Student Book Trailers

Have you ever been to the movies and watched the previews for upcoming attractions? If you are like me, you have seen lots and lots of them!

Those previews for movies got me thinking. What if we took that same idea and applied it to books? We could have previews for awesome books in the library! And…..what if instead of me making them like the one I made for The One and Only Ivan, the STUDENTS made them? How awesome would that be?

That’s how our original book trailer project got started! After the 4th grade students saw the “Ivan” trailer, they asked if they could make one too! A new technology and literacy project was born.

To get us started, we watched some other book trailers in our 4th grade library classes to get ideas on the website. Then we watched some book trailers that I made. The One and Only Ivan trailer is the one that Katherine Applegate saw and asked to come to our school and meet us! You can see them here on my book trailer page on our blog.

There’s lots more information with photos of our project, on our Kid Lit Movies post. Our students use either Windows MovieMaker or Photostory3 to create their book trailers because they are supported programs in our district.

 Tonight on the Titanic

by Mary Pope Osborne

 Anno’s Magic Seeds

by Mitsumasa Anno

Good Morning, Gorillas

by Mary Pope Osborne

 

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Owl Moon

by Jane Yolen

The Return of the Indian

by Lynne Reid Banks

 Tale of Despereaux

by Kate DiCamillo

 

Mummies in the Morning

by Mary Pope Osborne

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever

Jeff Kinney

The Fire Within

by Chris D’ Lacey

Long Shot

by Mike Lupica

Bound for Oregon

by Jean Van Leeuwen

Big Nate Strikes Again

by Lincoln Peirce

Stone Fox

by John Reynolds Gardiner

 

  39 Clues: Maze of Bones

by Rick Riordan

Civil War on Sunday

by Mary Pope Osborne

 

 Bases Loaded

by Mike Knudson

 

Ivy & Bean: Break the Fossil Record

by Annie Barrows

 

Paintball Invasion

by Jake Maddox

Trailers from 2015 (grade 4)

made with Photostory3

11 Birthdays
by Wendy Mass

Junie B. Jones and Some Sneaky Peeky Spying

by Barbara Park

Elephants Cannot Dance

by Mo Willems

Inside Out and Back Again

by Thanhha Lai

11 Birthdays

by Wendy Mass

I Survived the Nazi Invasion of 1945

by Lauren Tarshis

I Survived the Shark Attacks of 1916

by Lauren Tarshis

Storybook of Legends (Ever After High series)

By Shannon Hale

Noodle (Puppy Place series)

by Ellen Miles

Zombie Chasers

by John Kloepfer

The Secret Zoo

by Bryan Chich

Hatchet

by Gary Paulsen

The Tail of Emily Windsnap

by Liz Kessler

 Emily Windsnap and the Siren’s Secret

by Liz Kessler

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel

by Jeff Kinney

 Diary of a Wimpy Kid

by Jeff Kinney

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10 thoughts on “Student Book Trailers

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    • Dear Ms. Pudlowski,
      The students used Windows Live Movie Maker for our book trailers. I have also used Animoto and Photopeach. If you ever want to try I have different resources for making book trailers on my wiki. There is a link on the right sidebar on my blog.

      This year we are making non-fiction book trailers and we are using Powerpoint.
      From,
      Mrs. Hembree

  3. Hello!

    I am a 4th grade teacher and came across your blog post on student-made book trailers. We love the idea! As we continue to play around with different programs we are struggling with the music portion. How/where did your students find the music that they added into their trailers?

    Thanks!

    • Hello Madeline,
      When we use Photostory3, we create music within the program. However, with other programs that don’t have music I most often get music from http://www.incompetech.com. There is a wide assortment of genres of music and generally we can find what we need. Everything is creative commons and we list our source in the credits.
      I hope that helps!
      Julie

  4. Hello Mrs. Hembree,
    I wanted to know if you are still continuing Books to Africa. I loved Books to Africa, but at IMS we don’t have any of these Book Selection Committees or Books to Africa. Also, how was the visit from Iian Read? One of my friends that is in Ms. Ilgenfritz’s class told me that he came. I hope it was as fun as his visit last year! I have a book recommendation. Do you have the book A Long Walk To Water ? It is a really good book, based on a true story.

    • Hi Julia,
      Yes, we will start Books to Africa in January after the holidays. I haven’t started the Book Selection Committee yet. I need to soon. Did your friend tell you the library is open at lunch recess time this year? It’s a pretty quietly busy place of readers every day!
      Our visit with Iain was terrific. He brought the Cougar Ridge version to give away as prizes again. He also brought three copies of books with specialized pages for three students who wrote to him.
      Thank you for the book recommendation. I do have A Long Walk to Water. I agree with you that it’s a good book. I hope you are doing well at IMS. Mrs. Allott and I are going to be taking 10 students to WE Day this year. I know IMS is taking some students too. Maybe there is a program you can join and be part of this as well.
      Keep reading!
      Mrs. Hembree

    • Jennifer,
      Thank you for letting me know about this change in the links. I have deleted both. Ugh! So frustrating because this website used to be filled with kid friendly book trailers.
      Julie

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