Dad the Cat and the Tree...

Our finished movie...Dad the Cat and the Tree, by Kit Wright.

Dat the Cat & the Tree...

A group of children from Haumia-tiketike created an animation for the poem 'Dad, the Cat & the Tree,' by Kit Wright.

They had to use their imagination to think why Dad would believe he's such a good climber and why he'd never want to give up.  These are some of the artworks we created and our storyboard below....

After thinking about how the story could start and finish we worked on our storyboard...

We created a lot of colourful cats!

Animating our scenes in Puppetpals...

Dad The Cat & the Tree - Artworks...

We spent a lot of time creating all of the artworks and props for Dad The Cat And The Tree.

Rāwhiti Living...

This is our documentary about worm farming. It was made by some students from the Enviro group and other students who wanted to be involved. We went and visited the New Brighton Community Gardens and spoke to Anne about their worm farm.

 

NZTA Game Design Competition

Congratulations to Sophie, Marshall, Autahi and Xander - Winner, Category 1: Game Design 

Document Game name: The Roadbot's Journey

School: Rāwhiti School, Christchurch

Students: Sophie, Marshall, Autahi and Xander

From the students:

You choose to be either the girl or boy in the game and help the robot find their spaceship. On the way you help the robot learn how to make a safe journey when travelling on a scooter, bike, car or when walking.

Judges' comments:

This is a big ambitious game, which looks fun while putting important ideas about road use into action. The Roadbot is an appealing hook for younger players, and externalizing the learner (by having players teach the robot) enhances gameplay.

We like that each level asks the player to make decisions related to different kinds of road use (scootering, bicycling, riding in a car). The maps and character sketches are gorgeous. The design is thoughtful, playful and responsive to feedback.

The Roadbot's Journey...

Sophie, Marshall, Autahi and Zander were part of the Year 7 & 8 GameCo-Botics group. In Term 1 they started to think and talk about the idea of a video game to teach younger children about road safety. 
First, they interviewed children younger children to find out what they knew about road safety and the type of characters they liked.  They then had to think of a game that younger children would like to play...check out the presentation of 'The Roadbot's Journey' below! 
The Game story: In space the Robot's spaceship runs out of petrol. It has to leave (abort) the spaceship. The spaceship lands on one side of the town. The robot floats into the backyard of a house.  In the house is an 11 year old child. This child runs outside.  The robot is holding a map (on robot's device), and needs to find their spaceship, and asks the child to help.  The journey begins...
Our reflections: I had fun working as a team to create our game.  We learnt how to make a storyline and decide on the same things with your team mates.  For characters we had to have good art skills.  We helped each other by checking what we did was alright, so we didn't present somethign that was terrible.....my job was to find out about scooters.  This was interesting and I learnt more about the rules.  I had to design the scooter level and design a logo for the game.  The hardest part was the storyline.  We had to come up with different levels, then actually decide what order to put them in.  Next I would like to code some video games. Sophie
I learnt that I am an ok drawer.  I thought I was horrible, then I made the map and it looked really good.  I liked the basic non-gender robot and I came up with heaps of ideas.  We had to think about the stages of transport, badges and t-shirts.  My job was mostly problem solving. I drew the map designs and got feedback from the little children.  The most challenging part was putting all the ideas into a plan and stages.  I would like to do some real coding.  Marshall

Exploring ideas for the map and what order the levels could go in...

What could the child teach the Roadbot during each level...

How did the Roadbot get to Earth?

What do we think we know about bike safety....

Badges that the Roadbot could get at the end of each level....

Ideas for names....then Autahi thought of calling the robot a 'Roadbot'

The player gets to pick if they want to be a boy or girl at the start of the game...

The map on the Roadbot's device.....players get to decide what road safety top they want to wear....

Exploring how a level could end...

Digi Awards entry for 2016.....

Canterbury Digi Awards

On Tuesday 22^nd March I went to CORE Education.  I was part of a panel to decide what the theme would be for the 2016 DigiAwards.  There were about 12 children there from different schools.

We had to write our ideas on sticky notes.  I worked with two children and we came up with the idea…’Be the change you want to see in the world.’  We all had to vote on the different ideas and our idea won.  This will be the theme for the 2016 DigiAwards - Be the Change!  Nabraska