Kelsey
American Studies
November 5, 2007


STOP FRAME REFLECTION
ESSAY



A moth and a half ago we started a project on North American explores. My partner, Emily, and I chose to do our project on Leif Erickson, North American discover the new world. We chose him
from many explorers because we wanted to choose a person we didn’t know much about and hadn’t really heard of. Out of all, here are some of the ups and down’s of this project.

There are a lot of things I enjoyed from this project. To do this project, we had to build with clay to show Leif’s life and capture all
he had accomplished. It was more “hands on” work than just pen and paper. I also had a friend to talk with and help with the project. I have always been interested in photography, so all the pictures we took were fun for me. We took about 250 pictures. This project was fun because what kid doesn’t want to take an hour out of their day to work with clay, draw and take pictures.

Although I enjoyed this project, there were some difficult parts. When we first started , our teacher told us that there was going to be a lot of computer work, which worried me a little because I’m not very good with the computer. My partner and I, even though great friends, are both strong headed people with our own ideas and opinions, which steered us a little off gear sometimes. We had a little trouble always turning in the stop frame animations on time which docked us back a few points. That was upsetting because we knew we had done a nice job. I think a difficult part of this project was the computer work and many other kids had the same dilemma. In the end, there weren’t too many difficult problems to face.










I can say, for the first time, I learned a lot and had fun doing it. Some of the skills that I’ll be able to take with me include moving making and computer work, which will help me in every day life. Three things I discovered that were new to me are:
1. I learned that Columbus was not the first to discover the new world that Leif did.
2. I found out that he served the king of Norway and soon after married the King’s daughter.
3. He then set off to find the new world.
Some of the most important things I learned were about Leif Erickson’s life and the discoveries he made. All he did throughout
his life, I can’t tell you because that would take far too long, but I can show you with my clay mat ion movie.


When I finished this project I was sad that it was over, but happy with my grade of B+. I’m excited to start a new project and, hopefully, it will be as hands on as this project was. I think it will be a movie project, so I’m sure you will be able to read that in my blog soon. I hope you like the life of Leif Erickson and you enjoy our movie.