Make aPicture Book

This guide shows how to make a picture book about safer travel with your students

He mihiHe mihi nui ki a tātou. Thank you for accepting the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA)’s invitation to make a picture book about Safer Journeys for Children with your students. This can be a creative activity while also encouraging deep thinking about safer journeys.

Safer journeys and the curriculumFor suggestions for curriculum links, see the set of suggested links to Te Aho Matua and Te Matauranga o Aotearoa that come with this

guide. Above all, focus on a local road safety activity. If the picture book is about safe travel that the students are deeply interested in, the book will really matter.

HintTalk to your kaumātua and the local council to identify an important safety issue.

Here’s an example of a curriculum link from curriculum level 3:

Hauora/hakinakinaPossible contexts: Keeping whānau safe on a journey is everyone’s work; safe journeys

Waiora – personal health and development (safety): Identifying risks and their causes; describing safe options to manage these risks; developing action plans to minimise risk

Ngā putanga ako tauwhāiti – whāinga paetae (achievement objectives): Identify risks and their causes and describe safe practices to manage these

Aromatawai (intended learning outcomes): Identify how to travel safely in/on a variety of vehicles

Possible learning experience: Create a picture book that shows what a safe journey in a vehicle looks and feels like

The challengeThe challenge for your students is to write and illustrate a picture book on the theme of safe travel. They can do this on paper or digitally. The text can be fiction or non-fiction, serious or humorous – even a waiata or poem – it’s up to you and your students to decide!

This is an opportunity for students to work as a group on a creative project that brings together reading, writing, visual language, and art. At the same time, they will be thinking about safe ways to travel.

To find out more about safer journeys and explore ideas they could write about, see the pamphlet Mā raro, mā te pahikara, mā te kuta, mā te reti – Safer journeys mā ngā tamariki that comes with this guide. You can also download this at education.nzta.govt.nz

Your book must describe and outline what makes travel safe. For example, if the illustrations show someone riding on a bike, show them wearing a bike helmet and following road rules. There must be no disaster scenarios showing unsafe behaviour. The NZTA wants to encourage positive attitudes to road safety by showing things done right.

Though this is an activity for students in Years 1–8, older students could create a picture book for younger children.

So, lets get creative.

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Meet the teamA publishing team is standing by to support you. Hōne Apanui leads the team. For many years, he led Te Pou Taki Kōrero, the Māori publishing team at Learning Media. He has judged the Montana Book Awards, the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, and the CLNZ Educational Publishing Awards. His kaiāwhina is children’s book editor Don Long. Don wrote Te Tāhuna, which won the Te Kura Pounamu Award for a children’s book in te reo Māori. The third member of the team is Elton Gregory, with many years experience designing children’s books in te reo Māori for Te Pou Taki Kōrero and other publishers.

Their email addresses are:

sandhapanui@paradise.net.nz (Hōne Apanui)

don@lifteducation.com (Don Long)

elton@gregorystudio.com (Elton Gregory)

Contact Hōne Apanui in the first instance. His phone number is (04) 904 9225 and you can also contact him through Skype (hone.apanui 1) and Facebook. He will Skype you and your class to talk about your book while you are working on it. He will answer questions and provide encouragement as you go.

A taongaYou’re creating a taonga for your kura – so talk to your students about why it is important that they write the text and create the illustrations themselves. Once it’s published, it becomes your kura’s taonga. If it includes the work of strangers it wouldn’t belong to you.

What follows describes how to make a full-colour, 16-page, 210 mm x 260 mm picture book with a separate cover – just like you’d see in a bookshop. You can create it on paper or by using a picture-book-making app.

ResourcesYou’ll need:

• cardboard, paper, scissors, rulers, pencils and rubbers for making and modifying a storyboard and mock-ups

• a selection of picture books in te reo Māori (for example, books in the He Purapura series)

• art material for doing the illustrations• tissue paper• a computer• photographs from magazines that show

different camera angles, wide shots, and close ups

• a camera (optional)• picture-book-making apps (optional).S

1. Make a blankStart by helping your students make a blank version of your book. Use cardboard for the front and back covers and paper for the pages. Help them to cut the cardboard and paper to 210 mm x 260 mm. The blank shows your students what they are going to make. Making it will start to give them some of the language they’ll need (like “title page”).

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Page 2–16 (this is where the story will go)Inside front cover

Title page

Outside front cover

Cover

What is a picture book?Show your students how a 16-page picture book works by comparing the blank mock-up

to a 16-page He Purapura title. What job does the front cover illustration do? (It starts to tell a reader what the book’s about.) Show them the illustration on the title page (which isn’t numbered, but if it was, it

would be page 1). This picture can start to “tell” the story.

This leaves 15 more pages to illustrate. Ask your students the following questions:

• If every page, from page 2 to page 16 had one illustration each, how many would there be?

• What if all the illustrations (apart from the one on page 16) were double-page spreads? How many then?

• What would be a good part of a story to “tell” with a double-page spread?

Finish, by showing the students that they don’t need to do illustrations for the inside covers. Has anyone noticed that an illustration can “wrap” around both the front and back covers? Which part of the illustration needs to be on the front cover?

HintThe blurb makes you want to read the book.

2 Do a storyboard The genre of the book is up to you and the class. Your students could write a story (fiction), a non-fiction book, or even compose a road safety waiata to illustrate. It’s up to you! You can illustrate the book however you like, too. Possibilities include realistic drawings, cartoons, collage, and photographs.

For example, here’s a way to combine a background collage with a foreground drawing:

And here’s a way to combine a background drawing with a photograph:

drawingcollage

photograph

painting

text

HintJust use one illustration style in your book.

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2 3

back cover

front cover

4 5

inside cover

title page

1

6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

inside cover

Make a storyboardDon’t start on the illustrations yet though! First, plan what the book could be about and look like first by using a storyboard. Write a rough draft of the text. Use stick figures for planning the illustrations.

A storyboard looks like this:

This is the title page. Put the title here too. Include an “idea sketch” for an illustration.

This is the front cover. Put the title here. Draw a rough idea for the cover illustration.

HintUse double-page spreads to create big dramatic pictures that illustrate big dramatic moments in the story.

HintMake sure that the words and the illustration on each page (or double-page spread) are about the same thing.

The story starts here, on page 2.

HintYou could put a border pattern down the outside edge of each page. Put it on the cover, too. (Is there one that is special to your kura or rohe?)

HintThe words usually go in the bottom third of the page.

HintThere doesn’t need to be text on every page. Sometimes, a picture on its own can “tell” part of the story.

HintBuild in reasons for a reader to turn the page to find out what happens next.

HintYou don’t have to put text in text boxes.

The story ends here, on page 16.

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Write the textFind a road safety practice that really matters to you, your students, their whānau, and your kura. The NZ Transport Agency pamphlet

Mā raro, mā te pahikara, mā te kuta, mā te reti–Safer journeys mā ngā tamariki is a good place to look for ideas. Brainstorm ideas too.

We all share space on the roads. Looking out for each other is part of being a good citizen.

If you’d like to brainstorm digitally, a free app on the Internet is Wallwisher.

The next task for your class is to decide on the type (genre) of book they want to write.

If they decide to write a story, then a great place to start is writing the beginning and the ending

first! Picture book stories begin by that grabbing the reader’s attention, end in a deeply satisfying way, and offer a journey from one to the other.

To set the scene for their writing, discuss the following questions:

• Who is the story about (the characters)? • Where is the story taking place? • When is the story happening?

HintHere are some ideas to set them thinking:

• beingasafepassenger

• wearingyourbike helmet

• hi-vizvests

• crossingtheroad safely

• thewalkingschool bus

• beingatuakana on the bus.

• What’s going to happen to the characters (the plot)?

Try writing these questions on a whiteboard and brainstorm answers.

Depending on the age of your students, try dividing the class into groups to see which group can come up with the most attention-grabbing beginning.

Look at examples of picture books in te reo Māori. Can the students find examples of:

• text that has lots of page-turner moments

• text that is illustratable.

Show the students why a sentence about leaving a house, walking past the marae, and getting on a bus suggests three illustrations. Help them rewrite this as three sentences. Then show them how to change this text into a series of page turners (for example, “Where next?” ... [turn the page] ... “Past the marae”).

On the whiteboard, draw the plan for a storyboard. Have the students write the best attention-grabbing beginning on the bottom of page 2. Have them write an interesting ending on the bottom of page 16.

Brainstorm an attention-grabbing title and put that on the front cover and the title page.

Front cover and title pageInclude the following text:

• the book’s title• “written and illustrated by Room x”• the name of your kura.Want to acknowledge someone, for example, a kaumatua who helps you make the book? A good place to put an acknowledgement is on the inside front cover.

On the title page, add:

• the location of your kura (for example, “Te Teko”)

• your kura’s logo.As the students work, keep reminding them that the text for each page needs to lend itself to an illustration. You can’t draw something that’s invisible, for example! A story that consists of a conversation between two people is going to look the same in every page. The pictures will be boring.

Remember, the pictures only need to be rough sketches at this stage. Stick figures are fine.

HintHave just one action taking place at one time in one place on each page.

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Text–illustration linksIt is important that, on every page, there is a strong link between the text and the illustration. Challenge your students to find examples of strong text–illustration links in some picture books. Can they say what the link is between the text and the picture? If the text is about a pūkeko, is there a pūkeko (or part of a pūkeko) in the picture?

Praise revisions and share these with the whole class. This is great editing. Help the students to create more page-turning moments. Give the reader a reason to turn the page. This is great editing.

If you’d like to create a storyboard digitally, free apps on the Internet include Animoto.

When you think your class has an interesting story that will be fun to illustrate:

• post or email the storyboard to Lift Education E Tū

• email the text as a Word document (with an English translation) to don@lifteducation.com

The address is:

Kura Kaupapa Māori Picture Book Project Lift Education E Tū Level 2 Mountain Safety House 19 Tory Street Wellington 6011

In the Word document, put the page number under the words for each page.

After the publishing team has looked at your storyboard, Hōne Apanui will Skype you and your class and offer some feedback.

3 Make a rough mock-upUsing the publishing team’s feedback, help the students make a 210 mm high x 260 mm wide rough mock-up.

Have the students cut large pieces of light cardboard and paper to 210 mm high x 520 mm wide. Help them measure these accurately. For a mock-up of a 16-page book you’ll need one piece of cardboard and four big sheets of paper.

Fold each piece to 210 mm x 260 mm.

Now you’ve got a mock-up of a 16-page landscape 210 mm by 260 mm picture book. Discuss the feedback and adjust the story. If you’d prefer to create the mock-up digitally, free apps on the Internet include Creative Book Creator and Storybird.

Angles and points of viewIt is time to show your students the photographs you cut out from the magazines. Have them imagine they are the camera that took each photograph. Can the students find a photograph in which, if they were the camera, they would have been really close to what’s shown in the photograph?

Can they find a wide shot, taken from far away? What about a bird’s-eye view? What other possibilities are there? Write these terms in te reo Māori on a big sheet of paper and add them to the knowledge bank you are building up on your classroom wall.

HintWhen you are typing the Word version, turn off hyphenation and the function that automatically capitalises an “i” on its own.

HintAt this stage, copy-edit the text with your students. Copy-editing is when you double-check the spelling, macrons, punctuation, grammar, and the spacing between the words and sentences. We suggest that you put two spaces between sentences and one space between words.

HintLook at a 16-page He Purapura book to see how folded sheets of paper go inside a cardboard cover.

a close-up

260 mm wide

210

mm

hig

h

520 mm wide

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Show the students how illustrations in picture books are a bit like photographs. (Sometimes, they actually are photographs!) They have points of view. They too can be “taken” from different angles. Look at the selection of picture books you’ve assembled. Can the students find an illustration that looks like it was taken from far away? What about a close-up?

Can anyone find an illustration in which the point of view is looking up from the ground? What about an illustration in which the point of view is looking over someone’s shoulder? Tell your students that, when they do their illustrations or take photographs, they can use different points of view, too. This will make their picture book interesting. The point of view needs make sense, though. Worms really do look up and birds really do look down.

Chose an illustration styleGet your students to set up a display of picture books. Have them to label the different illustration styles. These may include:

• realistic drawing and painting• more cartoon-like drawing and painting• collage (making collages is a great group

activity)• photography.These can be combined, for example, a collage in the background and a drawing in the foreground.

Which style do the students want to use? A question to ask is, “What age group are we making our picture book for?” Are they making a picture book for younger children? Then pick a style that will appeal to that audience.

This research and thinking will help your students. Get them to present their findings. Based on their research – and the things they’ve been learning about picture books – as a class, select an illustration style to use.

PhotographsLet’s look at photography first, and then some other illustration styles. Your students could use classmates as models and photograph them acting out the story.

HintOn a digital camera, set the resolution to the highest dpi that you can. The higher the resolution, the better the photographs will look in the printed book.

portrait

landscape

HintTake both portrait and landscape shots.

Use portrait shots for tall things (like give way signs).

Use landscape shots for long things (like trucks).

a birds eye view

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Image release You’ll need signed permissions for the people in the photographs. Here’s a template. NZTA will need signed copies of the permissions before it can print your book.

Permission to use imageI, _______________________________, grant the NZ Transport Agency unrestricted permission to use photographic images of me for educational purposes – or of my child, named _______________________________.

I hereby release the NZ Transport Agency from any and all claims arising from the use of these images.

I am of over 18 years of age and am competent to sign this release.

NAME___________________________________________________________

ADDRESS________________________________________________________

DATE____________________________________________________________

SIGNATURE______________________________________________________

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Drawing and paintingBefore the students launch into taking photographs, drawing, or painting, take time to review the storyboard. What was the feedback from Hōne Apanui and his team? What really needs to be shown on each page? Would a different angle create more interest?

Because the drawings in the storyboard are so sketchy, your students won’t feel whakamā if they decide to change things. Tell them that they are now going to make a mock-up to show to Hōne Apanui’s publishing team.

As the students work on the illustrations, keep reminding them to leave space for the words towards the bottom of each page.

Why tend to put the words towards the bottom of each page? Have a show

of hands. “When you turn a page in a picture book, what do you look at first – the illustration or the words?”

First, help the students to draw simple, full-size black-and-white pencil sketches. They can use a rubber to make changes. Lay these out on the floor like a big storyboard. Does everything look good? Does the sequence make sense? Are people moving towards the right – the direction of the story? Is there room for the words?

Now the students can start drawing, painting, or assembling colour illustrations using

HintUse a wide view to introduce a scene. Use a close-up to dramatise a key moment.

HintA pale area of grass, footpath, or road could be a place where the words can go.

the black-and-white sketches as a guide. They can create the colour artwork digitally or use the art supplies in your classroom.

Next, go back to the Word file and edit the text so that it reads well with the pictures.

Then – using a printout of the text and copies of the pictures – or working digitally – assemble a mock-up and send it to the Kura Kaupapa Māori Picture Book Project at Lift Education E Tū. Include the adjusted Word file (with an adjusted translation).

HintPictures drawn with felt-tip pens and coloured pencils don’t reproduce very well.

HintIf the students are going to create digital pictures, make sure your kura’s computer system can cope with the file sizes – and that changes won’t take too long to load. Digital artwork needs to be at least 300 dpi.

HintPut tissue paper between each picture. You don’t want the students’ beautiful colour pictures to rub together and smear!

4 Polish your workYou’re almost there! Hōne Apanui and his team will review your mock-up. Hōne Apanui will Skype you and the class to give feedback and praise what you’ve done.

After this discussion, improve the text and the illustrations as much as you can, thinking about the publishing team’s advice.

For the inside front cover, complete and add the following imprint:

Published 2014 by [the name of your kura] with support from the NZ Transport Agency [postal address of your kura]

[your kura’s website address] www.education.nzta.govt.nz

Publishing services by Lift Education E Tū

Text and illustrations © [the name of your kura] 2014

All right reserved.

Printed on ISO 14001 certified sustainable paper.

ISBN 978-0-478-XXXXX-X

The NZTA will provide an ISBN number.

Get the final illustrations to Lift Education E Tū.

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At the same time, confirm the number of students and staff-members at your kura for print numbers.

5 PrintingHōne Apanui and his team may be able to offer some improvements as they prepare print-ready files for the printer. They will run these past you to approve.

The NZTA will print enough copies for every student and staff-member at your kura. The NZTA will also send two copies to Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa (the National Library of New Zealand).

HintThis time, use the highest resolution (dpi) that you can – or courier the original artwork to Lift Education E Tū – each piece of artwork separated by tissue paper. If you are sending digital files to Lift Education E Tū, talk to the publishing team about the best way to do this. Email the adjusted Word file (of the text) too. (Include an adjusted translation.)

HintIf you think that it is appropriate, let your students hand out the books.

HintInvite local community newspapers and radio stations to come to the book launch.

to view and to note in publications that include communications to kura and others.

• Your book must be original and previously unpublished. Please don’t include copyrighted material that belongs to anyone else. Your kura is responsible for any expenses, damage or liability incurred by the NZTA in connection with any third party claim that the NZTA’s use of the book infringes a third party’s rights.

6 Launch your bookA book launch is a great way to show your students that everyone values the hard work they’ve put into making a picture book. This is also a chance to reinforce and share the safety messages in the book with whānau.

Conditions of participationThis project supports the development of road safety resources for kura kaupapa Māori.

• Copyright in the book will remain with your kura. It is your taonga.

• The NZTA will provide the printed books to your kura.

• A team of publishing professionals will support you right through the book-making process.

• To help you get started, the NZTA will send you a collection of books in te reo Māori for your kura’s library.

• Lift Education E Tū will set up a Dropbox or Google Drive folder for you so that you can easily send digital files to the publishing team (but you can work on paper if you wish to – the choice is yours).

• Your kura’s name and logo will appear on the book beside the names and logos of te Waka Kotahi (the New Zealand Transport Agency), te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa (the New Zealand Government), and Safer Journeys mō ngā Tamariki.

• Your kura grants the NZTA a licence to use and distribute the book by placing the book online at www.education.nzta.govt.nz for other schools

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If you have any questions, please contact:

Raewyn Baldwin, Senior Advisor EducationNew Zealand Transport Agency Waka KotahiPrivate Bag 6995Wellington 6141safeschooltravel@nzta.govt.nz or (04) 894 6468

More supportThis guide comes with:

• the NZ Transport Agency pamphlet Mā raro, mā te pahikara, mā te kuta, mā te reti – Safer journeys mā ngā tamariki – this is a great place to look for safer journey issues ideas (you can also download this at http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/hike-it-bike-it-scoot-it-skate-it/docs/hike-it-bike-it-scoot-it-skate-it-maori.pdf)

• the Māori Language Commission’s Guidelines for Māori Language Orthography – an easy-to-follow guide to the Commission’s recommendations for spelling and writing in Māori (you can also download at http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/pub_e/downloads/Guidelines_for_Maori_Language_Orthography.pdf)

• a set of suggested curriculum links to Te Aho Matua and Te Matauranga o Aotearoa (you can also download from education.nzta.govt.nz)

• an introductory video, introducing the picture-book-making process (which you can also watch at education.nzta.govt.nz).

Kia Kaha!12

Join the conversation about this project on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/339366732859661/ (Pukapuka pikitia).