This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
I teach the cluster of English Language Learners for my school. Since English is a second language for most of my students, I like to do a lot of hands-on activities when it comes to learning. The hands-on aspect helps students become more engaged in the activity at hand, and has proven to be a successful method for teaching, especially when dealing with non-native speakers.
I am interested in doing a clay animation project with my students, that involves the use of making clay characters, manipulating them frame by frame, taking digital pictures, and importing these photos on to the computer to create a film. Think along the lines of Gumbi. This project could be manipulated for use across all subjects, but is recommended for use in areas where students struggle to understand a concept. In my experience this struggle has been in the science curriculum. Being that 5th graders get tested by the state in science, and much of the information they are tested on is from 4th grade, I believe that this would be in invaluable project not only while the students are with me, but for the knowledge that stays with them as they move onto 5th grade.
One of the reasons science is so difficult, is that the vocabulary is extremely demanding and hard to understand. With this clay animation project I would have students animate a given scientific process, such as a food web, decomposition, or how magnets and electricity interact, for them to not only become familiar with the process, but with the terminology as well. This project would require careful planning among groups prior to working with the manipulatives, which would further emphasize the need to work together and understand the topic they are going to be demonstrating.
For this project I would need a large amount of non-hardening clay, various clay tools, a digital camera and a camera case. Please help us bring the life back to learning by supporting us with our clay animation project.
Thank you in advance for your support.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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