"The caterpillar is in the pig's stomach and he has to tell his friend, the falcon, that he ate him and that shows the virtue of honesty," said Megan Hansel, the director of her 5^th grade team's Claymation project. Their team is busy taking pictures of a clay caterpillar immersed in a plastic bag of yellow water that represents the pig's stomach.

            Fifth graders at Cedar Hills Elementary school are making Claymation videos thanks to a grant from the Blue Valley Educational Foundation. Art teacher, Tara Lightle wrote the grant and has since shared the software with five other Blue Valley elementary schools.

            "The kids come in from recess to work on their Claymation projects," said Lightle.

            The fifth graders were grouped into teams and each team has a director, animator and computer tech. They chose one of the seven Blue Valley Virtues and then developed a script. The next step was modeling their clay figures and arranging them in front of the backgrounds they had created.

            Right now the teams are working on taking a sequence of pictures of their models that tells their story that they will format into a video. Later they will be editing, adding special effects and sound.

            "The students are learning about teamwork and problem-solving in a very creative and collaborative way with their Claymation projects," said Lighlte.

            Their work will culminate in a Claymation festival where participating elementary schools will showcase their final videos in the spring.