Lambeth Sparks Tinkering Club: Streatham | Animating with MakeCode Arcade

You’re invited to the Lambeth Sparks Tinkering Club: Streatham… 

Over the past two years, Lambeth Sparks have been experimenting and tinkering with animation, learning how to use skills such as storytelling and coding. For this six-week programme, children and young people in Streatham will use their digital literacy skills to create their own animations. Every week, we will be looking at how different industries use animation in their work – from gaming to advertising. Children will tinker with digital making platforms to create and play with their own animation creations whilst developing an understanding of the careers that involve digital thinking, storytelling, arts and engineering. The aim is for children and young people to understand and explore how digital skills link to real life careers.

Week Four: Animating with MakeCode Arcade

Children are going to be introduced from Industry professional that use coding in their careers. They will share what you can expect from the coding industry and all the options in coding and careers and how they use the own unique, creative and digital skills. Children will be using MakeCode Arcade to create and code their own games. We will be designing our own characters and backgrounds. As well as adding effects, timers, ways to collect points and obstacles. At the end of the session we will have a Zoom Arcade where participants will be able to test and play each other’s games.

Lambeth Sparks Resource Boxes

Between 14th – 15th January, we sent out our Lambeth Sparks Resources Boxes. These contained all the kit needed to complete the programme. We personally delivered the kit to those who borrowed digital equipment to make sure they were all set up safely.

What’s in the Box?

• iPad Spider Frame
• Arts & Craft
• A4 & A3 White & Coloured Card & Paper
• Plasticine
• Sellotape
• Clay
• Wire Cutters
• Wire
• Voucher
• Resource sheet

Programme Structure

Week 1: 21st January

Animating Food: Children are going to be introduced how the advertising and marketing industry use animation to promote for food and drink. They will be introduced to an industry professional from Innocent Smoothies, who will tell them what to expect from the industry and how they can use their digital skills. They will then tinker with different animation techniques using food and drink to explore how they can market and advertise products in their home.

Week 2: 28th January

Animating Characters: Children and young people will prepare figures, objects and characters for next week’s session with Aardman using clay, wire and plasticine. We will be looking at different techniques that we can use to make our characters stable and how we can add in movement!

Week 3: 4th February

Animating with Aardman: Children are going to be introduced Aardman the makers of ‘Wallace and Gromit’. They will share how it works in their studio and what skills you need to do become animator. Children will be learning Aardman inspired techniques as well as using Aardman’s new stop motion app

Week 4: 11th February

Animating with MakeCode Arcade: Children are going to be introduced from Industry professional that use coding in their careers. They will share what you can expect from the coding industry and all the options in coding and careers and how they use the own unique, creative and digital skills. Children will be using MakeCode Arcade to create and code their own games. We will be designing our own characters and backgrounds. As well as adding effects, timers, ways to collect points and obstacles. At the end of the session we will have a Zoom Arcade where participants will be able to test and play each other’s games.

Week 5: 18th February

Animating with MakeCode Arcade (Multiplayer): Children will be using MakeCode Arcade to build upon our coding from the previous week. We will also be creating and coding our own multiplayer games! At the end of the session, we will have a Zoom Arcade where participants will be able to test and play each other’s games.

Week 6: 25th February

Animation Challenge: The Lambeth sparks participants have been explored numerous ways to animate through different industries. For week 6 we will pose a challenge based on what they want to do when they grow up! Children will animate their own films using the skills they have learnt from the previous sessions.

Week 7: 4th March

iOi will create a showreel of all the Lambeth Sparks children films, adverts and games that they have created throughout the last 6 weeks to celebrate their achievements. We will then see and share all the ‘Animation Projects’ that they have been towards in the last week.

Unfortunately this programme is fully booked. But be sure to sign up for information on our new programmes.