Hurricane Tracks: from Literature to Stop-Motion Animation

Esperanza, 4th Grade
ELA & Visual Art
Ms. Andrea

Ms. Dobard's 4th-grade ELA students have been making the literature they're reading about hurricanes come to life by creating stop-motion animations! 

First students, working in pairs, created backdrops of the Gulf of Mexico—the setting of their book. They tore paper, green for land and blue for water, and glued it bit by bit to their map templates. One student lifted a finished backdrop and remarked, "It's heavy!"

Next, students created movable hurricanes. They layered construction paper over a base, just like we did previously with our monsters. We looked at animations of Hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, Katrina, Harvey, and Ian. Besides noting their various tracks, we considered the shape, size, and colors we'd use for our storms. We discussed the asymmetry of the outer bands and the negative space of the eye and learned how to cut both into folded paper.

Finally, it was time to film! Each pair decided the track of their storm; they took turns moving their storm in small increments along the track, and Ms. Andrea took photos of each slight movement. Played together, the photos are a stop-motion animation showing the hurricanes moving on their own!