Comics to deal with emotions

Image by Alex Molina. CC0 Creative Commons

Hello visitors!

Secret agents are used to deal with crime and death, but teachers need to know how to react in the classroom when a student loses someone dear. Depending on the situation and child's personality, he or she will prefers to remain in silence or perhaps the need of expressing feelings will make the conversation comes up. Teachers need to have a lot of tact to handle such delicate matter and be very supportive.

In this case or in any other situation which involves helping children to deal with emotions is important to use tools they are familiar with. Comics can be useful to show real situations, and reading similar experiences can help children to deal with their own emotions.

Having said this, I want to show you an online tool to create your own stories through comics. It's called Storyboard That, so let me explain its features.

First, you start creating a storyboard, where you can choose how many cells is going to have your creation. Then, add the scenes and characters the software includes, or you can add your own.

I was really surprised by the amount of different characters offered, which can be edited (body features, position, mood as well as preset modes) and make the creation experience truly rewarding. I have enjoyed the process of editing the scenes in order to adapt them to my needs, creating zooms or cropping characters.

Once all the scenes are created, add the text by clicking the "Textables" tab and use different speech bubbles to complete your comic.

Finally, Storyboard That offers different export options (PDF, png, zip or pptx). You can print your outcome as well. In order to embed, you will need to make your storyboard public. It also offers managing your students and assignments, so it's a great tool to work in class. If you are worried about students' privacy, by default all storyboards are created under a private educational account.

The only problem is that you are allowed to use the software on a free trial for only 14 days, after this period expires you need to pay to access all the features. Anyway, I think it would be a great idea to use it with your students in class.

For more info you can see an overview here.


Enjoy it! Click here to view the comic on the Storyboard That website. It features a student who loses his grandmother and needs support to understand his loss. It is important to send a positive message and reflection on this issue.


Made with Storyboard That