Storytelling Setting with Shapes

Create literacy landscapes built shape by shape in Keynote! This fun and engaging activity is suitable for all ages, with simple shapes leading to more intricate designs.

An animated GIF of a fairytale castle created with shapes in Keynote.

During our literacy time in primary school, storytelling often takes many forms. From short burst writing, poetry, drama, art, and in this case, using digital creativity to support scene setting. Using fairy tales to model imaginative writing is a tale as old as time. For this activity, the idea of creating rich and vibrant settings from well-known stories proved to be the magic beans that sprouted into Keynote literacy landscapes. The castle in the clouds was created from existing shapes in the Keynote library, as well as new shapes using the break apart and grouping options. Detail was added on the building by combing shapes - simple, but effective.

Using the Everyone Can Create : Design With Shapes activity allows even our youngest learners to visualise and create settings for their stories. Using the existing shapes library enables them to craft enchanted forests, towering castles, or mysterious lairs. Our more confident Keynote users can build on this: creating and adapting by combining shapes to lead to detailed images.

Here are some hints and tips and thoughts...

• my students used screen record to describe their finished settings, the beautiful visuals they had created encouraged them to use a wide range of descriptive vocabulary
• using the combining shapes options allows for more detail and personalisation of the setting
• give students time to learn how the different combine shapes options work
• breaking apart and grouping/regrouping encourages the creation of wild and wonderful new shapes
• my class always enjoy seeing and hearing each other's work - feedback and time to adapt and improve, just like we re-draft our written stories, is such a worthwhile step
• there is so much potential in this activity - taking one setting and then changing the colours to see the impact of the mood of the story... adding extra shapes to drastically change the setting - imagine the castle in a dark moody sky with lightning bolts - something dramatic is definitely about to happen.... viewing the same setting in different seasons, what could be added to show the passage of time...?

Some examples of descriptions of the fairy tale castle.

So, why not plant your own "magic beans" and watch your students' literacy landscapes blossom in Keynote? Happy creating!

Learn to Design with Shapes today >