Category Archives: Early Learning

Adventures in Cartooning: how to turn your doodles into comics!

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The Center for Cartoon Studies presents: Adventures in Cartooning (how to turn your doodles into comics!) by James Sturm, Andrew Arnold, and Alexis Frederick-Frost is just what the budding cartoonist needs. A knight, a magical elf, and a candy-loving horse are on a quest to defeat a dragon, but the plot is only a part of this book’s charm. With each step in the adventure, we learn a new technique in cartooning. The little boxes around the pictures are called panels, and changing the background in the panels can make it look like the characters inside the panels are traveling. “In comics,” explains the elf, “words are as important as pictures!” so when the knight wants to let the reader know the castle wall is a thousand miles long, he doesn’t have to draw a reaaallly big panel to contain it all, he describes with his words in a speech bubble. In the end when all seems lost, the characters take fate into their own hands, by drawing and writing a new ending that leads to the next great adventure.

Students will love all the techniques they learn in Adventures in Cartooning. You can put those skills to use in a writing activity that shows reading comprehension. Give students a simple story, perhaps a folk tale, or a short story that fits in with some part of your curriculum. After your students read the story, or after you’ve read it to them, let them make a comic strip that will show part of the plot or information they learned. Encourage students to use word balloons and thought balloons (there’s a difference in how they are drawn so readers know if the words are spoken aloud or thought in a character’s head!), panels, lines for movement and action, and backgrounds. Model for students how you might draw a panel to show action. It’s not about perfect drawing, but in finding a way to express your ideas in pictures and in words. In this one lesson, you’ll enhance the Common Core State Standards of Print Concepts, Phonics and Word Recognition, Key Ideas and Details, and Craft and Structure. Even better, your students will be involved in meaningful reading and writing – and enjoying it!

Go Graphic with Binky the Space Cat!

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Binky the Space Cat by Ashley SpiresSummertime for kids means no alarm clocks, no spelling tests, no book reports. Summertime shouldn’t mean “no reading” – we just have to find ways to make reading part of the fun. Graphic novels like Binky the Space Cat by Ashley Spires are perfect for summer reading. Some kids (and parents) gasp when I say that graphic novels and comic books “count” as reading. Of course they do! Open up Binky the Space Cat and you’ll find rich vocabulary, an enticing main character, an action-riddled plot, all the components of a good book. But with comics and graphic novels, you also get art that draws in readers, especially reluctant ones. Spires’ illustrations tell as much of the story as her words do, so reading the pictures is as much of a comprehension exercise as is reading the text.

Before you set them free for summer vacation, entice your students by reading aloud the first 17 pages of Binky the Space Cat. This is where we learn that Binky is (or thinks he is) a super-top-secret Space Cat, with a mission “to one day blast off into outer space…” even though he hasn’t ever actually been outside. Inside his Space Station (house), he takes good care of his humans by protecting them from ALIENS!! (flies).  There’s an obvious, hilarious disconnect between the words and the pictures, and your students will realize that what Binky thinks is not exactly what’s really going on. Talk with your students about Binky’s misconceptions. What does Binky think about outer space? What might happen if Binky actually went to “outer space”? What do you think Binky would use to build a rocket ship? Tell students that this is something Binky does later in the book, then prepare yourself for lots of hands reaching to read for themselves what happens next.

The publisher of the Binky series put together these free printable Binky activity sheets from Kids Can Press. One sheet encourages students to create a secret identity for their pet and to write about it using captions, word balloons, and sound effects.  Another sheet in the Kids Can Press packet shows step-by-step how to draw Binky. Print off these sheets for your students, or if that feels too much like schoolwork, give students blank paper, rulers and art supplies to create their own comic books or cartoon strips. Comics and graphic novels like Binky the Space Cat can make reading and writing fun all summer long.

Just a Second: a different way to look at time

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How many times do you think a hummingbird beats its wings in just one second? 10? 20? Steve Jenkins makes math irresistible  in Just a Second: a different way to look at time. In one second, a hummingbird beats its wings 50 times. In one minute, a grizzly bear can charge one half-mile.  Just a Second is full of information that fits well into units on time, measurement, and estimation, plus it’s visually captivating with Jenkins’ signature cut-paper art. His process in making the collages for his book is really cool, and you can see a video of how his books come together on his website: stevejenkinsbooks.com.

Before reading Just a Second, make some predictions with your students, like how many breaths do you think an adult takes in one hour? (900!) After reading the book and checking your predictions, make and test some new predictions about time. How many jumping jacks can you do in one minute? How long will it take you to flap your arms 50 times like a hummingbird? Can you sit perfectly still and quiet for a full minute? You can compare students’ results on charts or a graph. You can even make a pictograph of your classroom results, and let students make cool representations for themselves with cut-paper art. It may take a bit longer than “just a second”, but it will be time well spent.

Dream Something Big

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Dream Something Big: the Story of the Watts Towers, written by Dianna Hutts Aston with collages by Susan L. Roth, is a visually stunning biography of an artist you may never have heard of before. Simon Rodia was simply Uncle Sam to his neighbors in Los Angeles. Over 34 years, Sam built towers from broken bits of tile, glass, and cement that soar up to 99 feet high. His incredible recycled-art structures are now a National Landmark.

At the end of this gorgeously illustrated book you’ll find jaw-dropping photos of the Watts Towers. I’m including a close-up of the towers here so you can see the details as well as a photo that shows just how huge these works of art are. Share Dream Something Big with your students and do a fun math activity. Just how tall is a 99-foot tower? Get out the rulers and chalk and head to the playground or parking lot. Divide 99 by the number of students you have and let them take turns measuring and marking out each foot in 99 feet. Stand at one end of the length when you are done and imagine that distance soaring into the sky. Decorate the 99 feet with chalk “collages”, coloring bright shapes to resemble Sam’s art. Build your own towers with scrap materials, pipe cleaners, clay, etc. and encourage your students to “dream something big” like Sam did. For more inspiration, visit Dianna Hutts Aston’s website: diannahaston.com or Susan Roth’s website: susanlroth.com

We Will Miss You, Maurice Sendak

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May 8, 2012, the children’s book world lost an honored artist/author/illustrator, Maurice Sendak. Most people remember his book Where the Wild Things Are, but Sendak was by no means a one-hit wonder. He wrote and/or illustrated dozens of children’s books, so today, I’m mentioning a few of my favorites by the master from his 1962 collection, “The Nutshell Library”.

Pierre: a cautionary tale in five chapters and a prologue is a favorite from my childhood. Pierre is so apathetic that he answers “I don’t care,” in any situation, even when a lion asks, “Then I’ll eat you, if I may.” Don’t worry, Pierre is fine when he’s shaken out of the lion by the doctor, and his close call with death has made him realize that he does care after all.

Alligators All Around is Sendak’s clever, alliterative alphabet book. It is short and snappy enough to keep the interest of the littlest ones, but the humorous art is sly enough for older kids as well:
“A: alligators all around
B: bursting balloons
C: catching colds
D: doing dishes”
It’s a great writing prompt for a whole class or small group activity, writing two word alliterative phrases for each letter of the alphabet, choosing an A animal as the character to tie all the letters together.

“Whoopy once
whoopy twice
whoopy chicken soup
with rice.”
I adore Chicken Soup with Rice: a book of months. I visited a first grade classroom where the teacher had a poster for each month with the verse by Sendak for children to illustrate. Every month has the repetition of (something) once, (something) twice, (something) chicken soup with rice, so even emerging readers can chime in with confidence.

The “Nutshell Library” books were set to music by Carole King. You can find the songs on her cd “Really Rosie”, and you can find the animated television special made in 1975 on VHS if you roll old school. I love how kids instantly spot the similarities of Pierre and the boy on the cover of Chicken Soup with Rice to Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Share some Sendak books with your kids and talk about the similarities and differences in the art and in the plots. Play the music from “Really Rosie” and let your students sing the “Nutshell Library” books so your students can be, to paraphrase Alligators All Around, “S: singing Sendak!”