I just completed an animation unit with my 6th grade students. They made really great flip books. Some got very motivated and went beyond the 20 notecard minimum and made really long and smooth flip books.

At the end of the unit, I extended the deadline by a day and students that were done got to watch Prince Achmed. I rented this video from Scarecrow Video about 10 years ago and had to put down a $1000 deposit because it was such a rare video.

With the new dvd, I didn’t have to lay out $1000 and I was very impressed. The folks who put this together added pastel backrounds to make it color instead of black and white.

Lotte Reiniger worked with her homeschool students and assistants to make this movie using a light table and camera photographing cardboard and lead jointed figures. Her brilliant sillouettes are super special and work very well for the fairy tale based story.