process to connect students to the curriculum and practice valuable project management skills.