Today we completed our second part of the animation task using the Istopmotion app. I love being creative and thinking outside the box. I think it is so important for children to know that it is okay to be unique and not follow the crowd. I am so excited to do activities such as this one with my own class. Science was something we hadn’t incorporated into a lesson yet so I thought of just the activity to prepare. We wanted to explore natural disasters and science- specifically volcanoes. What is the perfect way to demonstrate facts about volcanos? Create our own paper masche volcano! Me and one of my peers went to the purchase the essentials for our experiment from our local supermarket. We needed:

• One large bottle of coke
• A packet of mentos
• A pack of paints
• Multiple newspapers
• Pva glue
• A box

We completed this task out with university as I needed the resources listed above and it was too time consuming to complete in university. This task was complete in one of our houses and it was very time consuming as I wanted to get it perfect. If you know me, you will be aware I am a bit of a perfectionist! First of all, we had to build our base to form our volcano and build the paper masche up until we started to form a volcano shape. Once dry, we then painted the volcano with a mix of colours to make it look realistic and then completed our explosion in the morning with coke and mentos. We had to let our paper masche volcano dry over night to then explode it in the morning before uni. Istop motion is pretty self-explanatory. There were very little functions to add in– it is effectively just holding in a button- making it very simple for people to work. However, getting all the angles can be quite tricky! We linked our task to the experience and outcome:

• I can explore and experiment with digital technologies and can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts. TCH 1-01a

One of the main challenges I countered was it takes a lot of time and effort to produce a good quality animation.

I have to admit although this task is extremely time consuming. After a lot of practice, it would become easier to reduce the amount of time spent on your masterpiece. I thoroughly enjoy getting messy while being creative. I enjoy working as part of a team- everyone has the chance of an allocated task- we switched roles during the process of the volcano. At one point someone was researching facts while the other was building the volcano and the other was filming. From this week, I have learned the importance of patience and communication. Everything is a trial and error process. We all make mistakes and just need to ensure we learn from these. I will definitely have my class working together on projects such as this one. iStop motion is an excellent way to film any project to present to peers.