Cartoons and Comics
When I think of cartoons or comics- I think of funny sayings or jokes. I am not a funny person and I have a hard time telling jokes. So I was in a panic when I had to come up with three different cartoons/comics. After stressing for awhile, I decided to use Knock Knock jokes and after doing a few - I felt much more comfortable and tried to bring out with some mommy humor and a book summary.
ToonDoo
The first site I tried was Toondoo. It was pretty easy. You could choose from several layouts with a different number of panels/boxes. There are many choices to choose from in characters, backgrounds, props, speech bubbles, etc. It was also pretty self explanatory when navigating and creating a cartoon. I kept playing with different backgrounds and different characters in different positions before settling on my alien/monsters. It took me a little while and clicking different things to figure out how to save, but once I found it- under the START HERE tab, it was really easy. I think students would really enjoy this site.
Pixton
The next site I tried out was pixton.com. I think this site was the hardest to navigate. It also seemed that I was limited on characters. There were a ton of backgrounds to choose from. But I loved being able to choose aliens or monsters in Toondoo, that I felt cheated in pixton. I also had a hard time copying my comic into my blog- which just irritated me. After several tries, I just had to copy it into Publisher and save it as a picture. Even emailing it to myself only gave me a link rather than the actual picture. I think students may enjoy the different backgrounds and picking different poses for the characters but I was not a fan.
MakeBeliefsComixs
The last site I went to was makebeliefscomix.com. This site was also pretty easy to create comic strips. You had several panels to choose from, as well as characters, backgrounds, word bubbles, words and objects. I made two different cartoons with makebeliefscomix. I first tried making a summary of one of my son's picture books and then come up with the funny mommy one. Even though there are several options to choose from, you are somewhat limited choices to put into the comic. I do think it is really easy to navigate and create comics. Students would find this really easy as a beginner.
Overall, if I were to go back and make more comics, I believe I would choose ToonDoo. Mostly because it was easy to use and it had a far amount of choices to choose from. Here are a few ideas of how comics can be used in the library...
- retelling/summarizing a story or book
- creating book reviews
- Possibly have kids create comics on how things are done in the library to share with incoming students
- Promoting the upcoming book fair
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI loved your idea of creating comics using knock-knock jokes. If students were using this for a big project, I think introducing them to a comic-creation program by having them make a knock-knock joke comic would be a great way to get them comfortable with whatever program you chose.
I really like your ToonDoo comic. I didn't like what I created on ToonDoo, but I feel that the one you produced looks more professional than mine did. Maybe I was a little harsh in my critique of the site!
I love the knock-knock jokes! Very fun. Great job on your comics. Also, I love your ideas for using comics in the library.
ReplyDeleteI love your idea of using comic strips to retell a book they have read and creating book reviews. Your comics were great! The knock-knock joke was a great idea to use when creating your comics.
ReplyDeleteUsing knock-knock jokes in the comic strip was a great idea! I love your idea of promoting bookfair using comic strips.
ReplyDeleteI stressed out about this too, because I'm not funny! I thought of using knock knock jokes but figured I should do something reading related. I LOVE your comics
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