Mangatar

Manga is a Japanese art form and is a popular form of comics and animation. Many children may watch manga without knowing it such as Pokemon, Naruto, One Piece and Dragonball- these are all manga. Manga is a distinctive art style which is usually characterised by big eyes, crazy hair and tiny mouths and noses.

Working with a group of pupils from years 2, 3 and 4 we used faceyourmanga.com to create a mangatar, a manga style avatar of themselves.

Once the children had created the mangatar we print screened the image and pasted it onto Word and enlarge it so that it fitted onto an A4 page. Once we had done that we used small canvases and the children traced around the eye of their character by using the projector as a guide. We then painted the image in bright colours to give it a comic/ Pop Art style. To finish off the work we went over the lines in a thick black pen and this made the art really stand out. We then worked very hard to put the display in place and these are the results.

Why don’t you have some fun and make your own mangatar? But a word of advice... don't let your pupils use masks, gadgets or tattoos as they feature smoking and other inappropriate options. Otherwise have fun!

Comic Writing

Comics and cartoons have been around for a long time and no-matter what the reading ability everyone enjoys them. Cartoons and comics are approachable because they combine both words and images. Children can draw, play and use their incredible imaginations to brings  fantasy worlds and characters alive.

I have been into comics since I first read my friends Iron Man when I was 8, now comics are everywhere and have emerged from the cult into the mainstream with films such as The Avengers and Spiderman.

In my class I have used various comics, online comic creators and Comic Life to enthuse the children to make their own comics. We then published them on the school blog so children could download them and read their comics on their smart phones, tablets and computers. Here are the results!

Goosebumps are very popular books, the comic creator is suitably moody.

Raina Telgemeier has written a wonderful series of comics which are aimed at girls. I love them too though!

Some of my pupils work.

New School Year Mangatars

As a start to the new school year I like my pupils to leave a mark so that the classroom feels like theirs, I encourage ownership. One way of doing this is by creating a Mangatar (a Manga Avatar). For the uninitiated manga is Japanese comics and animation, some of your pupils might talk about Naruto, One Piece or Bleach- these are all manga. Manga is a distinctive art style which usually is characterised by big eyes, crazy hair and tiny mouths and noses.

I use faceyourmanga.com to create a mangatar and get my pupils to write their targets for the half term underneath. I usually have the mangatar laminated with a white space underneath so the pupils can write their targets, one we have discussed what they could be. It means as well as responding to feedback in books the pupils are also looking to fulfill their individual target too.

This is my mangatar, looks a lot like me I think!

I usually print screen the mangatar from the website, paste it onto Word and enlarge it so that it fits an A4 page. Have some fun with your class and see what they com up with. Oh, a word of advice... don't let your pupils use masks, gadgets or tattoos as they feature smoking and the 'finger.' Otherwise have fun!

LINK- TES Mangatar lesson plan