Sailor animations

Great Totham Primary School

One teacher piloted the Take One Picture approach with pupils in her Year 6 class (10 to 11 years old) at Great Totham Primary School in Essex.

Using 'The Fighting Temeraire' as a central stimulus for a term, she designed two units of work. The first linked geography and literacy: the children researched how the Thames had changed over time and wrote leaflets to present their findings. The animations shown here are the product of the second unit.

The children employed skills learned in art and dance to produce animations of sailors working aboard the Temeraire. Having experienced the movements themselves through dance, the children were able to make minute adjustments to the positions of their foil men between each camera shot to indicate which limbs were load-bearing. This gives the final films an incredible sense of naturalism.