Brush Ninja Teacher Resources
Brush Ninja is a fun suite of tools that students can use to learn about animation, to illustrate the concepts they have just learnt, or to make their presentations more interesting. Alternatively it can be a fun, free, way for teachers to creatively present ideas to their students.
Science shows that there is a connection between drawing things, and remembering things. Drawing things encourages people to think of topics in multiple ways, which makes them easier to recall later. Animating things takes this a step further. The addition of movement introduces repetition which reinforces the topic being learnt.
Examples of Brush Ninja in Education
We are loving using brush ninja in the tech lab! I love getting to watch their creativity come out!
Tweeted by Molly Tierney3rd grade animators are blowing our minds in Media Arts with @BinaryMoon’s #BrushNinja Animations! 🤯 👏 🤩 🎞️
Tweeted by PS101Q5th graders began to experiment with #BrushNinja Animation today and wow…
Tweeted by PS101QStudents in Grade 3 are creating animations using #BrushNinja to create weather animations to go along with their science unit of meteorology!
Tweeted by PS101QGet ready for our #podcast #episode with Ben Gillbanks of @brushninjaapp! You’re going to love #BrushNinja for all different curriculum areas! 🎧 🎙️
Thrilled to share a sampling of the animations crafted by our super talented 4th grade artists under the guidance of our preservice teacher, Ms. Cheek! These were inspired by artist @chrisuphues and made using @brushninjaapp. They just make me SMILE 😀 Enjoy!! 💚💜🖤💛💖💞
See more examples of Brush Ninja being used by teachers →
Benefits of Brush Ninja?
- Brush Ninja is free. Free software keeps costs down. No software licenses, no new hardware. All you need is a web browser, it just works.
- No logins are needed. You can open the website and get started straight away.
- It’s simple to use. My objective has been to make it as easy to use as possible. My 2 and a half year old can (and does) create animations in Brush Ninja. They are mostly scribbles, but he can draw, add new frames, and play back what he has made.
- There’s no tracking. There is no need to worry about your privacy, or personal information being sold. You can check out the privacy policy here.
- No Messaging There is no way for children to contact or interact with anyone else on the app.
How to use Brush Ninja in Education?
- To illustrate concepts & knowledge. Reinforce the things students have learnt by getting them to create a slideshow with key information.
- Show their working. Particularly useful for Mathematics, students can display their thought processes and then tidy the animation up to show the final result.
- Creative Writing. Present stories, animated comics, or short cartoons.
- Animated Ideas. Brush Ninja is a great way to jot down ideas for creative projects.
- Presentations. Add some motion to presentations by creating simple animations of the topic being presented.
- Educational Games. Like Pictionary/ Charades style guessing games, or Quizes.
Memberships and User Accounts
Brush Ninja has optional user accounts; however in many cases students do not need them. On Brush Ninja user accounts are paid for, and they unlock additional power-user features. The core app is free for everyone and will always be.
User accounts can be useful for teachers. Paid user accounts give teachers access to additional features that can be saved in .brushninja files. These files can then be shared with students.
For example, one of the premium features that paid users have access to is being able to add your own images to an animation file. Teachers could use this feature to add relevant images for the subject being studied to an empty file. This file can then be saved for the students to load on their individual devices. Once the students load the animation they will be able to freely use the images that are saved in the file.
As such, it is suggested that the only people who need membership accounts (in an educational setting), are the teachers. Please note that Brush Ninja membership accounts should not be shared with students, or others. This is because account users will have access to membership information, be able to change the account password, and cancel the account.
Example usage
- In art a premium user could create an animation file containing a collection of abstract face parts and then share that file with students. The students could then open the file in the free version of the app and rearrange, and animate, the face parts creating their own Picasso style image.
- In science a premium user could create a file containing images of things like a water droplet, and a cloud, the sun, and an image of a lake. This file could be share with students who could be asked to animate the water cycle.
For more information about memberships, what you get and how much they cost, you can visit the sign-up page.
Lesson Plans
To help you get started I have put together a collection of 71 lesson plans to freely use with your students. You can see some examples below - with many more on the lesson plan section of the website.
Useful Tools for Teachers
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Padlet. A simple online noticeboard. A great place for students to post their animations. They can be grouped on different boards per topic. Below are some examples of Padlet being used to display students’ animations:
- A collection of animations created by students looking forward to their holiday break.
- A look at the character of Margarete/ Gretchen from Faust
- Students learning Spanish
- Buncee. A presentation app that you can add your Brush Ninja animations to.
Tutorials
These are some interesting tips and tutorials from teachers, on how to Brush Ninja.
- How to Use Brush Ninja (Youtube Video)
- Using Brush Ninja and Screencastify to Make Science Presentations
- How to use Brush Ninja to teach Chinese (Youtube Video, in Chinese)
- Teach like a wrestler
Helpful Docs
These are the official Brush Ninja docs explaining some of the common questions I get for using Brush Ninja.
- How to Convert an Animated Gif to a video
- How to Export your Animation - Share your animation with friends, or teachers.
- How to Make a Gif - An animation primer.
- Glossary of Animation Terms
- Getting Started with Animation
- How to Open a Brushninja file - Loading a file.
- How to Save your Animation - Save your animation to be reopened later.
- How to Upload Brush Ninja Animations to Google Docs and Google Slides
- How to Upload Brush Ninja Animations to SeeSaw
