Bixby 3rd-Graders Premiere Stop Motion Clay Art Movies To Raise Money For Local Nonprofit

Third-grade students at Bixby's Central Elementary School are getting creative with clay for a good cause.

The students are hosting a film festival this week to show off stop-motion animation movies they have been working on for the last three months.

Art teacher, Martha Highland, said the third graders designed backgrounds, created clay figures and used a stop-motion animation app to make the characters come to life. They then added background music to help tell their stories.

Hadley, a third-grade art student, said she enjoyed putting it all together. "My favorite part was probably making all of it and getting to watch the section that we just made," she added.

Once the movies were complete, Highland said the students came up with the idea to debut them to their families. She said they decorated the art room to look like a movie theatre and decided to sell concession items to benefit Joy in the Cause.

"Someone came up with the idea to donate to a charity or something like that and it was really important to me because I really like helping people in need and stuff, so I definitely voted to do that," said Hadley.

Joy in the Cause is a local nonprofit that provides backpacks for kids in crisis and Care Packages for those battling cancer and other life-altering illnesses.

Highland said she is very proud of her students for taking their creativity to the next level and using the project to support a good cause.

"Sometimes we limit children on what they can do and we put them in a box to do as I do," she continued saying, "Giving them the ability to create on their own, you see a lot of great things come to life and it is inspiring to see that as a teacher, to see what they can do, what they can come up with, and it just brings joy into the art room."