funk — MusicNotes with Ms. G

What do you get when you combine 1) psychedelic cut paper stop-motion animation; 2) the fabulous soundtrack of Mt. Crushmore by Lettuce; and 3) sixty-six 4th, 5th, & 6th Grade students?

A Stop-Motion Funk Odyssey! Drawing on inspiration from "The Philharmonic Gets Dressed" by Karla Kuskin, Monty Python's incredible Terry Gilliam & his cut paper animation aesthetic, and the rich sounds of Boston's own funk band Lettuce.

Emily Valenza (Visual Arts teacher at Kingsley & fabulous co-teacher) beautifully scaffolded and led our students in lessons on surrealist landscape, figure assemblage & storyboarding. Our students will be telling the story of the members of Lettuce waking up in a surreal environment, enjoying their (respective) day, and finally traveling to their concert that evening. Emily has been teaching the students how to become experts in using the stop-motion app KomaKoma. Later, I will be helping the students edit this project using the soundtrack of Mt. Crushmore, our own voices, and Garage Band.

We are finishing our character/landscape assemblage & beginning to capture film this week; we should be able to unveil our final music video in a month!

Thank you for your art and inspiration, Lettuce! We can't wait to share this project with you!