Free lesson plans for a stop-motion animation project with ages 8–12. Two 45-minute lessons or one 90-minute block, with EU Key Competences mapping.

Read, Cut & Film is a structured creative method developed by Liberi Ludi AISBL, a Belgian non-profit working with newcomer and local children through storytelling and animation. These materials are free to use.

What’s inside

two scenarios: a first shoot, and a shoot led by a child tutor;
timings for two 45-minute lessons or one 90-minute block;
mapping to the EU Key Competences framework (2018);
learning objectives and learning outcomes written for ages 8–12;
a facilitator’s form for recording how the session went;
guidance on group size, on what the adult is actually for, and on the two closing conversations — the premiere and the plenary.

The five stages

Read + Discuss → Imagine + Sketch → Cut + Create → Film + Edit → Show + Share.

No animation background is required from the teacher. Prior knowledge from the children: none. Language demand is low by design — the method rests on understanding the story, which the child takes on through visual means. This is why a newly arrived child and a local child can work on the same task side by side.

Materials. Paper, scissors, split pins, a smartphone or tablet, and a free stop-motion app. The method does not prescribe what the characters are made of: paper the children draw themselves, a printed kit, plasticine, or figures from the classroom shelf. The five stages stay the same.

Also included

Read, Cut & Film: a brief review — the method set out in eight pages, for tutors and club leaders running it outside a school timetable.
Read, Cut & Film: a proof of method — the same five stages shown page by page as they run with a prepared kit, with frames from films children actually made.

On what we do not claim. The lesson plans include a section setting out the limits of the method honestly: what the evidence does and does not support, and where assessment at group level sits awkwardly with objectives written for the individual child. We would rather you knew that before the lesson than after it.

A complete ready-to-run module built on this method — with the story, storyboard, printable characters, backgrounds and filming guide — is available here: Babiling Kit: Stop Motion (KS2–KS3)

If you run this with a group, a short review here helps other teachers find it.