The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

partners!
Example:
Here’s how to make a face go from a frown to a smile: On the last 
page of your pad draw your fi rst picture. To make a face, draw a 
circle with two eyes. (You’ll put in the mouth later.) Trace just the 
circle and the eyes onto all of the other pages. Those parts won’t 
move. Now make the mouth. Start with drawing the happy mouth 
on the last page. Draw the mouth on each of the other pages, but 
each time you draw it make the line get fl atter until it’s a straight 
line. Then, make it bend in the other direction into a frown. You can 
colour in the background if you want to.
Flip the pages forwards and backwards to make your face smile and 
frown. Now you have your own mini-movie.
Now think of your own ideas. How about a scientifi c or geographic 
theme?

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Getting Started
21
WORKSHEET: MAKE A SPINNING CARD (THAUMATROPE)
Teachers’ note:
A thaumatrope is a toy that was popular in Victorian times. A disk or 
card with a picture on each side is attached to two pieces of string. 
When the strings are twirled quickly between the fi ngers the two 
pictures appear to combine into a single image due to persistence 
of vision. The invention of the thaumatrope, whose name means 
‘turning marvel’ or ‘wonder turner’, has often been credited to 
the astronomer Sir John Herschel. However, it was a well-known 
London physicist, Dr. John A. Paris, who made this toy popular.
Thaumatropes were the fi rst of many optical toys, simple devices 
that continued to provide animated entertainment until the 
development of modern cinema. Although the thaumatrope does not 
produce animated scenes, it relies on the same persistence of vision 
principle that other optical toys use to create illusions of motion. As 
the thaumatrope spins, the series of quick fl ashes is interpreted as 
one continuous image.
You might like to circulate the following handout, or simply explain 
the process to the class.