Musical Comics
Third graders are creating thrilling comics inspired by Edvard Grieg’s narrative orchestral piece, “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from the Peer Gynt Suite. We looked at some comic artists, some familiar and some new, including Stan Lee, Bill Watterson, Yumi Sakugawa, Sarah Anderson, Liz Climo, and Christopher Grady. The students learned about the characteristics of comics such as frames, speech/thought bubbles, captions, and onomatopoeia; and characteristics of narrative including characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end.
Then, the students got to try out making some of their own thumbnail comics. They loved this activity. It was useful to introduce them to the art form, especially for the students who struggled with breaking the action into separate frames.
Next, the students listened to “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and imagined their own stories to go along with the song’s narrative. I showed them a sample that I created, which was very useful for most of the students. However, quite a few essentially copied my story, changing just a few details. That is always a worry of mine when I show an example. They completed plans with their characters, beginning, middle, end, and frames. We had some terrific stories! The difficult part here was when students didn’t want to write. I explained that writing was part of the planning process. A written plan would help them prepare for their comics. Many students left sections of the worksheet blank.
Finally, the students got to make their large comic projects. They started in pencil, then got to add sharpie outlines and colored pencil. Interestingly, many students wanted to change their plans when we reached this stage. I explained again that a plan was part of the art process and I wanted them to work from their plan. A few students wanted to change their plan to copy my story. I told those students that I preferred their first plan because it was more creative. They all seemed okay with switching back. Many of the students haven’t finished yet and will complete their projects after I’m gone, but here are some of my favorites so far:
