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Each fall I scan lists on the internet for potential Caldecott books for the following January. I check out as many of those as possible from our local public library and choose 10-15 to present to my fifth graders. The teacher and I work together on this project. She puts the students in groups of 3 – choosing students who will work well together. As a class we review the criteria for the Caldecott award and then I give the groups time to look through the books I have chosen for them.
Once they have made their choices, we discuss storyboards. Students have to complete their storyboard before they are allowed to check out a chrome book to use for the project. It usually takes 1-2 library visits to get the storyboards completed. During that time, I search for pictures already online from pages in the chosen books. I then add those pictures to a Flickr account created specifically for this project.
After storyboards are created, students go through their book and choose pages they want to include. They are then allowed to check their book’s folder on the Flickr account and let me know which pages I need to take pictures of. The way that works for me is to have the students put sticky notes on the pages I need to photograph. I then take those pictures and upload them to Flickr before the next library time. Here are my instructions for accessing the Flickr account.
After they are sure they have all their pictures, I show them how to use the Animoto account. I have educational access which is very easy to get. This allows me to set up up to 50 student accounts. I have set up around 10 that I re-use every year. I have set up Google accounts for my students using the “user name”+ 1 @gmail.com method. I use those email address to set up the Animoto accounts. This allows me to monitor all activity in the accounts. Because students don’t always catch on the first time, I created a YouTube video that they can refer to as needed which shows how to create an Animoto.
I do my best to protect the privacy of our students so I do not share their videos. However, I created one this year that outlines our process for creating them and shares the titles the students chose for the 2018 Caldecott. You can view it here.
