Stop motion in the classroom with FrameFold
Lesson plan for two lessons of 50 minutes each, school years 3 to 10 · As of October 2026, FrameFold 2.6
The children lay out, knead or fold a short story and film it frame by frame. The iPad or iPhone stands on a tripod. FrameFold takes the picture by itself as soon as the hands are out of the frame. Nobody has to touch the device during the recording.
FrameFold is free, without ads, without an account and without internet. All pictures stay on the device. For a school this means: the children sign up nowhere, nobody else processes their data, and no consent for a cloud service is needed.
Download the lesson plan as a PDF (A4)
Where it fits the Austrian curriculum
- Primary school (Volksschule): The primary school curriculum lists media education as a cross-curricular theme. One of the goals for the end of primary school is that children can design (and share) media contributions of their own. Art and design (Kunst und Gestaltung) names film and video as a means of expression and has its own area for working with photos and films.
- Lower secondary (Mittelschule and AHS-Unterstufe): Since the 2022/23 school year, digital basic education (Digitale Grundbildung) has been a compulsory subject with one lesson a week in every year (BGBl. II Nr. 267/2022). One of its competence areas is production: creating and publishing content digitally. In the third year, pupils are expected, among other things, to try out different ways of presenting content.
- Other subjects: art, German (storytelling), general science or physics (motion, time).
This mapping is a suggestion. The curriculum in its current version in the RIS, the Austrian legal information system, is what counts.
What the children learn
- Making and presenting: plan a story, turn it into a film and show it to the class.
- Understanding motion: How do single pictures turn into movement? What do small and large steps between two frames do?
- Working together: In groups of three there are three roles that change after every scene: director, set and check.
Materials per group
- an iPad or iPhone with FrameFold
- a tripod or stand that points the device at the scene from above or from the front
- modelling clay, paper, scissors, loose parts or small figures
- a steady surface with even light, not in the sun by the window
- for the second lesson: a printer for the flip book (A4)
First lesson: plan and record
| Time | Step |
|---|---|
| 5 min | Opening: Let the children flip through a finished flip book. Question: why does it look as if it moves? |
| 10 min | Storyboard: Each group draws three boxes: beginning, twist, end. One figure, one place and one change are enough. |
| 5 min | Set-up: Device on the tripod, open FrameFold, “Simple” mode, “New work” with the group's name. |
| 25 min | Recording: Move the figure a little, hands away, wait. FrameFold takes the picture as soon as the scene is still. Onion skin shows the previous frame faintly, so the children see how big the last step was. |
| 5 min | Save: Tap “Done”. The work stays on the device and continues in the second lesson. |
Rule of thumb for the children: small steps make slow, smooth movement, large steps make fast movement. One second of film needs 10 frames (at 10 frames per second).
Second lesson: polish, sound, screening
| Time | Step |
|---|---|
| 10 min | Retakes: In the work, long-press a failed frame and choose “Retake”, or “Duplicate” for a longer pause. |
| 10 min | Sound: With “Record voice” the film plays along while the children speak. The recording then sits in the right place. Or “Add music or sound” puts an audio file under the film, for example royalty-free music. Sounds such as a pop or a ta-da can also be attached to single frames. |
| 5 min | Export: “Export stop-motion”. In “Advanced” mode, frame rate (2 to 30 frames per second), format and playback mode can be chosen. |
| 20 min | Screening: Connect a screen or projector. Each group shows its film and says briefly what was hardest. |
| 5 min | Flip book: “Flip book” creates an A4 print sheet with cutting lines. Cut, staple and flip at home. |
Tips from practice
- Light: Even room light is better than daylight from the window, because clouds make the film flicker. FrameFold evens out small jumps in brightness on export (“Reduce flicker”).
- Tripod: If it gets knocked, FrameFold shows “Camera moved?” and can overlay the first frame for realigning.
- Remote shutter: The volume buttons on the device or on headphones also take a picture. With an Apple Watch it works from the wrist.
- Projector: In the Studio's monitor mode the projector shows only the camera picture. The class watches without anyone touching the device.
- Works: Every group gets its own work. Deleted frames stay in the work's bin for 30 days.
Privacy at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do children need an account? | No. |
| Is any data transmitted? | No. The app makes no network connection. |
| Ads or tracking? | No. |
| Which permissions? | Camera. The microphone only if someone chooses “Record voice” or “Clap to shoot”. Photos only through the system photo picker and for saving the finished film. |
| Cost? | None. In Austria the app can also be distributed through Apple School Manager. |
All details are in the FrameFold privacy policy.
Free to use
Free to use under CC BY 4.0, attribution: Rainer Bracharz. The lesson plan may be copied, adapted and shared, also in your own teaching material. The licence covers the text of this lesson plan, not the FrameFold app, its source code, images or trademarks.
More about the app: how FrameFold came about, free on the App Store, source code can be viewed on GitHub.
“Stop motion in the classroom with FrameFold” by Rainer Bracharz, CC BY 4.0. Online with all links: www.bracharz.com/en/niche-app-marketing/classroom/