This is a fun way to create a simple form of animation, like the cartoons you watch on TV.

How cartoons and movies work:

A cartoon animation is made up of lots of single pictures. In fact, every movie or TV show you watch works this way.

When someone shows you a series of still pictures one after another, your mind fills in the gaps and you are tricked into thinking that the cartoon characters are actually moving.

How you can do it too:

All you need is a small notebook or note pad with pages you can easily flip. You can even take a bunch of plain white cards and staple them together at one edge to create your own notebook, with the exact number of pages you want.

Think about what you want to show in your little cartoon. For example, you can start with a simple stick figure walking across the page. Plan what each still picture will look like. Each such picture is called a "frame".

Maybe you want the figure to stand on one side of the page in the first frame, then have one leg up and lean forward in the next frame, then stand again in a slightly different spot in the third frame. These three frames will look like the figure is taking one step. Perhaps when the figure reaches the other side, you can show it standing in one spot with an arm up in one frame, then holding the arm over to one side in the next frame, and then holding the arm over to the other side in the frame after that. This will look like the figure is waving.

Once you have a plan, start sketching it in pencil, lightly, so you can still erase and make changes. Flip through the book once in awhile to see how it looks. When you are finished sketching all the frames, you can go over the outlines with a black marker, and even color them in if you like.

Now start flipping!

Shmonster animation:

To help you get started, here is an example of an animation. You can print this page and trace each frame, and feel free to add frames of your own and build on this simple example.

Frame 1:

Frame 2:

Frame 3:

Frame 4:

Frame 5:

Frame 6:

Frame 7:

Frame 8:

Frame 9:

Frame 10:

Frame 11:

Frame 12:

Frame 13:

Frame 14:

Frame 15:

Frame 16:

Frame 17:

Finished Animation: