How to make a book about Road Safety Education ( 2013) version for schools and students

1. Make a
Picture BookThis guide shows how to make a picture
book about safer travel with your students

2. He mihi
He mihi nui ki a tātou. Thank you for accepting
the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA)’s invitation
to make a picture book about Safer Journeys
for Children with your students. This can be a
creative activity while also encouraging deep
thinking about safer journeys.
Safer journeys and the curriculum
For suggestions for curriculum links, see the
set of suggested links to Te Aho Matua and
Te Matauranga o Aotearoa that come with this
guide. Above all, focus on a
local road safety activity. If
the picture book is about
safe travel that the students
are deeply interested in, the
book will really matter.
Hint
Talk to your
kaumātua and
the local council
to identify an
important safety
issue.
Here’s an example of a curriculum link from
curriculum level 3:
Hauora/hakinakina
Possible contexts: Keeping whānau safe on a
journey is everyone’s work; safe journeys
Waiora – personal health and development
(safety): Identifying risks and their causes;
describing safe options to manage these
risks; developing action plans to minimise
risk
Ngā putanga ako tauwhāiti – whāinga paetae
(achievement objectives): Identify risks and
their causes and describe safe practices to
manage these
Aromatawai (intended learning outcomes):
Identify how to travel safely in/on a variety of
vehicles
Possible learning experience: Create a
picture book that shows what a safe journey
in a vehicle looks and feels like
The challenge
The challenge for your students is to write and
illustrate a picture book on the theme of safe travel.
They can do this on paper or digitally. The text can be
fiction or non-fiction, serious or humorous – even a
waiata or poem – it’s up to you and your students to
decide!
This is an opportunity for students to work as a
group on a creative project that brings together
reading, writing, visual language, and art. At the
same time, they will be thinking about safe ways to
travel.
To find out more about safer journeys and explore
ideas they could write about, see the pamphlet Mā
raro, mā te pahikara, mā te kuta, mā te reti – Safer
journeys mā ngā tamariki that comes with this guide.
You can also download this at education.nzta.govt.nz
Your book must describe and outline what makes
travel safe. For example, if the illustrations show
someone riding on a bike, show them wearing a bike
helmet and following road rules. There must be no
disaster scenarios showing unsafe behaviour. The
NZTA wants to encourage positive attitudes to road
safety by showing things done right.
Though this is an activity for students in Years
1–8, older students could create a picture book for
younger children.
So, lets get creative.
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3. Meet the team
A publishing team is standing by to support
you. Hōne Apanui leads the team. For many
years, he led Te Pou Taki Kōrero, the Māori
publishing team at Learning Media. He has
judged the Montana Book Awards, the New
Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards, and
the CLNZ Educational Publishing Awards. His
kaiāwhina is children’s book editor Don Long.
Don wrote Te Tāhuna, which won the Te Kura
Pounamu Award for a children’s book in te
reo Māori. The third member of the team is
Elton Gregory, with many years experience
designing children’s books in te reo Māori for
Te Pou Taki Kōrero and other publishers.
Their email addresses are:
sandhapanui@paradise.net.nz (Hōne
Apanui)
don@lifteducation.com (Don Long)
elton@gregorystudio.com (Elton Gregory)
Contact Hōne Apanui in the first instance. His
phone number is (04) 904 9225 and you can also
contact him through Skype (hone.apanui 1) and
Facebook. He will Skype you and your class to talk
about your book while you are working on it. He will
answer questions and provide encouragement as
you go.
A taonga
You’re creating a taonga for your kura – so talk
to your students about why it is important that
they write the text and create the illustrations
themselves. Once it’s published, it becomes your
kura’s taonga. If it includes the work of strangers it
wouldn’t belong to you.
What follows describes how to make a full-colour,
16-page, 210 mm x 260 mm picture book with a
separate cover – just like you’d see in a bookshop.
You can create it on paper or by using a picture-
book-making app.
Resources
You’ll need:
• cardboard, paper, scissors, rulers, pencils
and rubbers for making and modifying a
storyboard and mock-ups
• a selection of picture books in te reo Māori
(for example, books in the He Purapura
series)
• art material for doing the illustrations
• tissue paper
• a computer
• photographs from magazines that show
different camera angles, wide shots, and
close ups
• a camera (optional)
• picture-book-making apps (optional).
S
1. Make a blank
Start by helping your students
make a blank version of your
book. Use cardboard for the
front and back covers and
paper for the pages. Help
them to cut the cardboard
and paper to 210 mm x 260
mm. The blank shows your
students what they are going
to make. Making it will start
to give them some of the
language they’ll need (like
“title page”).
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Page 2–16 (this is where the story will go)
Inside front cover
Title page
Outside front
cover
Cover

4. What is a picture book?
Show your students how a 16-page picture
book works by comparing the blank mock-up
to a 16-page He Purapura
title. What job does the front
cover illustration do? (It
starts to tell a reader what
the book’s about.) Show
them the illustration on
the title page (which isn’t
numbered, but if it was, it
would be page 1). This picture
can start to “tell” the story.
This leaves 15 more pages to illustrate. Ask
your students the following questions:
• If every page, from page 2 to page 16 had
one illustration each, how many would
there be?
• What if all the illustrations (apart from
the one on page 16) were double-page
spreads? How many then?
• What would be a good part of a story to
“tell” with a double-page spread?
Finish, by showing the students that they
don’t need to do illustrations for the inside
covers. Has anyone noticed that an illustration
can “wrap” around both the front and back
covers? Which part of the illustration needs to
be on the front cover?
Hint
The blurb makes
you want to read
the book.
2 Do a storyboard
The genre of the book is up to you and the class.
Your students could write a story (fiction), a non-
fiction book, or even compose a road safety waiata
to illustrate. It’s up to you! You can illustrate
the book however you like, too. Possibilities
include realistic drawings, cartoons, collage, and
photographs.
For example, here’s a way to combine a background
collage with a foreground drawing:
And here’s a way to combine a background
drawing with a photograph:
drawingcollage
photograph
painting
text
Hint
Just use one
illustration style
in your book.
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5. 2 3
back
cover
front
cover
4 5
inside
cover
title
page
1
6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
inside
cover
Make a storyboard
Don’t start on the illustrations yet though! First, plan what the book could be
about and look like first by using a storyboard. Write a rough draft of the text.
Use stick figures for planning the illustrations.
A storyboard looks like this:
This is the title
page. Put the title
here too. Include
an “idea sketch”
for an illustration.
This is the front
cover. Put the
title here. Draw
a rough idea
for the cover
illustration.
Hint
Use double-page spreads to
create big dramatic pictures
that illustrate big dramatic
moments in the story.
Hint
Make sure that the words and the
illustration on each page (or double-
page spread) are about the same thing.
The story starts
here, on page 2.
Hint
You could put a border pattern down the
outside edge of each page. Put it on the
cover, too. (Is there one that is special to
your kura or rohe?)
Hint
The words usually go in
the bottom third of the
page.
Hint
There doesn’t need to be text
on every page. Sometimes, a
picture on its own can “tell”
part of the story.
Hint
Build in
reasons for a
reader to turn
the page to
find out what
happens next.
Hint
You don’t
have to put
text in text
boxes.
The story ends
here, on page 16.
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6. Write the text
Find a road safety practice that really matters
to you, your students, their whānau, and your
kura. The NZ Transport Agency pamphlet
Mā raro, mā te pahikara, mā
te kuta, mā te reti–Safer
journeys mā ngā tamariki is a
good place to look for ideas.
Brainstorm ideas too.
We all share space on the
roads. Looking out for each
other is part of being a good
citizen.
If you’d like to brainstorm
digitally, a free app on the
Internet is Wallwisher.
The next task for your class
is to decide on the type
(genre) of book they want to
write.
If they decide to write a
story, then a great place
to start is writing the
beginning and the ending
first! Picture book stories
begin by that grabbing the reader’s attention,
end in a deeply satisfying way, and offer a
journey from one to the other.
To set the scene for their writing, discuss the
following questions:
• Who is the story about (the characters)?
• Where is the story taking place?
• When is the story happening?
Hint
Here are some
ideas to set them
thinking:
• being a safe
passenger
• wearing your
bike helmet
• hi-viz vests
• crossing the
road safely
• the walking
school bus
• being a
tuakana on the
bus.
• What’s going to happen to the characters (the
plot)?
Try writing these questions on a whiteboard and
brainstorm answers.
Depending on the age of your students, try dividing
the class into groups to see which group can come
up with the most attention-grabbing beginning.
Look at examples of picture books in te reo Māori.
Can the students find examples of:
• text that has lots
of page-turner
moments
• text that is
illustratable.
Show the students
why a sentence about
leaving a house,
walking past the marae,
and getting on a bus suggests three illustrations.
Help them rewrite this as three sentences. Then
show them how to change this text into a series of
page turners (for example, “Where next?” ... [turn
the page] ... “Past the marae”).
On the whiteboard, draw the plan for a storyboard.
Have the students write the best attention-
grabbing beginning on the bottom of page 2. Have
them write an interesting ending on the bottom of
page 16.
Brainstorm an attention-grabbing title and put that
on the front cover and the title page.
Front cover and title page
Include the following text:
• the book’s title
• “written and illustrated by Room x”
• the name of your kura.
Want to acknowledge someone, for example,
a kaumatua who helps you make the book?
A good place to put an acknowledgement is
on the inside front cover.
On the title page, add:
• the location of your kura (for example,
“Te Teko”)
• your kura’s logo.
As the students work, keep reminding
them that the text for each page needs to
lend itself to an illustration. You can’t draw
something that’s invisible, for example!
A story that consists of a conversation
between two people is going to look the
same in every page. The pictures will be
boring.
Remember, the pictures only need to be
rough sketches at this stage. Stick figures
are fine.
Hint
Have just one action
taking place at one
time in one place on
each page.
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7. Text–illustration links
It is important that, on every page, there
is a strong link between the text and the
illustration. Challenge your students to find
examples of strong text–illustration links in
some picture books. Can they say what the
link is between the text and the picture? If the
text is about a pūkeko, is there a pūkeko (or
part of a pūkeko) in the picture?
Praise revisions and share
these with the whole class.
This is great editing. Help
the students to create more
page-turning moments.
Give the reader a reason to
turn the page. This is great
editing.
If you’d like to create a
storyboard digitally, free
apps on the Internet include
Animoto.
When you think your class has an interesting
story that will be fun to illustrate:
• post or email the storyboard to Lift
Education E Tū
• email the text as a Word document (with an
English translation) to don@lifteducation.
com
The address is:
Kura Kaupapa Māori Picture Book Project
Lift Education E Tū
Level 2
Mountain Safety House
19 Tory Street
Wellington 6011
In the Word document, put the page number under
the words for each page.
After the publishing team has looked at your
storyboard, Hōne Apanui will Skype you and your
class and offer some feedback.
3 Make a rough mock-up
Using the publishing team’s feedback, help the
students make a 210 mm high x 260 mm wide
rough mock-up.
Have the students cut large pieces of light
cardboard and paper to 210 mm high x 520 mm
wide. Help them measure these accurately. For a
mock-up of a 16-page book
you’ll need one piece of
cardboard and four big
sheets of paper.
Fold each piece to 210 mm
x 260 mm.
Now you’ve got a mock-up
of a 16-page landscape
210 mm by 260 mm
picture book. Discuss the feedback and adjust the
story. If you’d prefer to create the mock-up digitally,
free apps on the Internet include Creative Book
Creator and Storybird.
Angles and points of view
It is time to show your students the
photographs you cut out from the
magazines. Have them imagine they are
the camera that took each photograph. Can
the students find a photograph in which,
if they were the camera, they would have
been really close to what’s shown in the
photograph?
Can they find a wide shot, taken from far
away? What about a bird’s-eye view? What
other possibilities are there? Write these
terms in te reo Māori on a big sheet of paper
and add them to the knowledge bank you are
building up on your classroom wall.
Hint
When you are
typing the Word
version, turn off
hyphenation and
the function that
automatically
capitalises an “i”
on its own.
Hint
At this stage, copy-edit the text with your
students. Copy-editing is when you double-
check the spelling, macrons, punctuation,
grammar, and the spacing between the words
and sentences. We suggest that you put two
spaces between sentences and one space
between words.
Hint
Look at a 16-page He
Purapura book to see
how folded sheets
of paper go inside a
cardboard cover.
a close-up
260 mm wide
210mmhigh
520 mm wide
7

8. Show the students how illustrations in picture
books are a bit like photographs. (Sometimes,
they actually are photographs!) They have
points of view. They too can be “taken” from
different angles. Look at the selection of
picture books you’ve assembled. Can the
students find an illustration that looks like it
was taken from far away? What about a
close-up?
Can anyone find an illustration in which the
point of view is looking up from the ground?
What about an illustration in which the point
of view is looking over someone’s shoulder?
Tell your students that, when they do their
illustrations or take photographs, they can
use different points of view, too. This will
make their picture book interesting. The point
of view needs make sense, though. Worms
really do look up and birds really do look
down.
Chose an illustration style
Get your students to set up a display of picture
books. Have them to label the different illustration
styles. These may include:
• realistic drawing and painting
• more cartoon-like drawing and painting
• collage (making collages is a great group
activity)
• photography.
These can be combined, for example, a collage in
the background and a drawing in the foreground.
Which style do the students want to use? A
question to ask is, “What age group are we making
our picture book for?” Are they making a picture
book for younger children? Then pick a style that
will appeal to that audience.
This research and thinking will help your students.
Get them to present their findings. Based on
their research – and the things they’ve been
learning about picture books – as a class, select an
illustration style to use.
Photographs
Let’s look at photography first, and then some
other illustration styles. Your students could use
classmates as models and photograph them acting
out the story.
Hint
On a digital camera, set the resolution to the
highest dpi that you can. The higher the resolution,
the better the photographs will look in the printed
book.
portrait
landscape
Hint
Take both
portrait and
landscape
shots.
Use portrait shots for tall things
(like give way signs).
Use landscape shots for long things
(like trucks).
a birds eye view
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9. Image release
You’ll need signed permissions for the people in the photographs. Here’s a template.
NZTA will need signed copies of the permissions before it can print your book.
Permission to use image
I, _______________________________, grant the NZ Transport Agency unrestricted
permission to use photographic images of me for educational purposes – or of my child,
named _______________________________.
I hereby release the NZ Transport Agency from any and all claims arising from the use of
these images.
I am of over 18 years of age and am competent to sign this release.
NAME___________________________________________________________
ADDRESS________________________________________________________
DATE____________________________________________________________
SIGNATURE______________________________________________________
9

10. Drawing and painting
Before the students launch into taking
photographs, drawing, or painting, take
time to review the storyboard. What was the
feedback from Hōne Apanui and his team?
What really needs to be shown on each page?
Would a different angle create more interest?
Because the drawings in the
storyboard are so sketchy,
your students won’t feel
whakamā if they decide to
change things. Tell them
that they are now going to
make a mock-up to show to
Hōne Apanui’s publishing
team.
As the students work on
the illustrations, keep
reminding them to leave
space for the words towards
the bottom of each page.
Why tend to put the words
towards the bottom of
each page? Have a show
of hands. “When you turn a
page in a picture book, what do you look at
first – the illustration or the words?”
First, help the students to draw simple, full-
size black-and-white pencil sketches. They
can use a rubber to make changes. Lay these
out on the floor like a big storyboard. Does
everything look good? Does the sequence
make sense? Are people moving towards the
right – the direction of the story? Is there
room for the words?
Now the students can start drawing, painting,
or assembling colour illustrations using
Hint
Use a wide view to
introduce a scene.
Use a close-up to
dramatise a key
moment.
Hint
A pale area of
grass, footpath,
or road could be
a place where the
words can go.
the black-and-white
sketches as a guide. They
can create the colour
artwork digitally or use
the art supplies in your
classroom.
Next, go back to the Word
file and edit the text so that
it reads well with the pictures.
Then – using a printout of the text and copies of the
pictures – or working digitally – assemble a mock-
up and send it to the Kura Kaupapa Māori Picture
Book Project at Lift Education E Tū. Include the
adjusted Word file (with an adjusted translation).
Hint
Pictures drawn with
felt-tip pens and
coloured pencils don’t
reproduce very well.
Hint
If the students are going to create digital pictures,
make sure your kura’s computer system can cope
with the file sizes – and that changes won’t take too
long to load. Digital artwork needs to be at least
300 dpi.
Hint
Put tissue paper
between each picture.
You don’t want the
students’ beautiful
colour pictures to rub
together and smear!
4 Polish your work
You’re almost there! Hōne Apanui and
his team will review your mock-up. Hōne
Apanui will Skype you and the class to give
feedback and praise what you’ve done.
After this discussion, improve the text
and the illustrations as much as you can,
thinking about the publishing team’s advice.
For the inside front cover, complete and add
the following imprint:
Published 2014 by [the name of your kura]
with support from the NZ Transport Agency
[postal address of your kura]
[your kura’s website address]
www.education.nzta.govt.nz
Publishing services by Lift Education E Tū
Text and illustrations © [the name of your
kura] 2014
All right reserved.
Printed on ISO 14001 certified sustainable
paper.
ISBN 978-0-478-XXXXX-X
The NZTA will provide an ISBN number.
Get the final illustrations to Lift Education
E Tū.
10

11. At the same time, confirm the number of
students and staff-members at your kura for
print numbers.
5 Printing
Hōne Apanui and his team
may be able to offer some
improvements as they
prepare print-ready files for
the printer. They will run
these past you to approve.
The NZTA will print enough
copies for every student
and staff-member at your
kura. The NZTA will also
send two copies to Te Puna
Mātauranga o Aotearoa (the
National Library of New
Zealand).
Hint
This time, use the highest resolution
(dpi) that you can – or courier the original
artwork to Lift Education E Tū – each piece
of artwork separated by tissue paper. If you
are sending digital files to Lift Education E
Tū, talk to the publishing team about the
best way to do this. Email the adjusted Word
file (of the text) too. (Include an adjusted
translation.)
Hint
If you think that
it is appropriate,
let your students
hand out the
books.
Hint
Invite local
community
newspapers and
radio stations to
come to the book
launch.
to view and to note in publications that
include communications to kura and
others.
• Your book must be original and previously
unpublished. Please don’t include
copyrighted material that belongs to
anyone else. Your kura is responsible
for any expenses, damage or liability
incurred by the NZTA in connection with
any third party claim that the NZTA’s use
of the book infringes a third party’s rights.
6 Launch your book
A book launch is a great way to show your students
that everyone values the hard work they’ve put
into making a picture book. This is also a chance
to reinforce and share the safety messages in the
book with whānau.
Conditions of participation
This project supports the development of road
safety resources for kura kaupapa Māori.
• Copyright in the book will remain with your kura.
It is your taonga.
• The NZTA will provide the printed books to your
kura.
• A team of publishing professionals will support
you right through the book-making process.
• To help you get started, the NZTA will send you a
collection of books in te reo Māori for your kura’s
library.
• Lift Education E Tū will set up a Dropbox or
Google Drive folder for you so that you can easily
send digital files to the publishing team (but you
can work on paper if you wish to – the choice is
yours).
• Your kura’s name and logo will appear on the
book beside the names and logos of te Waka
Kotahi (the New Zealand Transport Agency),
te Kāwanatanga o Aotearoa (the New Zealand
Government), and Safer Journeys mō ngā
Tamariki.
• Your kura grants the NZTA a licence to use and
distribute the book by placing the book online
at www.education.nzta.govt.nz for other schools
11

12. If you have any questions, please contact:
Raewyn Baldwin, Senior Advisor
Education
New Zealand Transport Agency
Waka Kotahi
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
safeschooltravel@nzta.govt.nz
or (04) 894 6468
More support
This guide comes with:
• the NZ Transport Agency pamphlet Mā
raro, mā te pahikara, mā te kuta, mā te
reti – Safer journeys mā ngā tamariki – this
is a great place to look for safer journey
issues ideas (you can also download this
at http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/
hike-it-bike-it-scoot-it-skate-it/docs/
hike-it-bike-it-scoot-it-skate-it-maori.
pdf)
• the Māori Language Commission’s
Guidelines for Māori Language Orthography
– an easy-to-follow guide to the
Commission’s recommendations for
spelling and writing in Māori (you can also
download at http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.
nz/english/pub_e/downloads/Guidelines_
for_Maori_Language_Orthography.pdf)
• a set of suggested curriculum links to Te
Aho Matua and Te Matauranga o Aotearoa
(you can also download from education.
nzta.govt.nz)
• an introductory video, introducing the
picture-book-making process (which you
can also watch at education.nzta.govt.nz).
Kia Kaha!
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Join the conversation about this project on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/339366732859661/ (Pukapuka pikitia).