Take the plot of a story you could recite by heart—it can be a fairy tale, a scary story, nursery rhyme, a movie, a chapter book— and use a comic strip template to transform it into a graphic novel.
This project is one of the virtual literacy through art classes hosted on Facebook Live from 1:30-2pm every Wednesday and Friday. Materials and instructions are posted here afterwards. Tune into the live classes to ask questions, give suggestions, and interact with other students who are stuck at home!
If you want to watch the recording of the live video, check out our Youtube channel.
Materials
- Comic strip PDF template
- Something to write with
- Something to draw with
- Optional: hole puncher or stapler
- Optional: string, binder rings, paperclips or binder clips
Instructions
- Print out the comic strip template. Depending on how long you want your story to be, you can print out multiple copies of the template.
- Decide what story you want to transform into a graphic novel. Do you have a favorite story to tell? A favorite scary story to tell at sleepovers? A favorite story to read? A movie you can recite by heart?
- A graphic novel is a story told in comic-strip format. You might want to plan ahead what images and words go in which box, and how many copies of the template you will need.
- Get started, using a balance of words and drawings. Draw the actions of your characters. You can use your drawings to show the emotions of characters by their facial expressions without having to write it down. Use speech bubbles to show conversation between characters. Anything that your characters are saying out loud or thinking should go in a speech or thought bubble. Otherwise, you should write somewhere in the boxes with your drawings, or you can use a box just for writing if you prefer.
- Once you are finished with all the pages of your graphic novel, you need to bind it. To do so, you can use a stapler, a hole puncher and string, or a paper clip/binder clip.
- Read to or have your friends and family read your story. Make sure they take a look at your drawings!