Being Animated

When the sixth graders came into computer lab today they all wanted to play "that math game site" but being the mean teacher that I am, I told them no. Instead, I directed them to open up PowerPoint. There was a collective, audible groan.
I don't get it. What's so bad about PowerPoint?

I then had everyone create a title slide with the phrase "What Circle Found" and their name in the subtitle. On the second slide, I drew a straight horizontal line and a filled circle sitting on the line. So far, no one was impressed - we had already covered inserting shapes.

But then I showed them custom animation but having the circle move across the line. "Whoa! That's cool! How'd you do that?" Now that I was on a roll (pun intended) I even went so far as to show them slide transitions. They continued to "play" with animations and transitions for the rest of the class, especially since the assignment was to animate the rest of the story and decide just what Circle did find!