Animating Kids: A Revolutionary Curriculum for 21st Century Literacy Skills

In today's digital age, it's more important than ever for kids to be media savvy. Being able to read, write, and create media is no longer just a nice-to-have skill, but a necessity for success in school and in life.

Animating Kids reimagines the way we teach media literacy education.

With Animating Kids, kids learn 21st century literacy skills through the lens of stop motion animation. This curriculum is designed to help children develop visual literacy, which is the ability to understand and create visual information. By learning visual literacy, kids can not only better understand visual information but also create their own media, which is a valuable skill in today's digital age.

But why stop motion animation?

Stop motion animation is the perfect medium for teaching kids media production skills. It is fast and easy, teaches the basics of communicating with sound and motion, and atomizes the film making process into small, doable steps so even non-film makers can grasp the basic concepts and move forward in a cumulative way..

Animating Kids is an ideal platform for remote classes.

We are online 24/7 and Animating Kids doesn't require expensive equipment, making it accessible to everyone. If school goes hybrid or completely online, our subscribers have the option of creating a home-based account. Animating Kids runs in any browser. Download a stop motion app on your smartphone, tablet or computer, printout the secret recipes, and Voila’ you have an animation studio at home.

Animating Kids offers 15 professional development sessions for teachers.

2 hours of video training for media specialists and non-film making teachers, which helps them with pre-planned lessons that teaching stop motion animation and media production in a classroom. To repeat, it is designed to help teachers, even if they have no experience with film-making, and to have confidence in teaching the subject and make it interesting for the kids. Furthermore, the curriculum's "cooking show format" ensures that even the most complex concepts are broken down into easy, bite-sized demonstrations with recipes, utensils, and ingredients.

The curriculum features 150 videos and downloadable printouts, hosted by the Animation Chefs. Each video is designed to be engaging and easy to follow, which makes it easy for kids to learn. The videos are also organized in a way that is meant to be used in a group-based, project-based learning environment. By using this format, kids learn by doing and working in groups, which is a proven method for effective learning and a huge amplifier of life-skills.

Animating Kids isn't just about teaching kids media production skills.

It's also about giving them the power to tell their own stories through digital storytelling. The Youtube generation wants to share media. They want to make media. They want to make meaning! With the Animating Kids curriculum, kids learn how to use effective methods of visual storytelling to express themselves and communicate their ideas. And that is the power that kids will need to be successful in the 21st century, where every organization is a media broadcaster.

Animating Kids provides a "scaffolded” approach to maximize teacher flexibility

Our massive library of videos and printouts enables teachers to customize the curriculum to the needs of their students. Teachers can select the most relevant lessons and activities that align with their students' level and interests and continue to tweak and experiment with meeting their student’s needs. The curriculum is flexible, allowing teachers to adapt it to their own teaching style and method. The contents are leveled as to difficult level, but there is no mandated “best way” to deploy the film making lessons.

Animating Kids is more than a curriculum, it's a way of empowering kids. By learning stop motion animation, kids gain media superpowers that allow them to express themselves, understand the media-saturated world around them, and create their own messaging with sound and motion. Animating Kids helps kids learn valuable 21st century literacy skills in a fun, engaging, and accessible way.

Animating Kids is FUN!

Watch this 2 minute video and see what your classroom might look like with Animating Kids in action. Narrated by our Founder/Creative Director Joe.

In conclusion

Animating Kids helps teachers teach, and young media mavens learn to develop visual literacy, vocabulary, media production skills, and digital storytelling skills. It is a one-of-a-kind stop motion animation curriculum that reformats one of the oldest film making mediums into 21st century literacy skills education in a fun and accessible way. With 150 how-to videos, downloadable printouts, project-based learning, scaffolded lesson opportunities, Animating Kids is a no brainer for media specialists and teachers in K-8.