27/31 Something Fun - A Movie & A Tech Contest

        This is a different sharing than I usually do for the Slice of Life Challenge at Two Writing Teachers. It's also number 27 of 31!

       My job as literacy coach takes different paths, and in technology, I'm often exploring new apps that students might use for creating and communicating non-fiction, fiction, poetry, art, and so on. My slice of life Tuesday took another different path!

        All the students in my school choose individual unit topics and the curriculum is built around that topic, with both student and teacher input. Two students interested in animation and several teachers had an entertaining session with our technology teacher, learning a little about the stop-motion animation technique, and watching several movie trailers about a movie coming in the fall, an animation movie!  According to Wikipedia, “stop-motion animation is a technique to use a physically manipulated object appear to 
move on its own.”

         Alan Snow published the book Here Be Monsters a few years ago, and now a movie has been made from that book. Until Tuesday, I had not heard of this book, but it sounds quite fun, and funny. Here is the Goodreads summary:

        Welcome to Ratbridge. But beware -- for there is skulduggery afoot. Young Arthur has fallen foul of the appalling outlaw, Snatcher, and is trapped alone in the town with every way home sealed. Meanwhile Snatcher and his men are working tirelessly in secret on a fiendish and dastardly plan to take over -- and destroy -- the entire town. With the help of Willbury Nibble, QC; some friendly boxtrolls and cabbageheads; Marjorie the frustrated inventor; and the rats and pirates from the Ratbridge Nautical Laundry, can Arthur thwart Snatcher's evil plans -- and find his way home?

         The movie coming is titled Boxtrolls, animated as I said above, and it looks fun, too. I wouldn’t really be reviewing a book I haven’t read and a movie that’s not even out except I thought you would enjoy the contest going on in conjunction with the movie. 
          If you go to the site here, and scroll down to the bottom of the screen, you will see a down arrow or the words “build your own box troll”. It is an animated activity where kids/adults can design their own box troll, and then submit it for a contest. The Grand Prize Winner will have her or his troll design made into a puppet. There are other, lesser prizes, but the real fun to me is designing. Thought you would enjoy or your students/children will enjoy the contest, and later, the movie!