Educational activity around the short film Grandma’s Hero
Describe and compare sound elements. Identify and name similarities and differences in two extracts. Identify and name a simple organization in a musical extract.
Grandma’s Hero © The Animation Workshop
TitleGrandma’s Hero
ThemeFamily relationship
Genre & keywordsComic, dragon, hero, hero school, grandmother, protection
Age (for film)6-11 years old
Duration07 min 17 s
DirectorC. Monnier & B. Ozert
MusicM.Winum & J. Petersen
ProductionThe Animation Workshop (Danemark, 2016)
Listen to and analyze film music.
This animated film is worthy of a feature film. The images are very beautiful and the music is reminiscent of film music. It would be a shame not to exploit them!
To begin, we can have students listen to an extract, without showing the images, and ask them for their impressions. In your opinion, based on the music, what can we see in the video? What could this film be about? Write what they say on the board. Then show the same extract with the images. Ask them again for their impressions and write them down. We can then choose another extract; this time, we show the video without sound, then we do a second viewing with sound. What's the difference? What does music bring? Several extracts lend themselves to this work, for example: the beginning up to 29 s, from 2 min 32 s to 2 min 56 s, from 4 min 25 s to 4 min 47 s, from 6 min 10 s to 6 min 37 s and the end credits.
We will then refine the analysis by asking the children to recognize the instruments, to describe the music, the intensity, the tempo (fast or slow), the effect sought and produced. We can compare two extracts, do we recognize a similar melody in different extracts? In the extract from 6 min 10 s to 6 min 37 s and the end credits we recognize African rhythms.
After analyzing these extracts, and collecting the children's hypotheses on the themes of the short film, we will be able to watch the film in its entirety. We can then confirm or refute the children's hypotheses. This work could be the start of a larger sequence on film music. Here is an example of a sequence in three sessions on the Edumoov website. And a very complete sequence at School Bench. What can also be interesting in film music is to search with children for melodies that represent characters. The melody returns each time the character(s) appear.
Activity sheet written by: Valérie du blog Val 10. Discover the Val 10 blog...