Safer Journeys for Children Pick-a-Path 2012

Every day children travelling to school make a number of decisions about road safety. In the Pick-a-Path competition students discuss and describethe impact of decisions as they think/walk/plan their way to school. (This can also be fiction)

Highlight the good decisions

Pick-a-Path processThe NZTA has a range of support materials on its websitehttp://education.nzta.govt.nzand these may form a basis for the development of the Safer Journeys Pick-a-Path story.

Pick-a-Path in your schoolThe Pick-a-Path planning and writing process is a way to involve all children in a group/class/school.The development of the plot/s and the characters can be a cooperative exercise incorporating many suggestions.

Because it feeds in to one final product the writing can be shared and collaborative.

Make writing in your class a team sport

What is a Pick-a-Path?An interactive story where the reader has a range of choices as they progress. The choices made may lead to new options, or turn back on themselves.

The key is to develop interest at each stage of the story. See what happens to the characters as they make their choices. The challenge is to maintain a story as the choices unfold.Children can use their imaginations to explore a wide range of scenario and solutions to support the completion of a safe journey.

Key skills• Literacy (textual and

visual)• Characterisation• Story structure• Writing and editing• Illustrating• Mind mapping• Collaboration• Sequencing• Hyperlinking• Presentation

The competition is about the writing of a high quality collaborative story

• A home button is useful to allow readers to return to the start. Insert in the Master Slide.

• A Back button allows readers to return to the previous point in the story

• If you are using PowerPoint, Keynote, Pages or Word. For specific help sheets refer to the resources section

• Use large sheets of paper or Post It notes to plan the story and refer to these regularly.

How to – suggestions

• Include the page numbers on the plan so the different groups/children know where to bring their choices back to or where to start their section

• There are a range of applications

• Divide the mind map up into the writing groups

How to – more suggestions

• If using a word processor set page size to A5 and landscape

• Word processors use anchors within the document.

• If you put a page number at the start of the text and turn it into an anchor this makes them easy to find when you do your linking

• Use your mind map to tick off the pages as they are completed and then again when they are inserted into the story and linked

How to – more suggestions

• Copy and paste or click and drag to combine stories

• Pictures must be saved as jpegs

• Complete the hyperlinks last – once you have all of the text and the illustrations

• Save regularly.

How to – more suggestions

Enter by 27 July 2012 schools

Winning schools will be notified by 10 August 2012.

Check the terms and conditions online here http://education.nzta.govt.nz/competitions/the-nzta-primary-

years-competition