Animation with Tux Paint

Tux Paint is an open source drawing software you can download. It has an easy to use interface.

We use it for many purposes in our lab, one of which is animation. The second-graders have been studying the plant life cycle. In my class, they have used Tux Paint to draw the life stages of a plant. They started with a seed being blown from a mature plant.

After a bit of modeling, they were able to create series of images showing the sun moving though the sky as a seedling grew, or rain watering a flower that kept increasing the number of petals. Each time they made a slight change to a drawing, they would save the new one as a new file.

In this way, they kept each image as a separate file, which can be viewed by clicking on

To play the animation sequence, the student clicks on "Slides"and numbers them.

Students can also select the speed at which the images change.

When the drawings were done, they used the text tool to add a sentence, one word at a time, so it also changed in each frame.

My second graders were very enthusiastic about their work; they enjoyed viewing each other's creations as well.

Collaborative Drawings in Google Apps

My sixth grade students have been delving into the world of Google Apps. One favorite project has been to work collaboratively on a drawing about a city. Students selected a partner at the beginning of class.

The younger of the two had the job of creating and naming the drawing and sharing it with his/her partner (as an editor) and myself (as a viewer). They had shared documents with me previously, but never with a peer. Many had to ask for the other to spell their names as they searched for their email addresses.

The older then found the drawing in their "shared with me" folder and the work began.

For this assignment, all of the images and information came from the research tool. They were able to browse relevant websites for information. One nice feature is that citations automatically link to each image. Having this resource in the same window really helped students who sometimes get confused when working with multiple tabs or windows.

The criteria for this quick assignment was to use word art, change the background, insert 5 images and write 5 facts in text boxes. Most were able to finish in less than 2 periods. Students needed to cooperate and accept the ideas of their partners. There was one group who kept deleting each others work, only to discover that they could not finish on time, which in itself is a good lesson on cooperation and productivity.