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Kerry Abbott, Abingdon's wonderful communications teacher, has a website to showcase the work of students in her communications
wheel class. You can view all the videos that were produced during the current and past school years, including plays, commercials
and claymation movies. Go to Ms. Abbott's Communications Class Website
Interdisciplinary Class Puts Knowledge to Work
Why is there thunder and lightning? Why do turtles have shells? To explain nature's mysteries, Abingdon fourth-graders invent
legends and dramatize them through stop-action claymation movies in their Modern Communications class. The rise of Alexander
the Great and other social studies topics are fodder for fifth-graders' historical fiction films.
Modern Communications is one of three special classes at Abingdon designed to help K-5 students connect academic subjects
with real-world applications. Children make concepts come to life through drama, dance, movement, art, film, and video.
They also get to use the lab's laptops and eight digital video cameras.
How exactly do nine- and ten-year-olds make movies? Kerry Abbott, who created the class and has been teaching at Abingdon
for seven years, says children first brainstorm, then research their story. Using special story-boarding software, they map
it into 12 scenes.
Then kids get to mold and twist bits of colorful clay into characters -- from snakes and snails to Julius Caesar. They
create sets with cardboard, crayons and found objects. By moving the clay characters slightly and filming them a few seconds
at a time, they create a visual story. Later they record voices, edit in iMovie, and finally add titles and credits.
What Does it Mean to Be Word Smart?
Two years ago third-graders showed their schoolmates various ways people can be smart in a series of special features.
These video shorts air during the morning announcements on the Cardinal News Network (CNN), the school's closed-circuit TV
station.
According to the Multiple Intelligences theory that underlies Abingdon's school focus, children explain that
people can be number smart, art smart, body smart, people smart, music smart, self smart, nature smart, or word smart. "Everyone
is smart, just in different ways," a third-grader explains to the camera.
The "in-depth reports" also feature future
careers. Children show their peers that a number-smart person might choose to be an accountant, banker, engineer, astronaut,
or scientist.
Even kindergarteners and first-graders get to take Communications with Ms. Abbott. They might write
poetry about famous works of art, or write literature-based plays. Last year, kindergarteners dramatized the classic Three
Little Pigs and got creative with variations like the Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.
Advice for Kids, By Kids
"I'm bored," a little girl complains while sitting in the gym waiting for the school day to start. "Why don't
you check out a book at the library?" another suggests. In "Morning Opportunities," one of the public service
announcements (PSAs) that second-graders create in Communications class for the rest of the school, children explain how to
return and check out library books, and how to get a pass to the music room to practice their violin, recorder, or band instrument.
PSAs are shown to the entire school via CNN, and second-graders get to write the scripts, act, and produce. Students
treat topics ranging from healthy choices in the cafeteria to how to play nicely on the playground.
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