Author: Charlotte Kubjane (South Africa) | Published on 26 February 2026

 

Read what Charlotte about this activity: 

The lesson will provide learners with the features of a cartoon strip, such as frames, characters, setting, facial expressions, body language, movement lines, font sizes, punctuations and speech bubbles. Where elements can be used to create awareness to social issues or create humour.

Stage 1: Warm Up (Pre-teach) : “A game of charades”

  • The teacher will have cue cards with words for emotions and actions. Model acting out one of the words without speaking. Class volunteers try to guess the words,
  • The teacher will assign five students to act, while the rest of the class try to guess the word on the cue card. 

Stage 2: Presentation 

Draw a simple comic strip on the board (see downloadable example at the bottom of the page)

Panel-by-Panel Reveal

  1. Draw only the first panel of the cartoon strip. Ask students to describe the characters (a father and son) and the setting. Ask: What are they talking about? What is the boy's opinion? Elicit phrases like "I think..." or "In my opinion..."
  2. Draw the second panel. Focus on the father's hand gesture and the text: "You're right! Doing sport has many benefits!" Elicit the meaning of ‘benefits.’

Ask students to predict what happens in the fourth panel.

Encourage students to write their predictions in one sentence.

Stage 3: Discussion

Cartoon Jargon and discussion

Point to parts of the comic strip and elicit or introduce words for the elements.

Cartoon strip elements

  • Frames
  • Characters
  • Setting
  • Facial expressions
  • Body language
  • Movement lines
  • Font size and punctuation
  • Speech bubbles

Stage 4: Missing panel

Creative Task

Tell students to draw the fourth panel for the cartoon strip on a piece of paper. It’s up to them how the story ends 

Peer Review and Presentation

Have the students form groups.

In each group, the students should put their ‘panels’ face down. One student should shuffle the panels and then ‘deal’ them out, face up.

Without pointing, each student should describe their own panel. The other students should listen and look at the panels on the table to work out which panel is being described.

To practice 'green prompting' and reduce environmental impact , use a precise prompt to generate inclusive stick figures:

Create a simple black-and-white comic strip using basic stick figures to represent diverse learners and a teacher in a classroom context, ensuring the style is accessible, free of stereotypes , and easy to replicate on a whiteboard .

This approach ensures your materials are inclusive and appropriate for your specific student needs while maintaining transparency about the use of AI tools in your teaching.

For more detailed guidelines, read our TeachingEnglish AI guidelines here

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