Over 12 weekly sessions, 3rd - 6th Grade students shape an original story, design a cast of characters, and animate it together into one finished class short film. No drawing experience required. Every student acts as a character designer, an animator, a voice actor, and a filmmaker.
Format: Weekly 2 hour sessions, on campus, immediately after school.
Method: A mix of hand drawn art and stop motion animation, fully achievable by young hands, with a real, intentional look.
Group size: Capped at 12 students so the class can function as one animation crew making one shared film.
Sample Curriculum
Week 1
Lesson: How animation creates the illusion of movement, and our first animation principle, Squash and Stretch: why cartoon motion feels alive instead of stiff.
Activity: Flipbook Lab Every student draws a simple flipbook of a squash and stretch bounce. Everyone takes theirs home.
Week 2
Lesson: What makes a story: a character who wants something and runs into trouble getting it. The instructor presents three story blueprints (setting, tone, and premise) as starting points for our film.
Activity: Story Vote & World Build As a class, students discuss, vote, and begin shaping the details of the world they've chosen together.
Week 3
Lesson: Designing a character people remember: shape language, silhouette, and backstory.
Activity: Character Design & Puppet Build Each student designs their own character, then constructs a poseable paper puppet of them.
Week 4
Lesson: From idea to script: how a writer takes a room's worth of ideas and shapes them into something shootable. The instructor brings in a full draft script built from the class's story and characters.
Activity: Script Table Read Students read the script aloud together and make final calls on dialogue, character moments, and any last changes.
Week 5
Lesson: What's a storyboard, and why does every film get planned shot by shot before it's ever filmed?
Activity: Storyboard Teams Small crews storyboard their assigned scenes, panel by panel.
Week 6
Lesson: Giving the world a voice, and how backgrounds and sets do half the storytelling work.
Activity: Voice Booth and Set Building The class splits into two rotating groups: one records character dialogue while the other paints and builds sets and backgrounds. Groups swap partway through.
Week 7
Lesson: Production Week 1 Animation Principle, Timing and Spacing: how to animate a walk cycle.
Activity: Crews begin animating their assigned scenes shot by shot. Background and set work continues alongside for anyone not yet animating.
Week 8
Lesson: Production Week 2 Animation Principle, Anticipation: how a small move before the big move makes an action read clearly.
Activity: Animation continues scene by scene. Remaining backgrounds and sets are finished up.
Week 9
Lesson: Production Week 3 Shot composition and staging: how a director decides what the camera sees, and why.
Activity: Animation continues. Crews take turns reviewing early finished shots together as a class.
Week 10
Lesson: Production Week 4 Editing basics: how raw shots get cut together into a scene that flows.
Activity: Final shots are completed. The instructor begins assembling the rough cut from finished scenes.
Week 11
Lesson: Foley and sound design: how professional films build a soundscape out of ordinary household objects.
Activity: SFX Session. As a class, students invent, test, and record sound effects for their scenes.
Week 12
Lesson: Scoring a film: how music sets mood and tells an audience how to feel about what they're watching. The instructor does the final mix in class, with students weighing in on a few key musical choices along the way.
Activity: Premiere and Poster Signing. The finished film is watched together as a class for the first time, then everyone signs each other's copy of the film poster to take home.
Sunday Night: Family Premiere!
Virtual Premiere. Families join a short, hosted Zoom screening of the finished film from home. The link and poster image go out to every family that same night, whether they attend live or not.
