Introduction

In this lesson they will combine all their work from this unit of work into one multimedia presentation. 

 

Finding the music

There are a number of sites out there that offer royalty free music for use in education projects. With all these sites please exercise caution when using and searching with students. We haven’t found anything inappropriate when searching them, but we cannot accept responsibility for any content on these sites. Search them in advance of the lesson and in some cases you may wish to download a selection of tracks from the sites yourself, before the lesson. Save these to your shared area and ask the students to choose from them. 

 

Purple Planet Sounds - www.purple-planet.com

Their free download collection is exactly that, just credit the website with the full URL somewhere in your work as the source of the music. 

 

 

Ben Sound - www.bensound.com

Their full collection is free to download, just credit the website with the full URL somewhere in your work as the source of the music. 

 

 

Play a couple of different tracks to children,  ask them to discuss and answer with a partner; What words do the music make you think of? How does it make you feel? What kind of place does it make you think of? Listen to some of the sound effect files as well, where might they be?  Discuss why each piece is different and how each creates different moods. 

 

Choosing your software

There are many multimedia tools available that will let the students create a slideshow of their work through the unit. Which one you use will depend on the devices and operating system you have available. In Windows 10 the Video Editor app is great, if your computers are a little older (pre-Windows 10), Windows Moviemaker is a good option. If you've been working on iPads, iMovie is a good choice. Google Slides and Powerpoint can also create something similar as you can add images and text to each slide and then add music to the first slide and set it to play all the way through the presentation. You can also set the slides to auto-progress so it becomes more like a video.

In the example below, we are using the Video Editor App in Windows 10. You can find more help and guidance around using the app here, and introductory videos about the app here.

You can also find an older version of the lesson plan using Windows Moviemaker here.

 

 

To get started, search for the Video Editor in the search box on your PC, or browse to find open it.

 

 

Select New video project and then name your video.

 

   

 

Adding title cards

Start by adding a title card, this is a way to add customisable titles in between your photos or videos.

 

 

Once added, the card will appear on the Storyboard timeline at the bottom of the screen. From here you can click Background to choose it's background colour, and add and edit the text with the Text button.

Add your text in the text entry box in the top right of the screen. Then choose from the animated text style options and the position choice below.

 

 

Ask the students to add their title and name to the first title card.  Click Done when complete.

Then ask them to add a second title card, it should remember the colour and style choices from the previous card.  Here they should add a description for the first set of images they are going to add: what they are and the software they used to make them, for example:

 

 

Again, click Done when complete.

 

Adding images

Next, the students should add their work to the Project library so they can use it in their video. Click the + Add button and search for the folder where all your project images have been saved.

 

 

Select all the images and click open.

 

 

Drag the images from the first lesson from the Project library to the Storyboard, making sure they appear after the title cards.

 

 

Add another title card for the next set of images and move it to the end of the timeline. Then drag in the images from lesson 2.

 

 

Repeat this process for the other lessons and images, making sure each task has its own title card to explain what was used to create the images.

The duration of each title card or image can be adjusted by clicking on Duration and choosing from the options. 3 seconds is the default, 3 to 5 seconds should be about right.

 

 

Motion effects

You can then add a bit of motion to the images, this adds subtle movements such as a slight zoom in or out when the video plays. Select an image and click Motion.

You can then choose from a selection of motion effects on the right-hand side of the screen.

 

 

Do this for each image, making sure you click Done after each one.

 

Adding music

Finally, add your music. Click on your very first title card at the beginning of the Storyboard timeline. You can add from a selection that comes with the Video Editor app by clicking Background Music, or, for a bit more choice, you can click Custom Audio to upload your own music that you may have downloaded from Purple Planet, Ben Sound or another source.

 

 

If you choose Custom audio, browse for the music file to add it to the project. Check the music will cover the whole presentation by ensuring the blue bar covers the whole time range at the bottom of the screen. Use the blue handles to adjust it if needed.

 

 

Then click the volume button on the tile in the top right, this give the option to make your music fade in or fade out. Select Fade out for a smoother finish to the video, as often the original music will last longer than the video, in which case it comes to a very abrupt stop at the end of the video. A fade out sounds much better!

 

 

Once the students are finished, ask the students to watch their video all the way through to check everything is okay. They should check:

• That every section has a title card
• Spelling is correct
• That all their images are included
• That the music starts correctly and fades out at the end
• That each image has some motion effect on it

 

Saving the final video

When all checks have been completed, they can save their work as a finished video by clicking Finish Video. This will render all the elements together into one video file that can be played on any device.

 

 

The medium video quality option is usually sufficient and will speed up the rendering process. Select that, click Export and choose where to save the final video file.

 

 

You/they can also add it to Google Drive or OneDrive if you want to share it online for any purpose, or create QR code links to the videos (note, you can create one link to a folder location if you want all the videos to be accessible from one QR code or short link)

Then get out the pop corn, sit back and enjoy their work.  

Here’s an example of a finished video made with Windows Video Editor

 

 

Plenary

If possible, ask the students to save their work to the shared area so that you can share some of their finished work with the class. Take some time to watch a couple and them to see if everything was included and well edited together.

Review the unit of work and the children's learning by asking and discussing the following:

• Which was your favourite piece of work from the unit? Why?
• Which was your favourite art tool that you used in the unit? Why?
• What was the most difficult thing you had to do? 
• Where do you feel you improved the most? 
• Which parts do you think you could do again independently?