Year One children can make movies

Well after a busy couple of weeks, I am back with some small gems on ICT integration.

This past week I have had the pleasure of working with a class of year 1 children. They were all new Entrants when I first came across them earlier this year.

The big idea was to use the medium of movies to integrate language skills and communication through drama.

I set the scene. I asked the class if they remember their first day at school. They all had something to say about that. I asked if they thought a movie introducing how things are done in Room 1 would help new children. They all agreed that this would be a good idea.

Then I dropped the bomb shell about them making a movie and that they would be doing all the work.

We discussed roles within movie making. I broke the task into two days.

DAY ONE
Writing - I explaiined that a script needs to be witten so that we know what order things are going to be filmed in. With children this young it is a good idea to keep thing linear as this helps them sequence correctly. My role is as a guide for the group discussion and I wrote down all the things the children shared.

We then checked that we had the order right.

Next I explained the role of an actor and a director. The whole class had jobs.

Scene One 5 kids are coming to school with their bags. The directors (whole class) discussed how we walk and do we talk and have fun.

Scene Two Another group show how we take off our Bags and Hats and hang them on hooks. Again lots of talking about how the shot was to be done and what was expected from the actors.

Scene Three. etc. through to a final scene of everyone getting onto the mat when the bell rings.

Re kept filming until we had all the rushes (raw footage) done. The children then watched the rushes and commented on what they liked and what we could change to look better.

Everyone had a turn at acting and everyone had input into direction.

Next installment will go on about Narration and sound effects, yes, sound effects. After all, all good movies have sound effects.

Cheers for now
Chalky