In October, Sacred Hearts Academy’s sixth-grade class created comics that explored different interpretations of kindness and friendship. In their lower school library class with librarian Erika Phillips, students produced six comics: “Super Amazing Pets,” “Joke Show,” “Friendship Bench,” “Back to Friend,” “The Shapes” and “Hungry.”

Phillips created the assignment after reading Friendshape by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld, a book that personifies shapes to explore the highs and lows of friendship. To ensure students understood the story, she designed a project requiring them to make a comic that expanded on themes of friendship through humor.

Using six step-by-step guidelines, students were asked to include a clear beginning, middle and end; a realistic friendship problem and solution; creativity and emotional expression through characters; and neat, expressive dialogue.

“Super Amazing Pets” was created by Taely-Rae Kuamoo-Rivera, Riley Hamlin, Zoe Chang and Naiya Vegas. Inspired by the movie Pets, the group wanted their comic to have personality and depth. “The first time we drafted the comic, it turned out with the main characters being shapes (like the book we read), but then we decided on animals,” they explained. Switching from shapes to animals helped them add a unique twist.

“Joke Show,” created by Tali’ilagi Mataafa-Alferos, Hokulani Fuentes, Lotus Lerch and Erin Luna, focuses on dad jokes and finding humor in everyday life. “We chose this theme because we believe everyone deserves to laugh once in a while,” the group said. They added that they didn’t face any challenges because “our team works well together.”

“Hungry” was created by Kaimana Espiritu, Isabella Tsappidi, Arianni Kepa and Ava Raston. “Tsappidi was the writer and colorer, Ari was a colorer, while Kai and Ava were illustrators,” the group explained. While they struggled to focus at first, they ultimately completed a story about making friends in unexpected situations.

“Back to Friends,” by Kai-Ann McCoy, Mahina Medeiros, Kahulalea Nielson and Vivienne Barstis, centers on sticking with friends through thick and thin. “We wrote this because all of this is real and happens all the time,” Medeiros said. McCoy illustrated the comic; Medeiros captioned each panel; and Barstis and Nielson wrote and colored the story.

“Friendship Bench” was created by Sheyzlynn DeLima, Jennifer Min and Keao’olu Guerreiro. The story takes place at a bench where a rectangle sits alone. A square and a circle who are already friends invite the rectangle to join them. “We each took turns to draw our characters and add all the colors and words,” the group said.

“The Shapes,” created by Kekaimalie Sayin, Rachel Tanaka, Makayla Chung and Lydia Eftink, addresses exclusion—something the students noted happens often in schools. “We feel it is a very bad thing, so this comic is to spread awareness that you could exclude someone without thinking about it,” they explained.

The friendship-themed comic assignment gave sixth graders a creative way to demonstrate their understanding of Friendshape while adding their own twists to stories about friendship. Phillips was proud of their work. “They did a very good job! This class is very creative and always puts their all into the projects I give them,” she said.

Overall, the project was a fun, interactive way for students to use their creativity while deepening their understanding of friendship.