Storyboarding with 1st Grade

1st grade's collaboration with Mr. Lohmeyer supports concepts like a pre-writing plan, an integral part of the writing process in 1st grade.  Gaining motivation from Mr. Lohmeyer’s enthusiastic modeling of how to illustrate across three panels, students can plan the beginning, middle and end of their writing.

Sequencing events helps 1st graders organize thoughts and ideas. Their understanding is extended when learning sophisticated techniques like onomatopoeia and how sound words make illustrations come to life!

Students create engaging storyboard diagrams with characters, settings, textures, & interesting staging choices.  These drawings help students to plan their writing, and provide a visual element to their stories.  Both teachers and students found this collaboration extremely beneficial and plan to keep it going!

“We kicked off our lessons with Mr. Lohmeyer by creating a storyboard about a day in the life of a Whitby 1st grader! Mr. Lohmeyer will support and inspire children to plan and create stories that are sequential and promote character development. We couldn't be happier with this Lower-Middle School connection!”  -Amanda Lavoie, 1st Grade Teacher

“1st grade just wanted to share the wonderful work Mr. Lohmeyer did with us.  The children enjoyed this special Halloween edition of our weekly time with him.  Happy Halloween!” -Jessica Pittman, 1st Grade Teacher

“Thanks to the 1st Grade Team, for inviting me to teach storyboarding lessons on Fridays.  It has been such a blast!  This week, we concentrated on telling the story of the 1st Graders' visit to the Cos Cob Fire House.  Next time, they will get a chance to draw this scene on their own with customized storyboarding templates!” -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher

“Last week, we drew the story of the 1st Graders' visit to the Cos Cob Fire House.  This week, the students had a chance to draw their own storyboard of this trip!  We focused on the Beginning, Middle, and End for each, with students drawing different parts of the trip.  Maybe we could send these to the CC Firefighters!” -Phil Lohmeyer, Middle School Design Teacher

“In our previous session, students drew different parts of the exact same thing, a trip to the Fire House.  This time, students reflected on Thanksgiving, and what made their own experience special.  We drew pre-meal activities, games with family, fun menu items, and of course… dessert!” -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher

“During this lesson, Mr. Lohmeyer focused on texture.  Texture as he explained is making it look like it feels a certain way. He drew a lot of fluffy snow around the giant snowman, and added small little dots by the top of the snow. Then the students wanted to add texture to the evergreen trees. They couldn’t get enough!” -Arianna Papaj, 1st Grade Teacher

“Today was a very special day for the 1st graders, who got a chance to enjoy some cookies by 5th grade group, ‘Tiny Tasters!’  It was a great opportunity to learn about Onomatopoeia, by listening to our sounds when tasting the cookies, and then brainstorming a fun storyboard.” -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher

“Last week, we learned about Onomatopoeia, by listening to our sounds when tasting cookies. This week, the students had a chance to draw their very own Onomatopoeia storyboard of their morning routine!  We focused on using different sound effects for each panel!” -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher

“Today, the students practiced close-ups within their storyboard plan!  We reviewed and focused on why we learn storyboarding, how we build storyboarding skills, and what the result of storyboarding is.  Because of this special experience with Mr. Lohmeyer, first graders are able to get their ideas out in a fun and sequential way!” -Amanda Lavoie, 1st Grade Teacher

“This week in 1st, students learned about Tired words (which we say go to "Word Jail!") vs. Exciting words. Some examples are: Good vs. Great, Big vs. Huge, and Nice vs. Terrific.  The drawing lesson correlates with what we've been discussing about boring words, and how now that we are better writers, we can choose more exciting words!” -Amanda Lavoie, 1st Grade Teacher

“1st graders are learning about Adjectives and Verbs in their ‘Word Choice’ unit.  For St. Patrick's Day, my 5th grade students plan to create a Leprechaun Path with chalk for the 1st graders. Our idea is to invite 1st graders to predict what they might see using Adjectives and Verbs chosen from a word list, then draw it… inspiring the 5th graders’ Design!” -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher 

“Last week, 1st graders predicted what they might see on a Leprechaun Path. This week, 5th graders worked to turn dreams into reality!  5th graders drew rainbows leading the way, shamrocks, footprints, boomboxes, a Leprechaun Rock Band, the Happy Lion Guard, and of course, a pot of gold… all inspired by their 1st grade clients!" -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher

“During Distance Learning, we created a Geometric Shapes lesson video, covering strategies for drawing a cube, sphere, and pyramid.  This year, we were able to teach the lesson IN PERSON once again! We reviewed similar strategies for turning 2D shapes into 3D forms, and shading strategies like hatching, cross hatching, and stippling.” -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher

“We’re in a nonfiction writing unit and the students are researching earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods and wildfires. We've been talking about the difference between fiction and nonfiction, pointing out the features that nonfiction books have like a glossary, captions, bold print, and more.  Today, we drew a volcano across 3 panels!” -Amanda Lavoie, 1st Grade Teacher

“Our current Unit of Inquiry is called ‘Then & Now.’ We have been learning about how houses were different in Colonial Times, and we will be going on a field trip to the Rye historical society to tour a colonial home. During our lesson with Mr. Lohmeyer, students told him what elements belong in each panel, so he could draw what they learned!” -Amanda Lavoie, 1st Grade Teacher

“This week, 1st graders visited a typical colonial house!  So as a result, today's focus for our ‘Then and Now’ series was houses. Thanks to the 1st grade teachers for printing storyboards in advance, so that students could give me ideas and draw along. We used a ‘2 Panel’ sheet instead of 3 panels, so we could draw ‘Then’ on the left, and ‘Now’ on the right. -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher

“Dear Ms. Lavoie and Ms. Pittman, this is Sarah F. from 8th grade. One of my design projects is planning a lesson to share with the lower schoolers. Is it possible for Mr. Lohmeyer to do my lesson about drawing ‘Patterns’ with the 1st graders, and show my video on one of the Fridays during your time with him? Thank you so much!”  -Sarah Frank, 8th Grader

“For our final session, we revisited a concept from last semester: a single panel scene, based on student suggestions.  We reviewed concepts learned this year, such as texture, geometric shapes, onomatopoeia, patterns, and more.  The student also gave me some very cool ‘thank-you’ cards!  It has been a great year drawing with 1st grade!” -Phil Lohmeyer, Design Teacher