As our school year comes close to it's end in Aotearoa, New Zealand we are finishing our storytelling inquiry with Whāngaimokopuna, which is a story about Rangitāne Iwi and their taniwha.
The Manawatū River is our local awa and it has a special story about how the path of the river was formed.
It is said that a famous taniwha named Whāngaimokopuna had many adventures that affected the Manawatū River bed.
This was because Whāngaimokopuna’s home was originally at the mouth of the awa and, unlike most of the scary taniwha in other stories, Whāngaimokopuna was a pet.
Our Year 1 students were fascinated with this story and decided to retell part of it with Sketches. They really enjoyed using the different tools that gave a variety of effects for the landscape and their taniwha.
Step 1: We read the story and discussed the messages and meaning. I modelled different drawing techniques and we talked about warm and cool colours, textures, background, foreground and how to add details to their Taniwha.
Step 2: Students uploaded a photo of the Manawatū Gorge onto Sketches and made it mostly transparent before drawing the background details and then deleting the photo.
Step 3: They added their Whāngaimokopuna Taniwha.
Step 4: They printed their image and added their own retell of the story to share with their whānau (family).
We have been developing our drawing skills moving from Mark Up, to Keynote and now Sketches during the year. Drawing in a variety of apps has been a really important foundation skill that our students will build on as they continue their learning at Whakarongo School.
I would love to hear how other teachers are supporting their students with developing their foundational drawing skills.
Attach up to 5 files which will be available for other members to download.