Drama Project (Part Two): Middle Earth Adventure

Drama Project: Stop Action Lego Hobbit Movie (Part One)

Yesterday and today, Gabe and John and I worked on a Drama project for this term. I decided to take the stop action Lego route inspired by this blog. After a bit of a struggle, we finally decided to do something Hobbit related, as the boys have been getting a bunch of Hobbit and LOTR Legos from their grandparents.

Yesterday, they built their characters, monsters, Hobbit house and mountain. Today, we got down to work seriously. I talked a bit about the parts of the plot diagram: introduction, problem, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion.

Then I divided a long strip of paper into six parts to match the different parts of the plot diagram.

Then we talked about what is going to happen in the movie, one section (scene) at a time. The boys illustrated each cell on the strip.

We constructed our set with a tarpaulin backdrop, set up our iPad camera at a good angle, and got to work filming each scene. We moved the character a little bit at a time, taking photos as we went.

Tomorrow, Gabe and I will work with iMovie to put the pictures together. Then we will overdub our dialogue and music. Phew!

John Recites the Caterpillar Poem

Lily's Inca Timeline in Meograph

John Explaining the Broody Chicken

Gabe's Sound Wave Experiment

More Summer School: "Creature Care" Camp Workshop

This summer John was involved in a "Creature Care" workshop at his Church Camp. He learned about living things and discussed his experiences of a variety of living things. Then, with the teacher's guidance, he went on to learn that God created living things out of loving delight, to teach us selflessness, and how we need to treat living creatures with the same love and delight in imitation of God and the fulfillment of our "royal priesthood."

John then applied these ideas and beliefs to specific creatures: reptiles and amphibians. He learn about their characteristics--cold blooded, egg-laying, breathing underwater, and so on. The teacher demonstrated and then John practiced how to catch each creature in a caring way, learning why each method work. For instance, the frog's motion is based on movement, so if we block their eyes they won't jump, and snakes have elastic backbones so we can step on their tail without injuring them.

John learned a lot about animal behaviours, such as why we find them sunbathing, what they eat, how they reproduce, etc. He assembled habitats based on the animals' needs as living things: water, food, shelter, sun, and moisture. He learned how and what to feed them.

He learned about how to wash hands before and after handling, and why. Finally, he learned about invasive species; habitat destruction, realistic needs for human beings to co-exist and share space with animals.

All in all, it was a comprehensive study of animals that met many of the outcomes for Science this year.