45. Pivot Stick Animator

Pivotstick animator is simple software to create animations. The application is a free download from the net and is already installed on the computers. The success of good animations is small moves, and children sometimes don't understand this until they have made a few animations, and resist the temptation for big moves and jumps. Pivotstick as the name suggests is based on stickfigures. The joints of the stick figures have little coloured dots which are the movable bendy nodes to help create your animation.There is no need to redraw your figures in each frames, just move the body of the stick slightly. When you are using the programme there are additional backgrounds and chararcters under the File Tab, Load figure types or Create figure types

I've got a How to sheet to help you get started if you'd like a copy
Here's a good video to watch

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The best things about this animation programme:

1. Its simplicity
2. The support material, videos of ideas, step by step instructions on their front page are fabulous
3. Its easy as, for big ones and small ones
4. Links to thinking and creating

How can you use this in your classroom:

1. Retelling a scene of story, myth, fairytale
2. Science; Bones and skeletons. Growing plants, aging, growth
3. IPC Exercise routine Healthy lifestyles
4. Movement and motion
5. Maths, direction, rotation, degrees of movement, left right
6. Mime
7. Having fun
8. Control technology
9. Animations
10. Creating a story
11. Script writing for the characters
12. Thinking creating
13. As cartoon figures, telling a succinct story eg in cartoon format of 4 frames. 
14. Values programme what does integrity look like?
15. Telling a story without words eg Jack climbing the bean stalk
16. Sports animation, eg how to jump high jump, shooting goals in netball basketball
17. Telling a story where there are no pictures  eg scene from Harry Potter
18. Science experiments eg wind socks
19. Showing the airfoils that cause planes to lift off the ground
20. Lifting up and down of cantilever bridges
21. Rising of ships pumping water  in lochs