Animation is a fun, visual way to represent knowledge, concepts, ideas, and feelings. Here are some ways to use Animation-ish with distance learning.

Assessment: In Animation-ish, encourage your students animate a concept you have taught: the life cycle of an animal, a math word problem, a vocabulary word definition, one of the rights from the Constitution, or the problem from a story. Animation requires us to “highlight the essence” of what we are trying to represent - a creativity skill. Using animation is a way to allow for student creativity while also finding out whether they understand a concept.

Animation-ish Tip: Select the “SHARE” button to export an animation as an .mp4, .mov, .mpg, and as an image sequence (.png). These files can be uploaded to a virtual classroom or emailed to a teacher.

Communication skills: Animation is one way to tell a story. Students can work on storytelling skills and conveying a message through a visual medium. This practices communication and the creativity skill “visualize it richly.” Bring thoughts to life through animation!

Executive Function: Practice planning, developing, and implementing an idea through Animation-ish. Animation starts with a storyboard where students plan out their ideas. Then they move to creating the animation. Playback allows them to find and fix mistakes in an iterative process of development.

Animation-ish Tip: Click on the Animation Storyboarding Kit to download a PDF of the activities, including a storyboarding template.

Art: Animation is a form of art and expression. Students can express their feelings and develop artistic skills related to animation, including techniques for drawing for movement.

Animation-ish Tip: Students can save their animations in progress to their Project Vault to work on later.

Build Confidence: The features in Animation-ish are leveled so that the youngest students can feel confident and competent in animation. Watching the most simple of drawings come to life engages student imagination and shows them that they can make awesome things to share with the world.

Share your ideas? How do you plan to use Animation-ish with distance learning? Share your tips and tricks in the comments below.