Do you make movie with your class?

Do you make movies in your classroom?  I do and the students LOVE it!  We have made two movies so far this year.  Last year my class made three movies.  I was so proud of the students.  They did such a great job.

Last year I decided to start the movie making process in my classroom.  I was on the internet a lot researching how to do it.  I am not an expert, not even close.  I am also still learning.  I just think it is fun for me and the students to make movies throughout the year.  Take a look at our first movie of the year.  David Goes to School.

We film our movie in our classroom or anywhere we need to.  We also use a green screen.  Green screen's are great!  They allow me to put any picture or background I purchase behind the students when putting the film together.  Here is a picture of the green screen.

I originally went out an bought green fabric to use as the green screen, but I found I needed a bigger screen so I ended up adding green butcher paper to the fabric.  The No David movie was filmed using the green screen.  Below is a picture of my students using the green screen to film our latest movie. 

As you can see, the students do most of the work with the movie.  They write the script, film, and act.  All I do is put it together using iMovie.

When we first start thinking about making a movie we first come up with an idea of what we want the movie to be about.  It may be something we have learned or something we are in the process of learning.  The No David movie is a great movie to review the rules of school.  Our latest movie, The Magic School Bus Goes to Mount Rushmore, we started talking about the movie and then we learned who was on Mount Rushmore and the Presidents of Mount Rushmore.  This was great because the students really had to understand who the Presidents were so they could be them in the movie. (This movie I entered into the Lee County Film Festival.  I am super excited about this.  This is my first time entering anything)  By making a movie the students became even more engaged  in learning the subject matter.  Any grade can do this!  I teach kindergarten and my students love it.  It is hard work but when they watch the final movie their faces light up.  

Do you make movies with your class?