Pupils in P1 at St Mark’s Primary, North Ayrshire, recently took part in an animation activity in which they painted characters for a Pirate Story and then animated these characters in the iWork application Keynote.

Pupils in P1 at St Mark’s Primary, North Ayrshire, recently took part in an animation activity in which they painted characters for a Pirate Story and then animated these characters in the iWork application Keynote.

Pupils in P1 at St Mark’s Primary, North Ayrshire, recently took part in an animation activity in which they painted characters for a Pirate Story and then animated these characters in the iWork application keynote.

Pupils in P1 at St Mark’s Primary, North Ayrshire, recently took part in an animation activity in which they painted characters for a Pirate Story and then animated these characters in the iWork application keynote.

Pupils in P1 at St Mark’s Primary, North Ayrshire recently took part in an animation activity in which they painted characters for a Pirate Story and then animated these characters in the iWork application Keynote.

This project did not involve stop motion animation: instead we used the animation features in the presentation package Keynote to animate the characters and record voiceovers. This strategy worked extremely well with the children and the results are excellent. The final “animated storybooks” can be viewed using the links below:

• Pirate Jack and the Black Bird
• Pirate Bluebeard finds the Treasure
• Captain Hook and the Treasure
• Captain Bluebeard and Coco the Clown
• Pirate Redbeard and Spongebob

The pupils spent just five to ten minutes a day working with the podcasts and over the course of the project they learned between 30 and 40 words and phrases of basic Mandarin including greetings, saying their name, asking “how are you?” and giving answers to this question, counting up to 10, talking about the fact that they’re learning Chinese and saying that they don’t understand.

At the end of the four week learning period, the classes were challenged to create their own stop motion animation during a one-day Radio Lingua Schools animation workshop, and the results of these workshops are linked to below. The pupils in each school learned the same phrases so that they would ultimately understand the animations created by the other classes.

We’d like to congratulate all of the children who participated in this project: you should all be very proud of your animation work, especially as you were working in a language which you only started learning four weeks ago!

Castlepark Primary School

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4

Glebe Primary School

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4
• Group 5

John Galt Primary School

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4

Loudoun Montgomery Primary School

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4

Earlier this year, the pupils of Castlepark Primary in North Ayrshire spent five week learning Mandarin Chinese through the One Minute Mandarin series from Radio Lingua. They then tested their learning by producing a short animation in a one day workshop with Radio Lingua Schools.

Earlier this year, the pupils of Castlepark Primary in North Ayrshire spent five week learning Mandarin Chinese through the One Minute Mandarin series from Radio Lingua. They then tested their learning by producing a short animation in a one day workshop with Radio Lingua Schools.

Earlier this year, the pupils of Castlepark Primary in North Ayrshire spent five week learning Mandarin Chinese through the One Minute Mandarin series from Radio Lingua. They then tested their learning by producing a short animation in a one day workshop with Radio Lingua Schools.