Applying skills: ANIMAL SOUNDS POSTERSThis activity links to lots of areas of the curriculum and can be a good way of celebrating different languages spoken in the class.There is a nice balance between taking ownership of individual work and collaborating with classmates to produce a group poster. The finished posters make a really effective classroom or school display and can be used by other children to learn from.

Materials needed:

• Pencils

• Black fineliners (writing pens)

• Scissors

• Gluesticks

• A5 white paper enough for 2 per student

• A5 coloured paper in a range of different colours and shades

• A1 white paper enough for 1 per table/group

• Reference images - a selection of images of different kinds or dog, bird, frog, mouse, cat and

• A printout of the animal sounds in different languages (p3)

Method:Start with a discussion about how differnt sounds are written, make up a funny noise and ask children how it could be written - exploring more than one version. ‘AIEEEEEEE!’ or ‘EYE-EEEEEEEE’ etc.

How about how we might write the sound a dog makes? How else might we write it? Does anyone in the class speak a different language and know how it is usually written in that language?

Each group (5-7 children in a group) will be making a poster about a different animal and will need the reference images and noises that relate to that animal. If there are any different languages spoken in the group that are not already on the animal sounds in different languages sheet you can add your own to the list.

Select a reference image to inform your drawing (but don’t worry

if you want to change or exaggerate parts) and start by sketching it out lightly in pencil on a piece of A5 paper. Try to fill the whole piece of paper focussing on line and pattern rather than tone and shading. Once happy with your rough outline go over the image and add more details with a black fineliner. Then cut out your animal as neatly as you can.

Each person in the group needs to choose a different language for their animal. Work as a team to make sure no one in your group is doing the same language as anyone else. On the second piece of A5 paper draw out your animal noise word in a speech bubble. Take as much care drawing your word as you did drawing your animal. Sketch out the word lightly in pencil first to make sure you can fit all the letters in and the draw a speech bubble of your choice around it. The word needs to be clearly visible to people looking at the poster from across a room so make it bold and clear, again trying to fill the paper. When happy with the design go over it with black fineliner and cut around the edge of the speech bubble (but don’t cut off the outline!).

Next take a coloured piece of paper and draw a shape on it, again trying to fill the paper. Each table could choose a different shape e.g. table 1 could draw 3 sided shapes, table 2 could draw 1 sided shapes etc. Agreeing a colour scheme - ideally different shades of the same colour- for each poster is really effective. When the shape is drawn cut it out neatly.

The final step is for everyone to arrange their work onto a large piece of white paper to make their poster. Each person’s animal and sound should be overlapping their coloured shape. Play around with the group’s layout until you are all happy with it and then stick down with a gluestick. At the end in small letters write the language of each noise under each image.

Further Ideas:Take a look at other informative posters in the classroom or araound the school. What makes them effective? What might you be able to do better/differently? These resources were created by illustrators Sion Ap Tomos, Merlin

Strangeway and Toya Walker as part of a four year project with three Islington primary schools funded by Children and the Arts.

They all addressed a wide range of specific curriculum units using illustration, enabling the children to develop illustration and visual communication skills. With thanks to the pupils and teachers at Copenhagen, Robert Blair and St Andrew’s Primary Schools.

Dog

Woof (English)Gav (Russian)Blaf (Dutch)Bau (Italian)Waouh (French)Voff (Icelandic)Meong (Korean)Haap (Persian)Guk (Indonesian)

Cat

Meow (English)Myau (Russian)Miao (Italian)Mjau (Swedish)Yaong (Korean)Nyan (Japanese)Näu (Estonian)

Frog

Ribbit (English)Kwaak (German)Gae-gool (Korean)Kerokero (Japanese)Brekeke (Hungarian)Op op (Thai)Vrak (Turkish)

Bird

Tweet (English)Cui-cui (French)Pip-pip (Swedish)Jick-jick (Turkish)Pio-pio (Spanish)Tjiep (Dutch)Chip (Italien)

Mouse

Squeak (English)Piep (Dutch)Squitt (Italien)Zi (Mandarin)Chuu (Japanese)Jjik (Korean)Cin (Hungarian)

Duck

Quack (English)Coin (French)Rap (Danish)Prääks (Estonian)Mac (Romanian)Vak (Turkish)Háp (Hungarian)