Core Skills Analysis
Language Arts
The 6-year-old began creating a graphic novel after reading a book about graphic novels. They learned that stories can be communicated through a combination of pictures and written words. The activity encouraged them to think about characters, events, and how a story might be organised into scenes or panels. Beginning their own book also gave them practice expressing ideas creatively and developing an early sense of authorship.
Art and Design
The 6-year-old explored visual storytelling by starting to design a graphic novel. They learned that drawings can help show actions, settings, characters, and emotions within a story. Planning images alongside text introduced them to arranging visual elements for a reader. This activity supported imagination, mark-making, and purposeful artistic choices.
Reading
The 6-year-old read a book about graphic novels and used ideas from that reading to begin a related creative project. They learned by noticing how a book could explain or model a particular form of storytelling. Connecting reading with making helped them respond actively to the text rather than treating reading as a separate activity. This showed early understanding that readers can apply information from books in new ways.
Tips
Tips: Invite the child to sketch a beginning, middle, and ending before adding details, then help them arrange the story into simple panels. Read a short comic or graphic novel together and discuss how speech bubbles, captions, facial expressions, and action lines support meaning. Encourage the child to retell their own story aloud while pointing to each panel, and let them revise one panel by adding a clearer word or picture. Keep the project playful and celebrate the child’s choices rather than focusing on spelling or drawing accuracy.
Book Recommendations
- Dog Man by Dav Pilkey: A humorous graphic novel that demonstrates panel-based storytelling, visual action, dialogue, and expressive characters.
- Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea! by Ben Clanton: A gentle early graphic novel showing how simple illustrations and dialogue can create a complete story.
- Owly by Andy Runton: A largely visual graphic novel series that encourages children to interpret character actions, pictures, and sequential storytelling.
Learning Standards
- English, Reading—Comprehension (National Curriculum England, KS1): The child applied ideas from a book and responded creatively to what was read.
- English, Writing—Composition (National Curriculum England, KS1): Beginning a graphic novel supported planning, sequencing ideas, and creating a simple narrative.
- English, Writing—Vocabulary, Grammar and Punctuation (National Curriculum England, KS1): Graphic-novel dialogue and captions provide an authentic context for exploring sentences and punctuation.
- Art and Design (National Curriculum England, KS1): The child used drawing and visual communication to develop ideas and represent characters or events.
Try This Next
- Make a four-panel worksheet labelled beginning, problem, action, and ending.
- Add speech bubbles and captions to one scene, then read the finished page aloud.
- Draw a character reference card showing the character’s name, appearance, feelings, and favourite activity.
- Quiz prompt: What can a picture show that words do not, and what can words explain that a picture may not?