For Ages 8–11

Comics and cartoons are texts that have been around for a long time. Children enjoy reading and sharing them!  Cartoons and comics are approachable because they combine both words and images. Using published comics and cartoons as examples, children can create their own while playing with images and language.

Time
One hour

What You Need

• Comic Creator
• Comic Creator Tip Sheet
• Comic Strip Planning Sheet
• Examples of comics and cartoons

Here’s What To Do

1. Ask children to share the names of different comics and cartoons that they know. Also have them give descriptions about them – who are the characters? Is there a storyline that continues through? Where does it take place?
2. Share samples of many different types of comics, comic books, and cartoons. You can find these at the library, comic book store, in the newspaper, or online.
3. Talk about what's the same or different between the types:
   • Comic strip – several panels or boxes telling a story
   • Comic book– a group of comic strips gathered together, looks like a magazine
   • Cartoon – a single box or panel, sometimes without words
4. Choose a few comics or cartoons to look at.
5. Talk about what is similar and different among the types of comics and cartoons:
   • Is there dialogue? How is it presented? Are there speech bubbles or captions?
   • What are the characters doing? How is that shown?
   • What is the shape of the comic frames? Do they look like a box? Are the corners rounded? Why do you think the illustrator made that choice?
   • How is action, like movement, shown?
   • What happens from one frame to the next?
6. Share with the children that they will have a chance to make their own comic or cartoon using the Comic Creator.  View the Comic Creator Tip Sheet to familiarize yourself with the tool.
7. Think together about what the comic or cartoon will include and what the story might be.  Use the Comic Strip Planning Sheet to help you think through the needed parts and pieces.
8. After planning, work together on the computer using the Comic Creator to create your own comic or cartoon.  Print your creation and color it.  An offline option is to draw your own comic using paper and creating the different panels.
9. Share the comic or cartoon with others!

More Ideas to Try

• Try to animate your comic or cartoon.  Visit the Drawings That Move site to learn more about it.

Glossary

Character
A person, animal, or object represented in a story or play.

Comic book
A book or magazine in which stories are told through a sequence of drawings and character speech.

Dialogue
Words spoken by characters in a story to one another.

This activity was modified from the ReadWriteThink lesson plan “Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Genre Study” available online at http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=188.