Where’s Aaron: YEAR 2 - Media Arts - Explore

The class is taking turns hosting ‘Aaron’ the class mascot, taking him on adventures. It is Little J’s turn, so Little J, Nanna, Big Cuz, and Old Dog take Aaron on Country to look for mica rock, and along the way they photograph the expedition. Distracted by the events of the day, Little J loses Aaron and the family enrols the help of Uncle Mick, a Search and Rescue officer, to return him.

Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose

Theme - ANIMATE

After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the story ladder used in comic strips and cartoons. The ‘Little J & Big Cuz’ picture book and/or ebook, “Where’s Aaron?’, could also be used here.

Revisit the story ladder structure of stories: beginning, middle and end.

Have students explore the story in Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’ to identify the elements of the episode story that apply to each section. Re-play the animation and stop it as a ‘frame by frame’ analysis. Ask students to:

  • notice what parts of the frames stay the same and which parts move or change
  • look at the characters and identify what about the character changes: movement, gesture, expression
  • look at the setting/background; does it change? if so, describe what happens, how it changes, and how this change is related to the story.

As a class, examine examples of static comic strips so that students can identify how each comic strip presents the story through frames using text and image. Examples could include,

Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime), for example:

Comic strips and their animation adaptions

Marvel comics:

Videos clips/animations of popular story books:

Aboriginal Comics

Have students pose and respond to questions about the differences between the two representations, and what elements are additional in the film/animation versions of the story compared to the static version: movement, sound.

Introduce students to technical conventions of media using ‘The Lost Thing’, ACMI (Teacher resource).

Introduction to animation

Show students how to make a 10–20-page flip book using a simple symbol/character, such as a balloon growing larger and bursting, a smile growing broader and wider, a flower adding more petals, etc.

Have students think through the movement they want the object to do, such as bursting, growing larger or adding extra leaves, etc.

Provide students with a set of ‘post it notes’ or a stapled template of paper pages and show students where each of the images need to be drawn. Use a felt pen/marker to draw the object.

As an extension activity, students could use either of these resources,

or, a simple PowerPoint slide sequence application to create an animated object.

Display all attempts and have the students share their ideas for their animations and explain how they made the object move and what they could do to extend the movement.

Further resources: