Writing activity

I've just been helping Vera do her previous post about the neat activity she did for her kids using the Ready to Read "Going to the beach"... It reminded me of a wonderful activity I saw many years ago at Peria School - the students (junior school) each chose a favourite picture from the New Zealand Geographic magazine - usually a double page spread, A3 size. It might be dolphins coursing through water, a Maori hunter creeping up on a moa, bungy jumping off the Sky Tower, a shark with wide open jaws etc... The children then were photographed in a pose (it would be so much easier now with digital cameras), then the child was "cut out" from the photo and stuck onto the NZ Geographic picture with blu tak, then it was photocopied. Although black and white it made a very effective illustration for some great story writing, putting the child as a character in the picture and action... "Here I am, creeping silently up to the lion sleeping in the sun..." sort of thing. I guess now you could do it with Photoshop so much more easily but this is a more low tech version from a decade ago !

Vera suggested that you could use this activity with the National Exemplar writing indicators for recount - consider what moves writing from Level 1ii to 1iii and identify the learning for the student, eg

• Write your thoughts and feelings that really show or tell the reader about how you feel at this point
• Add enough information so that the reader can feel as if they are there with you...