Oakgrounds Inc. taught a successful series of classes called Computer Animation 101 for local kids wanting to learn computer animation skills.  From the start, the enthusiasm of the kids was contagious. We had 6 kids, ages 8-11, motivated to develop their own ideas and integrate the skills they learned from each lesson. For example, an 8 year-old created a game set at a sunny poolside in which the player could toss a beach ball across the pool, but only if a pair of barking puppy eyes didn’t cross its path first. Another created an underwater scuba scene in which the two swimmers had a bubbly conversation. All kids were taught how to create a Mad Libs game and an interactive storybook. By the end of the course students had practiced how to create their own “sprites” or characters, which they could program to glide, float, dance to a beat, talk, change color, hide, and chase the mouse. They also learned how to program their games to keep score and to upload their masterpieces to an flashdrive.