Heinlenville Rediscovered Animations

The stop motion animation history projects which I am conducting at two schools are starting to come together. I conceived this project about a past Chinatown in San Jose after reading an article in The San Jose Mercury News last year about an archeological dig of a Chinatown in the middle of Japantown. I did not know that there had been 6 Chinatowns in San Jose. I did not know that at one time the Chinese laborers made up 75% of agricultural labor in California, nor did I know that at one time, San Jose's Chinatown was the largest outside of San Francisco. It has been fun to explore this history with the students. Here is the project site: http://strawberriesongoldmountain.weebly.com/

Yesterday a 4/5 combo class at Stevens Creek Elementary spent 45 minutes in the computer lab experimenting with iMovies. They composed the still image sequences, added Chinese music recorded from Meyerholz Elementary and added their own voices. I am compiling their final movie in Premiere Elements. This test above does not have their narration yet and the image pacing will be adjusted a bit.

The 3rd grade class of Mrs. Weber at Stevens Creek composed their animation in iMovies as well. They are compiling their final animation in iMovies in the school computer lab.

At Cureton Elementary in Alum Rock, San Jose, we will be using the freeware animation tool MonkeyJam. Students will import their images and sound and compose their movies with this tool. I will be compiling their final animation in Premeire Elements.