Fototoon Activity

Design, Construct, Plan, Produce, Invent, Devise, MakeAll subject areas, ages 7 and up (some reading and writing skills needed)

Fototoon is the perfect Activity for doing final projects in virtually any subject area. It allows students to creatively express what they have learned in the form of a graphic “comic strip” using the topics and images created or chosen by the student. It is also a perfect vehicle for small group work. The steps for creating a project in Fototoon are simple.

Using the subject being studied, a topic to illustrate is chosen. In the sample shown the subject was health and the topic was nutrition. The project creator chose “Healthy Snacks” for their comic strip. A four panel project was planned because it would work best for printing in landscape view on regular paper. Larger comics can be made and viewed on the screen with scrolling but, if you plan to print them out, it is best to stick with 4 panels.

• A plan was made for what to show in the 4 panels. It was decided to take photos with the XO using the Record Activity. Photos could also be imported from a digital camera or from open source photos available in wikipedia and other collections. Drawings made in Activities, such as the Paint Activity, could also be used.
• Items needed for the photos were collected, the pictures were set up and several photos of each was taken with the XO using the Record Activity. The best one for each of the four panels was chosen and labeled in the Journal with a name such as P1, P2, P3, P4 for easy identification when importing.
• Photos were imported and placed in the four panels.
• A title was put in the title box at the top center of the Fototoon screen, in this case, “Pick A Healthy Snack.” Text balloons and boxes were added to tell the story.
• The project was saved to a usb stick, taken to another computer with a printer and printed out. It can be posted on a bulletin board, put in a class project book or taken home to share with family and friends.

To get you thinking, here are just a few other ideas for comic strip projects:

• Social studies:

  • history… A famous historical event (drawings or photos of dolls or people dressed as characters in the event.
  • occupations… photos of various people in the community doing various jobs
  • geography… photos of different life zones such as deserts, forests, grasslands, and arctic zones with information about each.

• Science:

  • animals… Drawings or photos of pets, farm animals, zoo animals, animals of the sea, forest, etc.
  • astronomy… drawings or photos of constellations, planets, etc. It could even be about one planet showing what it might be like there.

• Math: numbers of things illustrating addition, subtraction, multiplication, division or fractions.

• Music: pictures of different types of local folk instruments with information about each.

• Language: illustrate a famous local folk tale with drawings or photos (people or dolls posed as characters in the story).

The possibilities are limitless!