Tiny Happy People - A Storytelling and Book Making Project Using AR

Introduction

Hello. Fellow Apple Distinguished Educator Sebastian Achatz (Austria) and I (Kerry Abercrombie - Scotland) are delighted to introduce to our joint One Best Thing project which we invite you to try out with your learners. The Keynote workbook for learners and the accompanying teacher book (as an Apple Book or PDF) are free to download at the end of this post and include everything you need to start a Tiny Happy People project of your own.

If you've been looking for a fun literacy based project that simultaneously builds digital skills on iPad, this might be just up your street!   

Our OBT project

As Sebastian and I are both English teachers and passionate advocates of digital storytelling and augmented reality, we chose a project that covers both areas. We estimate that the target group for a Tiny Happy People project should be teachers and their English-speaking elementary/primary school students as well as teachers and their English-learning 10-year-olds. But to be honest, Tiny Happy People is fun for everyone, we'd certainly love to see some Tiny Happy People books in the THP library made by teachers who simply want to practice or learn more about AR and digital storytelling!

 How it works

The eBook is simply a supporting document for teachers which gives a bit of 'the why' behind the project, you'll find the centrepiece of our project on page 4 which is the downloadable Keynote workbook for learners.

The workbook consists of 26 slides, where users are guided through all stages of the process of making a THP story book. The Keynote includes text and visual instructions as well as explanatory videos.

You also find there several prompts and templates for creating your story. For each prompt there are always two hidden examples given. Learners can tap to unlock and move these if they want to view the examples.

On the penultimate page of the workbook learners get a final explanation of how to form a book from their Keynote deck as well as the opportunity to read two complete example books.

On the final page there is a template for a book cover if you want your book to fit in with the others in the Tiny Happy People series!

Call to all who will use this workbook - add your story to our library!

We would love to see the creativity of your pupils and build a collection of Tiny Happy People stories from all over the world. We have made a Tiny Happy People library on Padlet (you can also find the link to the library on page 2 of the eBook) where your learners - or staff - can upload a PDF of your finished Tiny Happy People book.

If you share your books or your process on X, we would love if you use the hashtag #ARtinyhappypeople and tag us @kabercrombie_ @S_Achatz.

We can't wait to see your stories!

Links

Link Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/at/book/tiny-happy-people/id6498958813

Link PDF: https://app.box.com/s/0b563gko7ecjnzavonwuajx0fc3d4zjx/file/1506493222801

Link Workbook: https://app.box.com/s/0b563gko7ecjnzavonwuajx0fc3d4zjx/file/1506477949986