Mme Leibu’s Grade 5 and Grade 6 students have been exploring the theme of identity, thinking through concepts of identity-building and equity, by creating children’s picture books.
In order to publish and share their work, students were given a choice with regards to the method. Some chose to produce a text by hand, others chose to type up the text and insert illustrations within the YRDSB Google Apps for Education (G Suite) domain. Several expressed interest in a creating a digital eBook using Book Creator, and in many cases, they illustrated their work digitally using Autodesk SketchBook.
Book Creator is known for its open-ended and creative nature. Users are able to easily combine text, images, audio and video to create beautiful eBooks. Mme Leibu’s students had a great time choosing fonts, illustrating using the pen tool, adding photos and images from the web, and even recording their voices.
Some students took the time to dabble with Autodesk SketchBook to better illustrate their text. They tinkered with pencils, inks, markers, and over 190 customizable brushes… and even experimented with both texture and shape.
Picture books complete, they have started to publish and share their work. The ultimate goal is to publish to an authentic audience. In order to accomplish this, hard copies of “hand-crafted” and Google Docs-based texts will be readily available in class, and within the Mazo Learning Commons. The digital eBooks created within Book Creator will be uploaded to the iBooks Store, and available around the world.
Students are eager to share with their peers and their families. Their digital books can now be downloaded from the iBooks Store:
Biblio-blog 