This term, Tūī 4 have been learning about Lynley Dodd, a NZ children’s writer who has a very vivid and descriptive writing style. We split off into groups and chose a Lynley Dodd character. My group, No5, chose Zachary Quack. Our teacher generated a 7 simple rhyming phrases using AI, these phrases correspond to the character of choice, excluding group 1 and 7 who started and finished the presentation. Zachary Quack is a frolicking, joyful duckling whom accompanies Hairy Maclary in his adventures.
Group 5 consisted of 4 children, Giada, Isla, Cassandra and I. We worked hard to create actions and memorise the words. After brief negotiation the speakers and performers were decided. Isla and I were to say the paragraph and Giada and Cassandra were to create and perform the actions. The paragraph goes:
(Olivia) And who’s this small friend with a splash and a quack?
(Isla) It’s Zachary Quack who never looks back!
(Olivia) A duckling so tiny, with feathers so bright,
(Isla) Splashing and dashing with all of his might!
And Giada and Cassandra made corresponding actions that align with the words. The other groups did different things but pretty much ended up with the same result. A separate group of Tūī 4 students put together a Capcut, alongside working with their character groups. Eventually, we got it all together for assembly in due time, and the final product put together was marvellous.
For Weeks 3&4, Isla, Cassandra, Giada, and I created a new Minecraft world in hopes of recreating New Zealand’s most famous landmarks, animals, and fauna on a digital platform. This is the end result.
.
What NZ identity features did we include?
We included The Okahune Carrot, The Beehive, Giant Lemon & Paeroa Bottle, and The Skytower. We also built many kinds of birds and trees.
What did I learn about Aotearoa during this project?
I learnt that The Beehive is where the NZ Government conducts most of its business, not where bees live!
What digital skills did I use?
We used Minecraft to create a digital world that showcases the structures, plants, and animals of Aotearoa, New Zealand.
What would I do differently next time?
We would definitely create more sizeable structures with more detail, and focus more on the landscape and positioning of everything.
How well did we work together?
We worked quite well together, though the addition of Giada did complicate things a little bit (when we decided to make 12 different structures, plants, and animals). Teamwork was great and strive for top quality all the time!
This week, we’ve been designing characters and backgrounds for our stop motion movie by hand. We’re elated to share how our designs are coming together! Here’s a look at our progress so far…
This week we started to design our characters and props. In our group, everyone had something to do. Aariya was in charge of all the sea animals, Jiyoon was doing the humans and their props and I did the background and the preliminary human drawing.
Right now, we are working on the background, the humans and the props. Jiyoon is helping me with the background,while I work on this blog. And Aariya is doing the rest of the props. I’m really happy on how the sea animals turned out, way better than the draft.
A storyboard is a bunch of boxes that you can put drawings and/or words to help with the planning process of a story.
Why is it important to complete a storyboard before starting your project?
So that you can have some idea of what you are going to do and how you are going to do it.
Our storyboard is about protecting and conserving oceans. At the start of the storyboard we see a mother taking her baby for a trip to the beach. When they reach there the camera moves underwater where you see the beautiful animals underneath. This helps the viewer get emotionally attached to the animals and when the animals get hurt they are more likely to feel empathy for that said animal. Further on we see a baby turtle and a baby human both getting stuck in plastic. The viewer will realise that they feel sad for the baby human and they can relate to the mama turtles feelings.
This week, we’ve been designing characters and backgrounds for our stop motion movie by hand. We’re elated to share how our designs are coming together! Here’s a look at our progress so far…
My life as a rain drop