Children ages 4 to 12 are creating a stop motion animation through an undergraduate student-led class.

This is the first time stop motion animation will be taught through Art Express classes, which began Saturday. Another change to this session is that the last day of classes, March 10, will focus on a “red carpet rollout” of the students’ films, said Deborah Booth, director of external programs. Booth has been running the program since 1992 and said Art Express has remained popular with local parents and their kids.

“My favorite part of this is the fact that we have people come to this over and over again because they like it,” Booth said.

Children will use clay, paper and Post-It notes to create their animation, said Lina Kuliavas, senior art education major. Kuliavas said teaching Art Express is part of a required class for her major and she looked forward to working with kids.

“I’ve always been around little kids and I really like seeing what they make,” Kuliavas said.

Liz Rex, a doctoral student assisting in Art Express, said the undergraduate students chose what would be taught and researched over winter break to find different ways of creating stop motion animation. During the red carpet rollout, the children’s animations will be shown, as will a short movie clip showing the animations being created.

“The kids work in all materials,” Rex said. “They have two hours to do a multi-layered project.”