Storyboard for Kids: Plan a Six-Scene Story With Original Drawings
A storyboard is a row of boxes, one per scene, showing what happens in each before a story is written, animated or filmed. In this grades 3–8 lesson, students sketch six scenes of an original story with one action per box, then add a shot note (close or wide) and a sound note under each. The storyboard becomes the plan they check the finished story against.
By ArtifyTales Team, Nell AI Labs LLC · Published · 6 min read
Ask students to make an animated story or a short video and most will start filming or drawing the first scene straight away. Twenty minutes later they have a beautiful opening and no idea what happens next.
Filmmakers and animators solve this with a storyboard: a row of quick sketches, one box per scene, made before anything else. It is one of the most practical planning tools a student can learn, and it works whether the finished story is written, drawn, animated or filmed. This lesson teaches a six-scene storyboard with two notes under each box: what the viewer sees, and what they hear.
| What a teacher needs | This activity |
|---|---|
| Grades | 3–8 (four boxes for Grade 3, six for Grades 4–8) |
| Time | One 45-minute session to storyboard, plus time to produce |
| Prep | A six-box storyboard sheet with two note lines under each box |
| Student output | A six-scene storyboard with shot and sound notes |
| Assessment | One action per box, a clear sequence, and a check against the finished story |
The storyboard sheet
Each box has three parts:
- The sketch: stick figures, shapes, arrows for movement. Two minutes, no more.
- Shot: wide (the whole scene) or close (a face, a hand, an object).
- Sound: what the viewer hears: a line of dialogue, a sound effect, or silence.
The lesson, step by step
- Show a storyboard (5 minutes). Show a rough storyboard next to a finished scene, from a short animation or a video made by a previous class. Point out how rough the sketches are.
- Plan the story in six lines (10 minutes). Before drawing, students write one line per box: start, problem, try one, try two, turning point, ending. Each line must be a single action.
- Sketch (15 minutes). Two minutes per box, with a visible timer. Students who finish early add arrows showing movement, not more detail.
- Add shot and sound notes (10 minutes). For each box, students decide: wide or close? What does the viewer hear? Ask: "In box 5, what does the viewer most need to see?"
- Pitch it (5 minutes). Partners "play" the storyboard to each other, pointing at each box and saying the sound out loud. If a box needs a long explanation, it probably holds two actions and should be split.
A worked example
This is an illustrative storyboard of the kind a fifth grader might plan, not real student work.
| Box | Action | Shot | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Start | A kite-maker launches her new kite on a hill | Wide | Wind, laughing |
| 2 Problem | The string snaps; the kite flies away | Close on the string | Snap |
| 3 Try one | She chases it through the town | Wide | Running feet |
| 4 Try two | She climbs a tree, but it’s too high | Close on her face | Silence |
| 5 Turning point | A crow brings the kite back in its beak | Close on the crow | Caw |
| 6 Ending | Girl and crow fly the kite together | Wide | Music |
Each box is one action, the shots change between wide and close, and the silence in box 4 sets up the surprise in box 5. That is storyboarding.
Using the storyboard afterwards
A storyboard is only useful if students check their finished story against it. When the story is written, animated or filmed, put the storyboard next to it and ask: "Which scene changed? Was the change better, or did something get lost?" Students often discover that their turning point got squeezed, or that the ending lost its sound.
Storyboards connect naturally to comic strips. Students who enjoy this can move on to planning a comic strip with characters, panels and speech bubbles, and fourth-grade teachers can use the comic strip lesson on story elements.
Where ArtifyTales fits
ArtifyTales can turn a storyboarded story into a narrated video or a short film. A student can photograph their main character sketch, which becomes a character with a name and personality, then type their six scenes as a script.
The storyboard is the check. Generated scenes may change the shot, drop a sound or merge two boxes, so students compare the result with their board and decide what to fix. The plan stays the student’s, and a teacher reviews every video before it is shared.
Student work and privacy
Drawings, handwriting and recorded voices are student data. Read how ArtifyTales handles children’s drawings and voices and our FERPA and student data commitments before a class uploads anything, and get privacy, retention and deletion terms in writing before a school pilot.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a storyboard?
- A storyboard is a sequence of boxes, each showing one scene or moment, used to plan a story before it is written, animated or filmed. Each box usually has a quick sketch and a short note underneath about what happens, what the viewer sees and what they hear.
- How is a storyboard different from a comic strip?
- A comic strip is the finished product: readers see the drawings and speech bubbles. A storyboard is a plan: the sketches are quick and the notes are for the maker, describing camera distance, sound or movement. Many students find storyboarding easier once they know the drawings don’t need to be good.
- How many scenes should a student storyboard have?
- Six scenes is a good size for Grades 3 to 8: enough for a beginning, a problem, two attempts, a turning point and an ending. Younger students can use four. More than eight usually means some boxes repeat the same action.
- Do students need to be good at drawing to storyboard?
- No. Stick figures, arrows and labels are exactly right. Set a two-minute limit per box so students focus on what happens rather than how it looks. Film storyboards made by professionals are often very rough.
- What are shot notes in a storyboard?
- A shot note says how close the viewer is. A wide shot shows the whole scene and where everyone is; a close shot shows a face or an object. Asking students to choose one for each box makes them think about what the viewer needs to see in that moment.
- Can a storyboard be used to make an animated story?
- Yes, that is what storyboards are for. Once the six scenes are planned, students can animate them by hand, film them, or use a tool that turns a story into narrated scenes. Checking the result against the storyboard shows which scenes changed.
Storyboard one scene first
Try the two-minute rule with a single box and see how quickly students focus on action. See how ArtifyTales turns a child’s drawing into an animated story.
For classrooms and learning centers we build custom plans, including shared avatar pools and multi-student accounts. Request a school or institution pilot and tell us your grade and group size. The Kindergarten–Grade 8 Common Core ELA alignment sets out the literacy side.