For kids who love comic books and superheroes, but aren't naturally inclined to drawing projects, a giant comic strip art project will encourage them to flex those dormant artistic skills.
When a child decides they "hate art" there are a number of things you can try, So far, we've made tape art and handprint art, but this "make your own giant comic strip on the floor" is the best art project for art-reluctant kids.
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Although we have worked on small books before, when he was obsessed with Star Wars, working on a giant comic combines gross motor movement with fine motor work, like it did with our giant dot to dot activity.
If your child doesn't enjoy handwriting, it doesn't need to be a deal breaker. For us, the main objective was to facilitate artistic creativity, not practice handwriting.
Materials:
Very, very large sheet of paper. As I've said many times on this blog, every family should have a big giant roll of paper.
Markers. I suggest washable markers if you are concerned about stray marks on your floor (or wherever!)
That's it!
Instructions:
Cut a long piece of paper and lay it down on the floor. If you don't have a giant roll of paper, you need to get one right away! We use ours all the time!
Draw the comic book boxes. You can do this part if your child is reluctant. I drew the boxes and my son decided on the title of the comic strip.
Create and draw the story. This process will be different for every child. Let them figure out the process of how they want to tell the story with illustrations.
For us, my son narrated the story, but I helped him figure out what scenes needed to go in which boxes by discussing the size of each box, how many were left after each point of action, and so forth. Conversely, your child may want or need no help at all.
Because I was doing the handwriting, he dictated the dialogue and captions. As you can see, he is a brilliant storyteller.
My older son decided there was no way he was going to be left out of this action and he set about creating his own giant comic strip, with no help from me whatsoever.
MORE: Art Projects That Use a Big Roll of Paper
More drawing activities:
maryanne @ mama smiles says
Comic strips were my breakthrough when I was learning French (living in France) as a kid! My kids love them, too, and we will definitely try your activity!
Sheila @ BrainPowerBoy says
Just saw this on Pinterest today - don't' know how I missed your post earlier! We love (LOVE) comics at our house and this is going to be a big hit. My son is constantly drawing comics and I know he is going to really enjoy going
b i g. thanks. sharing.
Erica MomandKiddo says
Enjoy!
Catrina says
I'm planning a "Super Hero" camp for the kids at my summer camp. This is a great idea! I think it will reach all the skill levels (since we have kids from age 5 to 11 here). Thanks for sharing!
Dominique says
Hi Catrina,
I know this is a few months late but I'd love to know how the super hero camp went?? I'm currently helping to plan one based around English language learning with a 'Superhero Science' theme. Would be great to know what went down particularly well, and what didn't?