Second graders at Laburnum Elementary have been learning about magnets and how opposite poles attract and like poles repel (SOL2.2). Today students in Ms. Jones’ class created magnet animations using ABCYa!Animate. First I explained how animation works (it’s a series of still pictures that are viewed rapidly so it looks like objects in the pictures are moving). I also explained that their animations would show magnets attracting to and repelling from each other. Most students chose to draw bar magnets, but they could also have drawn horseshoe magnets. They knew to paint the north pole red, and the south pole could be any color (traditionally, it is blue or grey). We used the “Text” tool to add an “N” and an “S” at the respective poles. After they drew their first magnet, we grouped it together so we could move it as one object. Then they drew their second magnet with the opposite pole facing the first one. We grouped that one together as well. Next we used the “Copy Frame” button to copy our picture and move the magnets a little closer to each other. We also typed the word “Attract.” We continued copying the frames and moving the magnets closer to each other until the opposite poles touched. Now it was time to show “Repel.” I taught them how to flip the magnet around so like poles were facing each other (put the cursor in the corner of the magnet and click and drag the curly arrow that appears). We typed “Repel,” and copied the frames, moving the magnets further apart in each frame. Finally clicked the “Loop” button so the animation played over and over, then we exported it as a GIF. We shared our animations on Google classroom, but you can see them all here.
