It’s no secret that children grow up watching movies, enjoying TV shows, and learning from both. The sights, sounds, and action of a movie bring a subject or story to life. That’s true whether the topic is sorcerers and magic spells or penguins and polar expeditions.

With Windows Live™ Movie Maker, it’s fun to create short-subject movies for your class. It is a fast, easy way to turn photos and videos into great-looking movies and slide shows you can share with your class, on the Web, or on DVDs.  And it’s free! Go to www.windowslive.com/desktop/moviemaker

Teachers face the same challenge when introducing a new lesson or new learning material — how to grab students’ attention and draw them into the discussion. Sharing a short movie on a subject gets students to sit up and take notice.

Six Ways to Use Movies in Class

1) Create a timeline that moves
Present a succession of historical events in a photo slide show with music from that period.

2) Make your movie morph
For science class, present the stages of development in the life of a butterfly. Create a photo slide show with images you grab from bing.com.

3) Demonstrate things you can’t bring to class
Videotape feeding time for lions or gorillas at the zoo. Or capture the physics at play in a local skate park with still photos or video.

4) Share the classics in a fresher way
Shoot video of various students reciting a phrase or two from a Shakespearean sonnet. String them together in a movie, and suddenly all eyes are on the screen. The whole class hangs on every famous word.

5) Try a different angle for math
For math class, share all the ways that angles appear in everyday life, from
a city skyscraper to the painted lines in the school parking lot to the countless angles at play on a pool table.

6) Start a lively debate
Frame a debate topic by sharing the pros and cons of an issue with photos.

Read more about Windows Live Movie Maker