What Do Cartoons Have To Do With School?

I have found a fun and interesting way to teach story writing, dialogue and a little bit about insects through the creation of cartoons!

CAUTION: This is a work in progress!

FACIAL EXPRESSION

• we explored how our faces can show emotion - we focused on our eyebrows, mouth and eyes
• we played a little game of "Facial Charades" to really get us into it!
• using MS Word, I created a table with 36 boxes, each of which we filled with an expression and a description
• I used the handout from Cartoon Connections for ideas!
• we next moved into speech bubbles and symbols

INSECTS AND EXPRESSION

• as we were learning about insects in science, we learned about how to draw a spider
• we practiced putting different facial expressions on it and talked about what it could be saying
• students then created a single panel cartoon using a spider and a speech bubble
• it was fun to teach about the parts of a spider through drawing
• we then did the same for other insects

CONVERSATION

• next we talked about dialogue
• we looked at examples of cartoons and talked about what we noticed
• we talked about how important it is for one character to talk and another character to respond
• students were put into pairs with four large blank faces and speech bubbles
• students came up with a setting and dialogue for their characters and drew expressions to go with the dialogue
• this was great and the kids kind of wrote a "mini" tory without realizing it!

Insects, Insects EVERYWHERE!

Take a trip with us as we learn about the creepy crawly world of insects!

BODY PARTS

Part 1:

• students rotate through various pictures of insects and compare them
• a class discussion leads to a discussion on similarities and differences between insects
• Students note that all insects have: 3 body parts and 6 legs!!

Part 2:

• To further student learning about "What is an insect", we used the website "Let's Talk About Insects" and enjoyed the narration and animation!

Part 3:

• What better way to reinforce learning than through dance and music!
• We danced and sang the following song repeteadly (we sang as monsters, people crying, Opera singers, country stars...)

(To the tune of "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes")

Head and thorax, ab-do-men

Ab-do-men, ab-do-men

Head and thorax, ab-do-men

Antennae, wings and stingers too!

• After much singing and smiling, the students made 3-D replicas of insects with plastercine and labeled each body part

Part 4: Butterflies and Life Cycles

It was fun to watch our 10 caterpillars go through their lifecycle and emerge as a beautiful butterfly.

• After reading and looking at various websites and books, we discussed the lifecycle of a butterfly.
• to help learn the stages, we acted out each stage according to how it looks and must feel
• the kids wrote poetry about butterflies and their lifecycle
• students read books and looked at pictures to learn more about a butterflies body and wings
• students then created a large, paper mache version of a butterfly