A suggested 5 week unit of work with Mr Morris Lessmore
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore is a beautiful and whimsical film directed by William Joyce. It is about a man (Mr Morris Lessmore) who discovers the joy and life that books bring.
It is a great way to incorporate digital technologies through animation into the classroom. Below you will have a chance to watch the full animation clip and read through some teaching suggestions (Designed by me) on activities that will engage and excite children.
There are also some really wonderful apps for The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore. Check out the app here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/the-fantastic-flying-books/id438052647?mt=8
Another app called the IMAG-N-O-TRON features an augmented reality experience.
Week 1:
Once you have viewed this video with your class, have students do their own retelling of the story using images and comic strips. Before using an online comic strip creator, have students practice with hand drawn pictures and paper cutouts of the scenes from the film. You can find a range of images from the film by searching in google images. Below in the resources section are some comic strip templates for you to use.
After their have drawn in the story line you can explore the difference between thought, speech and explanation bubbles with your students. Have them experiment with speech bubbles and matching up a picture to a speech bubble. Then get students to add in thought and speech bubbles to their retells.
Extension: Have children add in additional thought bubbles to describe how Mr Morris might be feeling throughout the book
Once students are familiar with making their own comic strips, you can use a comic strip creator as provided here on the website to have fun and explore online.
Week 2:
Discuss what fonts are and the effect they have on animation
Explore the different types of fonts that are shown throughout this animation.
Have children look through magazines to find different types of lettering and fonts that they can use for their comic strips
Adjustments- for students who struggle with spelling and writing, you may like to scribe the words and then get the children to find each letter in a different font
Have students create posters with different text types and fonts on their computers
Extension: Have children create a stencil for their own creative font
Week 3:
A world without colour-In the beginning of the film, Mr Morris Lessmore's world is faded and grey. Discuss with children the effect that this has on the animation and the effect that the colour has on the story as the characters are brought to life through the books.
Adjustments: Students with autism will need visual prompts for describing facial expressions.
exploring images and using a website called “colour splash” to make characters from photographs appear faded out. Here is the link: http://www.fotor.com/app.html#!module/basic/tool/Effects
Students use a paint program/photo manipulation application and a scanned illustration from the story to experiment with changing colour, eg Photoshop Elements, GIMP, iPad apps such as Luminance or Photogene. Discuss how this affects the mood of the story.
Week 4:
‘Talking books activity- Get children to find a line or quote from their favourite book and record the children saying those lines to make the books “Talk”. Then create a powerpoint with pictures of books that link to the recordings you have made with the children.
Adjustments: You may have children working independently to create their own word document or powerpoint with links to recordings and children who need support to be working with a group or the teacher.
Have fun using different expressions when recording
Week 5:
If you have already explored stop motion animation with your students using this website, then students may like to have fun making clay models of Mr Morris Lessmore and his wonderful world of books. Take photos as you move Mr Morris Lessmore and put these pictures together in movie maker. Add music to your videos and share with the class. Children could work in pairs or groups of mixed ability levels for this activity.
Extension: Children could create a stop motion animation with their own twist on the film
For lower level students have them work in groups where they are given a simple role for the task.
Host your own world of wonderful books in your classroom where parents can get the chance to see what the children have been exploring through animation and have a special viewing of the stop motion pictures. Have students create a flip books and thaumatropes (see the optical toys page here: ) with pictures from their favourite book and hang them around the room.
Use the "Talking Books" activity from lesson 3 to show parents.
FORMATIVE Assessment:
Observations of student responses and participation
verbal feedback
questions and discussions both whole class and small group
This unit of work utilizes higher order thinking in Bloom's Digital Taxonomy as it progresses through the various stages and allows students to apply and then create their own digital work using various animation techniques.
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Additional Resources:
Speech bubble practice: http://www.teachchildrenesl.com/more-resources/comic-strip-lesson-plan/comic-strip-lesson-plan.pdf
Story train planner (Beginning, Middle and End): http://content.scholastic.com/content/collateral_resources/pdf/l/lessonplans_graphicorg_pdfs_storytrain.pdf
Comic strip template for printing: http://www.witsprogram.ca/pdfs/schools/books/english-roses/comic-strip-handout.pdf
Watch an interview with William Joyce; author of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore:
