Lego Challenge–Build a Comic!

This one came to me a little randomly. I often ask kiddos to make 3 or 4 panel comics as one of the learning activities for our Summer Learning Program. Comics are an easy way to both tell a story and exercise your artistic muscles. As I’m sure you know, kids love telling stories with Legos, especially when it comes to sharing what they built and why. So…let’s build some comics!

First of all, 3 panel comics are just a great way to teach storytelling. First panel is setting the scene with your setting and characters. Your 2nd panel is your rising action. Your last panel is your conclusion. Short and sweet, and just a real easy way to teach the basics in storytelling.

This may work best with those mini-plates you hopefully have as a backup when you get overwhelmed. They’re usually pretty cheap, but obviously you would need 3 squares per kiddo, so that adds up fast. Perhaps kids can work in teams or groups. You could also try using the large Lego plates and divide, but those should probably be divided up into 4 even sections or panels–here’s an example of what that would look like:

This kinda reminds me of the “Mirror Worlds” Challenge I came up with a couple weeks ago. You kinda need to think of symmetry, but this time, try to make each panel look the sameish so that a story can be told from panel to panel. When I built my examples, I had the pick of ALL of my Legos, so your pieces probably won’t be as cohesive from panel to panel. And you definitely won’t be able to use the same minifigs in each panel. That’s okay! Work with what you have. The more important thing is to just tell a story and see how it progresses.

If you think this might be too much for your kiddos, you can try just doing a TWO panel comic. Kiddos can also then share a big plate (each kiddo gets two panels obviously) if you don’t have enough. Also might be easier to focus and build two panels if time is an issue. My kiddo here built a really simple comic about a man being abducted by aliens:

Some of my kids really got into this one, but some others were a little confused and did their own thing. That’s okay! Better to aim high I feel. Perhaps next time, I’ll explain the challenge, BUT add that kids can just make superhero scenes if they want.

All blog entries are for educational or personal use.  Please credit the original author if reblogging or posting ideas originally found on this site.  LEGO^® is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site.