Big+Book+Dramas

=Big Book Dramas and Movies From Picture Books= ====Some of these are videos or slideshows of mostly spontaneous acting out of big books. I do not think it is vital to video these, however I decided to do this for my own interest and to show the children. I want them to see themselves becoming characters and using expressive voices to read. I want them to watch themselves over time so that they can tell for themselves whether they are doing this. The video does tend to inhibit their performance but this may change as they get more used to it. Some movies are taking longer to make and to edit so they won't be here the same week we are reading the book. Great things take time. ==== ===Scroll to the bottom for latest films My Cat Likes to Hide In Boxes, The Little Red Hen, My Cat Likes to Hide In Boxes(Long Version), Number One, Not a Box Slideshow-Book, Humpty Dumpty, A Lion In the Meadow, We're Going On a Bear Hunt, Kehua, Not a Box, Roimata's Cloak. ===


 * = **My Cat Likes To Hide In Boxes-Short Version

I decided to edit the movie to a much quicker smaller version with written text instead of voiceover. I like it better in some ways but it would be good to learn to do the voiceovers more effectively so that we could combine them.

** || media type="youtube" key="o5L-kp_BaPY" height="385" width="480" || We have been reading the big book The Little Red Hen. We acted this book out and decided to make it our first film. It's pretty funny! The cinematographer, me, didn't know what she was doing. Next time I would take the video camera off the tripod and take some shots from different angles but the joy of this film is that it was spontaneous and had no edits. Whenever we talk about Mahi Tahi-working together, I always refer to The Little Red Hen. They understand through experience that if you want to eat the bread you need to help make it and if you want to paint or play or dress-up, you help tidy it up. ||  media type="youtube" key="0VHJFv5c0_s" height="344" width="425" || Here it is at last! This movie was filmed one funny afternoon. We made a voiceover because the original soundtrack was a bit hard to hear. I forgot to turn the white noise off on the last recording so it has a bit of background shuffling. It is good to just do something. Now I know how I would do it differently. I like the slowness of it and the way the children were having such fun. I didn't think about camera angles or close ups or making a background. Next time. I would bet every child will remember this book! || media type="youtube" key="6Q2Z9XUhmGo" height="385" width="480" || We decided to act out our big book again. Well the kids decided. They just took some photos of a few children playing the characters. They say,"We can do this one in characters now O.K. Tia? O.K. and then they seem to all be becoming directors. It's a bit of a worry!! Most of the kids can take photos themselves. I chose this book to foreshadow our picture book Kehua which we will read in week five. Two very different books about ghosts. They like this book because in the end the ghost is the one who is scared. || media type="youtube" key="6evanbxwSxM" height="344" width="425" ||
 * = 
 * The Little Red Hen -A Big Book Experiment**
 * = **My Cat Likes To Hide In Boxes. Longer Version.**
 * = **Number One, By Joy Cowley**
 * = **Not a Box Slideshow. Stay Tuned For the Upcoming Premier of Not a Box-The Movie.**

This is a little book made from the children's Kidpix slides. They took the photos and then imported them to Kidpix. I helped them cut out the background and then they painted onto it and typed the words in. I imported the slides to i-Movie 09 and dropped them into a little movie with transitions. The theme is about imagination and the children were dressing up and playing with the box. We have made a movie of their make believe play with these slides woven throughout. || media type="youtube" key="sodbRgVKQeI" height="385" width="480"

|| This movie was created as a response to a nursery rhyme we have been reading. The children decided to set up blocks and make Humpty fall with a string. They wanted to crack an at the end but then we forgot!! All of the photos are taken by the children and the sets are made by them. They helped decide about the props and the sound effects. || media type="youtube" key="fF1KOwaUdVI" height="340" width="560" || The children each painted a page from the book and then we recorded them retelling/reading the story. We also included a few shots of our dragon dancing in the middle. Now that I look at it, I think maybe I will put a slideshow together of the dancing. I like the children's voices in this story. || media type="youtube" key="fHnAEgvW1pQ" height="385" width="480" || In this video the children are reading and performing the actions for the wonderful book "We're Going On a Bear Hunt.", By Michael Rosen. We have been reading this as a big book so everyone reads together. We recorded a voiceover in Garage Band and then filmed the actions as we read, once all of us together, and once with individuals in front of a piece of material. I used clips from both. Michael Rosen performs this on his website but I didn't show the kids. Now that we have done it, I will show them. I don't know if it works having all the kids read together but that is the best way for these 5 year olds as most can't read the book alone and none of us has the patience to do too many takes!! I love watching the children's actions in this film. While we were reading Kehua the children recounted their own experiences of being afraid of something in their room at night usually. Each of them painted their "Kehua" and then I loaded the photos of their artwork into i-Movie and the children told their stories which we added as voiceovers. Lastly I added some background music to make it sound a bit spooky. I really like the final effect. || media type="youtube" key="4a-kPDcMsQ8" height="344" width="425" ||
 * = ===Humpty Dumpty Movie===
 * ===A Lion In The Meadow===
 * ===We're Going On a Bear Hunt===
 * Something has gone a bit wrong with the audio in the middle of this movie for a few seconds when I uploaded it to Youtube. I can't remedy it so just be patient and it passes.** || media type="youtube" key="TiWeypy1aUg" height="344" width="425" ||
 * **Kehua**
 * **Not a Box**


 * This is the movie. I am really pleased with it. I wanted to capture the way children play. The way they make believe and the way that they make sense of story. The kids made all of the graphics in Kidpix by importing photos and drawing onto them. They all had their own ideas about what the box should be for them. The editing is done in i-Movie with music added over the top to give it a bit ofatmosphere. It is easy to insert the Kidpix clips with simple transitions between. My only regret with this film is that I should have carried on longer with the theme and filmed more of the ideas. It was early in the process and I didn't know better! ** || media type="youtube" key="nsQuFVm7fQo" height="344" width="425" ||
 * **Roimata's Cloak**

During the process of making our kakahu-cloak the children took photos of each other. I guided them to take lots of closeups of their hands but we also decided to include photos of ourselves dancing with the some of the ribbons which we had used during our dragon dance. This movie was made by selecting a collection of photos which would relate the story of our kakahu making, but also the story of our book sharing and our movie making. The underlying theme is about the way people are woven together through shared creating. It is also a story of the cycles of life. The seasons of life, if you like. || media type="youtube" key="4Er3195hoe8" height="344" width="425" ||