Educational activity around the short film Giant sun
Implement a text production process. Choose, organize and use gestures, tools and materials according to the effects they produce.
Giant sun © Y. Benedi & C.Desrumaux
TitleGiant sun
ThemeSun
Genre & keywordsComic, ray of sunshine, city, traffic
Age (for film)3-11 years
Duration01 min 12 s
DirectorY. Benedi & C.Desrumaux
ProductionY. Benedi & C.Desrumaux (France, 2010)
Write a story inspired by the video and illustrate it.
This video could be the starting point for working on a project combining French and visual arts. Work first with the children on the meaning: the sun wants to recover its ray that has escaped, and it has great difficulty getting there. When he shows himself a little too much, the city wakes up and comes alive. He will therefore have to use stratagems to catch the ray without being noticed. He extends his arm as far as possible and goes around the buildings but he fails. He decides to camouflage himself, but the sun burns and the clothing catches fire. In the end we don't know how he gets there, but we know it's good because in the end the ray of sunshine returned to its place. We can ask the children to imagine how he achieved this feat.
From there, we can engage the students in the production of writing. The instruction: imagine that another element of nature loses something that belongs to it. Start orally by collecting ideas; motivate students through a question/answer system, which will allow them to start writing by giving some ideas. We can first list the elements of nature that come to mind by naming the part of himself that he could have lost.
Examples: a cloud which has lost part of its raindrops, which would have the consequence of disrupting the water cycle, a tree which has lost part of its buds, a broken branch, a dry river, a mountain which loses a piece of rock, the sea which seeks its waves, etc...
Everyone will have to choose an element and invent a little story telling how they manage to recover what they lost. What are the obstacles? How will they be circumvented? Several students can choose the same element but invent a different story. It will then be interesting to compare the different versions.
After this writing task, ask the students to illustrate their story. Everyone can use the technique of their choice: pencils, painting, cutting, collage, images... Paste the illustration under the text or rewrite the text under the illustration depending on the media used, all of which must fit in an A4 format document. Each student will be able to come and tell their story and show their illustration. These productions can then be displayed in class for some time before joining the student's artistic journey, unless they are grouped together in a collection which will be passed on to other classes or families.
Activity sheet written by: Valérie du blog Val 10. Discover the Val 10 blog...
