Storyboard That for Comic Strips

In January, I wrote a piece on turning word problems into comic strips.  I mentioned a couple of websites but since then I found one that works so much better and is easier for me because it has so many more objects to use.  Today, I'll be doing a step by step visual instruction on doing the comic strip so you can see how it's done.

Storyboard that is the website I discovered and like so much.  It is the program I used to create the comic strips you've seen the past couple weekends for warm-ups.

When you open the program, you are shown to this screen.  It automatically comes with three separate frames but you can add in more frames if you need them.  There is a button that says add/delete. 

I chose this problem because it has a comparison and is fairly easy but the process is the same no matter what grade level you are doing.  

"Aaron’s candy container is 20 centimetres tall, 10 centimetres long and 10 centimetres wide. Bruce’s container is 25 centimetres tall, 9 centimetres long and 9 centimetres wide. Find the volume of each container. Based on volume, whose container can hold more candy?"

I have to sit down and figure out what I need to do this.  I think I'll do it in 6 frames so that the information is given in smaller chunks but I could do it in three.

1.  Aaron alone with his box.

2. Bruce alone with his box.

3. Aaron with box measurements

4. Bruce with box measurements

5. Aaron and Bruce bragging they can have more candy

6.  Question.

Now that I have my plan, I'll set my storyboard for 6 frames and select a background.

After I click and drag the background into the frame, I go through the characters tab looking for a tab.  I don't have to use the names in the original problem, I can change the names to reflect the ethnicity makeup of my class.  I chose teens to reflect the age of my students.

Next step is to find boxes for the characters so go to the search bar and type in box or boxes to see which has the most for the best choice.  

Then I put in all the speech boxes and filled them out. I put all the information in and changed all the text from 10 to 14 so it was big enough to read.

So now you have a full strip.  I usually just take a screen shot of the strip itself and print it off to use in class.  I included the headings and such so you can see what it does.  If you want, you can log in using Microsoft, Google, or a variety of other programs and if you do, you are allowed to make two comic strips a month.  If you don't sign in, there does not seem to be a limit if you do the screen shot method.

This is a step by step guide using the Storyboard That program online.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.