Midterm:Cut paper animation using Framethief

The main concept my lesson plan would be involving would be allowing young children to grasp the idea of animation. They would learn how some of their favorite animations on television could have been created, and will make one of their own using a specific holiday as a theme. The throughline would be how could I get these children to understand the basic concepts of animation, while incorporating it with their own individual styles. The audience for the lesson I have created would be a third grade classroom of boys and girls. Of course computer access would be necessary, and the computers would need framethief software. The lesson would also call for several digital cameras, and many different colored construction papers for the students to use to make their animations.
The goal of this lesson is for the students to be able to become comfortable with framethief, and become aware of the possibilities this program can be used for. I believe framethief is a program that is easy enough for the third graders to learn to use, while making their own animation in about an hour and a half of class time. The lesson would start off with me showing some brief animations which used framethief. I would not show a high school or college students' animations, because I would not want to discourage the students. I would show them some work of other elementary school children which I had researched or acquired from previous classes. This would be enough to boost their interest and get their minds working, while at the same time would not cut down their self esteem and make them think they couldn't accomplish their own masterpiece.
After showing the animations, I would have each student open framethief on their computer and introduce them to the basics of the program. They would be working in groups of two. I would then teach them how to hook up the cameras to the computer so they could start animation. Shortly after hooking up everything, and making sure each student is all set with the program and the software, I would bring out the multi-colored papers. I would then tell the students we would be making a 45 second animation using cut paper. The theme behind the animation would be a specific holiday depending on the time of year. Construction paper can be really bold and exciting, especially in animation. The show South Park actually started out using construction paper cutouts. Each group would get scissors and as much construction paper as they needed to do their project. As they began cutting their paper and creating their masterpiece, I would walk around, not peeking over the children's shoulders but asking them what they think they're going to create. If a group was having a problem, I might suggest a general idea they could use to narrow down their subject without experiencing the anxiety of not knowing what to make. For instance, if we were making Easter themed animations, I might suggest creating a constantly changing easter egg animation. I would not want to insist that any student create the idea I give them, which is why I would keep my suggestions very wide ranged.
After the students are finished with their animations, looking at them individually would let me know if they understood framethief, and if they allowed themself to use it to their advantage in their project. I would have the class walk from computer to computer looking at each other's work. Afterwards, I would ask the students to write down individually what they thought of working with framethief, and if they enjoyed any individual group's work and why. The idea of having them do this on their own eliminates the nervousness some young students might have while talking about other classmate's artwork out loud. I would collect the critiques and read some things that they wrote which I found interesting out loud. However, I wouldn't tell the class who wrote them down. At the end I would explain to the children the relation that animation has to much of their favorite cartoons that they watch daily.
I believe this lesson is necessary because opening a process such as animation to a young student's mind would give them a knowledgable background in the process early, allowing them to create amazing things in the future. They could watch their favorite cartoons afterwards and have an idea of how those shows were made. Putting things together like this at a young age is crucial to a child's educational as well as artistic development. There are so many things to cover to open a child's mind to the possibilities life can entail. Kids love cartoons, so I believe this would be entertaining for them.