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Wednesday, March 26, 2014

27/31 Something Fun - A Movie & A Tech Contest


        This is a different sharing than I usually do for the Slice of Life Challenge at Two Writing Teachers. It's also number 27 of 31!

       My job as literacy coach takes different paths, and in technology, I'm often exploring new apps that students might use for creating and communicating non-fiction, fiction, poetry, art, and so on. My slice of life Tuesday took another different path!
        All the students in my school choose individual unit topics and the curriculum is built around that topic, with both student and teacher input. Two students interested in animation and several teachers had an entertaining session with our technology teacher, learning a little about the stop-motion animation technique, and watching several movie trailers about a movie coming in the fall, an animation movie!  According to Wikipedia, “stop-motion animation is a technique to use a physically manipulated object appear to 
move on its own.”


         Alan Snow published the book Here Be Monsters a few years ago, and now a movie has been made from that book. Until Tuesday, I had not heard of this book, but it sounds quite fun, and funny. Here is the Goodreads summary:
        Welcome to Ratbridge. But beware -- for there is skulduggery afoot. Young Arthur has fallen foul of the appalling outlaw, Snatcher, and is trapped alone in the town with every way home sealed. Meanwhile Snatcher and his men are working tirelessly in secret on a fiendish and dastardly plan to take over -- and destroy -- the entire town. With the help of Willbury Nibble, QC; some friendly boxtrolls and cabbageheads; Marjorie the frustrated inventor; and the rats and pirates from the Ratbridge Nautical Laundry, can Arthur thwart Snatcher's evil plans -- and find his way home?


         The movie coming is titled Boxtrolls, animated as I said above, and it looks fun, too. I wouldn’t really be reviewing a book I haven’t read and a movie that’s not even out except I thought you would enjoy the contest going on in conjunction with the movie. 
          If you go to the site here, and scroll down to the bottom of the screen, you will see a down arrow or the words “build your own box troll”. It is an animated activity where kids/adults can design their own box troll, and then submit it for a contest. The Grand Prize Winner will have her or his troll design made into a puppet. There are other, lesser prizes, but the real fun to me is designing. Thought you would enjoy or your students/children will enjoy the contest, and later, the movie!

16 comments:

  1. Love this connection with the book and the movie. My kiddos are crazy for stop motion. They make all kinds of stories. A very engaging way to tell story.

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    1. I hope they'll enjoy this contest, Julieanne!

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  2. Ooooo...fun! I have a child who would love this! Thank you.

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  3. Great! Thanks for the suggestion. Please consider linking up this Sunday for Digilit Sunday. I'm trying to build a round up and the start has been slow.

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  4. It seems like a just right movie for Mimm and my nephew. I hope that it will come to Estonia. Not all movies do.

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    1. I does look fun, doesn't it? Hope you have the pleasure, Terje! Maybe online?

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  5. Very cool stuff, Linda - I've tried to think of ways to incorporate ways of movie making in my curriculum, but the moment I learn how to do something new...BOOM - there are ten new gizmos to learn about. It's all rather overwhelming...I'll pass this contest idea to my kids, though, who will no doubt want to participate.

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    1. Yep, that's all this is, something fun I thought some would like to share with "mostly" older kids. I enjoyed playing with it. The stop-motion work is tedious, but some of our students love doing, making characters & doing the tech work, too. And I agree, so many "new" apps to explore!

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  6. The kids are going to love this! My own kids did Claymation videos in the early 90''s and we love looking at them now.

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    1. Thanks Beverley, I think they'll love it, too. And, it's fun to construct online-so many new things to do!

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  7. Very, very cool stuff. I know some kids that will LOVE this!

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