Hip-Hop-Hooray for Animoto

It's finished! My first Animoto is complete. It is different from my original idea for three reasons:

1) My orginial concept of "Kindergarten Rules" is still in the works, but I did not feel like it was long enough to produce yet.
2) My classroom students have decided they would like to learn about planes and trains and automobiles; so a "Transportation Study" is in full effect. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce new transportation vocabulary to them.
3) Searching for the perfect musical accompaniment.


What were my road blocks on this Animoto journey? Well trying to find a different mode of transportation for each letter in the alphabet... not easy. I resorted to using some other forms of vehicle-vocab to fill in the harder letters; such as O, U, E, K, N, Q, V and X.

I decided to look for a hip-hop song because I think my students would get excited and move to the beat while learning! I purposly looked for an instrumental-only song so the words/lyrics would not distract them. Also, I want them to be able to call out the names of the differents forms of transportation while the Animoto is playing- making it more fun and interactive.


Here is it.... Enjoy!

(If Animoto does not play, click here Transportation Animoto.)

Any more suggestions for letters O, U, E, K, N, Q, V and/or X???

My Problems = Your Benefit

I will share a couple of the issues I encountered with Animoto. Hopefully you will read this BEFORE you start Anomoto-ing. It may save you some time... and sanity.

ANIMOTO ALERT: Do NOT click "produce" button until you are 200% sure you are in love with the final product. This is why my newest Animoto is now titled: Copy Of Transportation. I forgot to add a title slide, so I had to go back and fix it- inerasable damage.

ANIMOTO TIP: Some teachers may believe the songs in their Animotos are distracting to the students. Loud singing and fast tempo lyrics may take the focus away from the student's learning. Search YouTube for hundreds of songs with and without lyrics. Go to this  Online Video Converter website to copy the hyperlink of the video. It will download to your computer, then you can upload it into your Animoto- and it's FREE!

Please share any other tips & alerts that may help future Animoto creators...

Animoto's Making Me Cry!

I came across an Animoto that brought tears to my eyes. It inspired me to develop another great Animoto for my classroom (after I finish my first one of course)!

I would love to have my kindergarten students write sentences about their grandparents, choosing one grandparent, or as many as they would like. Possibly using sentence starters like:
My grandma is funny when _________________.
My favorite place to go with my grandfather is _______________.
My grandmother's favorite food is___________.

For the photographs, I think I would have a classroom throw-away camera that I would make available for students to take home. Or have parents email me the pictures.
What an amazing keep sake this would be for them to reflect upon as they get older! I want to make one myslef with my Grandma.

My Grandma and her twin sister just turned 85. She has recently ditched the New England weather and is living it up in Curacao for the next 2 months. You go Grandma!

Attempting Animoto: Teaching a Teacher

And it begins..... my first attempt at creating an educational video for my classroom. Can you believe that I have never heard of an Animoto!? Animoto's are everywhere; on Facebook, on Pinterest, on YouTube , even on Twitter! Heck, these little videos have more friends than I do! So it seems that I must jump on the band-wagon and check it out.
Just like teachers must do in preparation of a lesson, some brainstorming must be done. I must assess my current skills and plan how bring myself to the next level. Therefore, diving right into Animoto is out of the question. I must provide myself with the proper learning tools so I can succeed in my task.

Here is my 10-step plan on how I will develop my own Animoto for my kindergarten classroom:
1) Learn what an Animoto is through books or internet.
2) Browse through various Animotos about kindergarten.
3) Download proper Animoto tools and necessities. Which ones cost MONEY and which ones are FREE?
4) Brainstorm ideas for classroom Aninmoto.
5) Start the creation process.  Tips to help create Animotos.
6) Share with colleagues and collect feedback.
7) Apply necessary tweaks.
8) Present to kindergarten class!
9) Observe their response and listen to their feedback.
10) Attempt Animoto again...?!?

I have currently completed steps 1 through 4 and have decided what my Animoto will be about....THE CLASSROOM RULES. I thought this would be a great idea because it is a video that I can use throughout the year to introduce and reiterate expected behaviors. I can even replace photographs with student work, pictures and writing as the year moves along. 

Here is an Animoto I enjoyed, it shows how student work can be effective and engaging: