Comic Making Classes For Kids

Teaching kids how to make comics is fun!

Many of you know that I am a high school English teacher, but I love teaching elementary age kids how to make comics. And here’s why:

• They believe they can draw anything. Sure, there’s some things they know they aren’t good at drawing, but they don’t have a fixed mindset about it. Nothing will stop them. High schoolers are much more likely to argue for their limitations, resorting to stick figures and simple designs.

• They have to use their imagination and memory to draw everything. Mainly because they don’t have phones yet! My high school student will immediately look for clip art or use AI to generate images. I remember a high school artsy assignment where I said they had to draw everything, and I had kids tracing pics off of their iPads. Young kids trust their imaginations much more.

Here’s are some WIPs from a recent class I’ve been teaching about creating recipe comics and food comics. Don’t they look great?

And if you would like to check out my blog post called “Say NO To Stick Figures” you’ll find a visual handout to help kids draw better people. It’s a mission of mine dedicated to improve the world.

Also, you might be interested to know that on Tuesday I’ll be participating in a virtual panel about writing nonfiction books for kids. That’s right—it’s virtual! You can watch it from anywhere! Here are more details about who’s participating and a link to watch/sign up.