Lesson plan Grade 2 Art & Music
Nettlefield Water-Saving Comic: Wide Panels and Close-Ups
Grade 2 students plan a four-panel comic about a child in a made-up town saving water, using wide panels to set the scene and a close-up to show the key action.
Objectives
- Students will decide which moments in a story need a wide panel and which need a close-up.
- Students will draw a four-panel comic that shows a water-saving action in the order it happens.
- Students will write panel captions that use first, next, then, and at the end.
Vocabulary
Key words: panel, wide panel, close-up, caption, speech bubble, save water
Teacher overview
Nettlefield is a made-up town, and each story card in this lesson describes a child there doing one small thing at home that keeps clean tap water from running down the drain unused. Water that comes out of a tap has already been cleaned and pumped to the house, so saving it is a habit worth showing clearly. Students turn one card into a four-panel comic, and the art decision at the center of the lesson is distance: a wide panel shows the whole room so the reader knows where the story is, while a close-up makes one object so large that the reader cannot miss it. The water-saving action itself, such as a hand turning off a tap, is the moment that earns the close-up.
Plan for a common misconception among young artists. Many second graders believe that a person must be drawn whole, head to feet, in every picture, so they treat a close-up that cuts off at the panel edge as a mistake and shrink everything to fit. The lesson addresses this by modeling a close-up that runs off the edges on purpose and by asking students to say what the reader should notice in each panel before they draw it. A second, smaller point concerns lettering: comic artists write the words first and draw the speech bubble around them afterward, which keeps the words from being squeezed into a bubble that is too small.
Procedure
Two ways to draw one moment (5 min). On the board, draw a quick wide sketch of a bathroom with a tiny sink and a tiny child. Beside it, draw a close-up of one hand on a tap handle, so large that the hand runs off the edge of the box. Ask which picture tells the reader where the story is and which picture tells the reader what the child is doing. Introduce the terms wide panel and close-up.
Wide or close-up practice and formative check (8 min). Give each student a W and C index card. Read handout questions 1 through 4 aloud one at a time, and have students hold up W for a wide panel or C for a close-up before you reveal the answer. This is the formative check: if more than about a quarter of the class holds up W for question 2 or question 3, draw one of those moments both ways on the board and ask which version lets the reader see the drop or the water in the bucket before you move on.
Choosing a story and planning (8 min). Read the three story cards aloud. Each student chooses one card and plans the four panels in pencil on the planning frame, writing the caption for each panel before drawing. Remind students that panel 1 is wide and panel 3 is the close-up of the water-saving action, while panels 2 and 4 are their own choice. Check that each plan names the action that will get the close-up.
Drawing the panels (20 min). Students draw lightly in pencil first. For the wide panel, the person should be small enough that the reader can see the room around them. For the close-up, the key object should touch at least two edges of the panel. Circulate with one question for each student: what should the reader notice first in this panel? When a student has shrunk the close-up to a small hand in the middle of the box, ask them to draw it again as if their eyes were right next to the tap.
Lettering captions and bubbles (9 min). Students copy each caption into the strip above its panel using a ruler line to keep the letters level, then write one speech bubble. Model the order: write the words in an empty space near the top of the panel, draw the bubble around them, and add a tail that points to the speaker's mouth. Bubbles should never cover a face or the water-saving action.
Reading comics to a partner (5 min). Partners trade comics and read them aloud in order. The listener names the close-up panel and says what it shows. Collect the comics and the W and C cards together.
Student Handout
Read aloud to the class: A panel is one box in a comic. A wide panel shows a whole place. A close-up shows one thing very big. Hold up W for wide or C for close-up.
- You want the reader to see the whole bathroom, so they know where the story is. Wide or close-up?
- You want the reader to see one drop of water falling from the tap. Wide or close-up?
- You want the reader to see the water filling up inside Rosa's bucket. Wide or close-up?
- You want the reader to see the whole garden where the bucket water goes. Wide or close-up?
Story card A. Leo wets his toothbrush. He turns the tap off while he brushes. He turns it on again only to rinse.
Story card B. Rosa waits for her shower water to get warm. She puts a bucket under the tap to catch the cold water. Later she pours it on the bean plants.
Story card C. June wants a cold drink of water. She does not let the tap run until the water gets cold. She keeps a jug of water in the fridge instead.
Planning frame. Write your caption first. Then plan the picture.
- Panel 1, wide: First, ___.
- Panel 2, your choice: Next, ___.
- Panel 3, close-up of the water-saving action: Then, ___.
- Panel 4, your choice: At the end, ___.
Add one speech bubble. It can tell what a person says or how they feel.
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: Wide.
The purpose is to show the whole room, so the reader needs to see the walls, the sink, and the person together. - Answer: Close-up.
One drop is too small to see in a wide panel. It has to be drawn large to be noticed. - Answer: Close-up.
The reader needs to see inside the bucket, so the bucket should fill most of the panel. - Answer: Wide.
The purpose is to show the whole garden, so the plants and the path should all fit inside the panel.
Differentiation
Support
Give these students story card A, which has the simplest action, and a comic sheet on which panel 1 is already drawn as a wide bathroom scene. Provide the four captions as cut-apart strips so the student puts them in order and glues them above the panels rather than writing them from scratch. During the close-up step, trace the outline of your own hand on a tap in the panel as a model the student can color and finish.
Extension
Ask these students to add a fifth panel that shows the same moment from a third distance, such as a middle view of the child from the waist up, and to write one sentence explaining why they chose it. They can also write a second speech bubble that shows a different character's reaction, which adds a second point of view to the story.
ELL supports
Act out each story card with a real cup, a toothbrush, and a small bucket at the classroom sink while naming the actions tap, turn off, rinse, and pour. Post first, next, then, and at the end on the board with a number and a small picture beside each word. Accept captions that mix a home-language sentence with the English temporal word, and read the finished comic aloud together with the student during the partner step.
Extensions
Bind the class comics into a small book titled for the made-up town, and place it in the school library or near a restroom sink where younger students will see it. Before binding, have the class sort the comics by story card and look at the three close-up panels for each card side by side. Comparing how different students framed the same action, from a hand filling the whole panel to a bucket drawn from above, gives the class a concrete conversation about which close-up reads most clearly and why.