05/04/2013

Album Art Work and Design by Year 6 Children


As part of our topic on 'Inspirational People' we have been studying the work of The Beatles. As well as their incredible music, they produced some original design ideas. The Beatles were the first musicians to have their own videos, animations and cartoons - The Yellow Submarine for example.

The artist who created The Beatles Yellow Submarine characters and film was called Jack Stokes.
He died this week aged 92. Click on his photo below to see an obituary.


Their album cover designs are still being imitated by musicians today.
The album cover below by Blur has copied the Beatles Let it Be along with the animations of Yellow Submarine.

The children of class DB took photographs of each other and turned them (using Paint Shop Pro) into animated drawings on a tablet computer screen.




Each member of the class choose a group of friends to put together an imaginary band. Using Publisher, an album cover was designed. It includes all sorts of details such as track names, record company, logos and credits.
This one below is designed by Jacob Gravelius.

Jacob quickly became skilled at using this pop art technique and develop his own particular style of portrait. He drew portraits of every member of the class. You can see them all in the video below.




01/02/2013

Raspberry Pi in School


We have taken delivery this week of a revolutionary new computer.
The Raspberry Pi is the size of a credit card but with 2 USB ports plus internet and video connections.
It has been designed to be cheap (only about $30) and accessible. Although it is priced in dollars the Raspberry Pi is a British product - from Cambridge.
It aims to encourage people of all ages to get involved in computer programming. It does not have a hard drive - it takes an SD card with an operating system included. It also includes a basic programming software title called SCRATCH - which we have already been using in school this term.
Click on the logo below to go to the official website.




Children from class DB using the Pi - connected to a projector and the interactive whiteboard.

There is a website made by users of the Pi - called MAG PI.
Click on logo below. The site includes loads of helpful tips in its monthly magazines download as PDF files from the website.

Anybody stuck for Christmas or birthday present ideas for ICT enthusiasts should really consider getting one of these amazing kits.


Make Your Own Animations


Have some fun and learn some programming skills over the Christmas holiday.
You can make your own stickman animations using this free software called PIVOT.
Our year 6 children have had a go at making dancing stickmen in GANGNAM style.
Watch this video below.



Go to the ICT Section of our school website to download the software to your own computer.
It only takes a few minute to start making your own animations.

You can also see this video YOU TUBE