April 6, 2011
Three CLC staff are learning Makaton over a 6 week period, alongside staff from Mundella Primary School and Talbot Specialist School, and taught by Talbot School’s Makaton Regional Tutor, Janet Screaton. Makaton is a simple sign language used in the special schools, and some primary schools, that we work with. “Makaton uses signs, symbols and speech to help people with learning and/or communication difficulties to communicate.”
We decided to learn the basics in order to help us communicate with some of the pupils who use our centre on a regular basis, and we all have to admit we’re really enjoying the classes. If you’re lucky you may get the odd video on the blog with our ‘Word of the Week’, that is if anyone will vounteer to be filmed.
If you are interested in finding out more about Makaton, visit the Makaton Charity’s website at www.makaton.org.
April 1, 2011
The Totley Primary Year 5s had a smashing time at the CLC yesterday, creating some eggcellent animations using painted hard-boiled eggs. Each group had written a story and built a set in a cardboard box for their egg characters. Unfortunately they only had a morning to complete their films, but they worked really hard and I was amazed at how much they got done – the finished films had titles and sound added, as you can see below. The biggest problem was getting the eggs to stand up, but they did make excellent characters for squishing.
April 1, 2011
Two year 3 classes from Carfield Primary School came to the CLC this term to animate their own short stories. Each group wrote a script, designed their set and brought toys and props to animate. They spent the morning using I Can Animate to create the animations, and the afternoon editing the films in Windows Movie Maker to add sound and titles.
The first class had developed some quite lengthy scripts and it soon became clear that their animations weren’t long enough to fit in all the speaking, so they had to cut out large parts. The second group therefore decided to create silent films, using only music and sound effects to enhance the action – unfortunately this meant the storyline was often unclear. The perfect balance is an action-driven story with very small amounts of narration/dialogue, and the use of titles to explain where necessary.
You can see some of the finished animations below: