Follow the wonder of moving pictures, meet early cinema pioneers and begin a small film story of your own.
£6.99
Digital download · a printable Parent Guide and Wonder Companion Journal for your child
Digital downloadA horse lifts its hooves. A drum of drawings begins to spin. A filmmaker imagines a story worth sharing. The First Movies invites your family to explore the meeting place of observation, invention and imagination.
Meet Eadweard Muybridge and Alice Guy-Blaché, investigate the zoetrope and follow your own ideas from a simple story plan to a family screening. There is room to talk, draw, make and notice, choosing the parts that interest your children most.
Gather around the pictures and begin with what your children notice. One child might be drawn to the horse photographs, another to making a story, and another to the puzzle of the spinning drum. Their questions can lead the way.
Read and talk together, help with the making and let the project unfold at your family's pace. A quiet conversation or a tiny home-made film can be a worthwhile discovery in its own right; there is no need to turn it into a large production.
Continue with a zoetrope-making video, a read-aloud about Alice Guy-Blaché and the National Museum of Australia's paper-zoetrope activity. A wordless storytelling prompt offers another small path to follow together.
The companion resources are free to explore with or without the lesson. The purchased Parent Guide and Journal remain separate.
Can’t find what you’re looking for? We’re always happy to help.
The lesson can be shared as a family, adapting how much you read, discuss, draw or write. Younger children may need help with the written and making activities; children ready for more independence can develop their own film ideas.
You will receive two PDF files totalling eight pages: A four-page Parent Guide, and a four-page Journal. This is a digital product, not a posted book or kit.
A printer is useful for the Journal's drawing spaces, cut-out passes and flip-book frames. You can read the Parent Guide on screen and discuss its questions together; the cut-and-make activities are designed to be printed.
There is no fixed timetable. You might begin with a conversation and return later to the making or filmmaking. Leave room for the questions and ideas that interest your family.
For the Journal activities, gather paper, pencils or colouring materials, scissors and a clip or stapler for the flip book. Recording a film needs a phone, tablet or camera; props and costumes are optional. A zoetrope make has its own materials list, so check the chosen instructions before starting. Grown-ups should supervise cutting and stapling and handle any craft-knife or hot-glue steps.
Yes. The companion collection is free to explore whether or not you buy the lesson. The paid Parent Guide and Journal are separate downloadable files.
No. A screening for your household can be enough. Ask permission from everyone you record, keep the filming space safe and let a grown-up decide whether and how anything is shared.
Explore The First Movies together, then see where a few pictures and a little imagination might lead.
£6.99
Digital download · a printable Parent Guide and Wonder Companion Journal for your child
