Review by Polly Conway, Common Sense Education | Updated May 2013

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Creaza Cartoonist

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Versatile cartoon creator for silly or serious storytelling

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Rating Details

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Grades

3-9 This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.

Great for:

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7 images

Cartoon themes are varied, a little weird, and great for fun visual juxtapositions.

Creaza play will be fun for a wide variety of ages.

Make sure you click on the English version to get instructions!

It's not all silly; choose a few historical figures and tell their story.

Pros: The characters and themes are well-drawn and extremely silly-looking, making them perfect for kid humor.

Cons: It would be nice if you could mix themes for even more creativity.

Bottom Line: Although the site could offer a little more guidance, it's totally fun to use, and the possibilities are endless.

Lesson & Activity Ideas

It may be worth getting the iPad app, as it seems to have better guidance and functionality, but the site is serviceable, and with a little extra time, you can make it work for your classroom. The Ancient Greek and Roman themes would work great during a week of study on those periods, and any of the themes could fit into a creative writing curriculum.

Tool Overview

Creaza is a cartoon creation website that allows kids to make their own online cartoons and mini-movies. They can use pre-drawn characters and backgrounds, or draw their own directly into a panel, then add sound. There are lots of options, including using your own images as backgrounds.

With a username and password required for login, kids using the site should feel secure; their videos are private unless they choose to share through social media or email.

Learning Value

Creaza Cartoonist can be really fun, but there's not a ton of help, which makes it tricky to figure out how stuff works. Make sure to watch the tutorial video, which is enough to get started using the program. The characters are nutty-looking and there's an odd selection of props for kids to choose from, but this really only amps up the creativity and silliness of the final cartoons.

Aside from the fact that kids will have to do a bit of experimenting to figure out how it all works, Creaza Cartoonist is pretty fun. The drag-and-drop interface is reasonably intuitive. Characters run from kooky (Little Red Riding Hood) to historical (Winston Churchill), but you can't mix-and-match between themes (which may be a good thing). Some fun features set it apart from other online cartoon tools; for example, once you choose a background, go up to the Background tab and decide if it will be day or night in this particular panel. It's a neat way to show the passage of time, and kids can also change the mood of characters in the same way. There are some weird idiosyncrasies; for example, the Animal options you have in the Manga theme are Hamster, Cat, and Robot Cat. That's it. Want to add some props? Choose from chocolate milk, a trash can, and a hover platform.

Rating Details

Overall Rating

Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

With goofy, fun clip art to choose from and a relatively simple dashboard, kids should really enjoy messing around with the site's features.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

The way kids have to use their brains to plot out a cartoon story should help them out with future creative thinking. They're also able to share the finished product through social media or email, getting feedback from peers.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

There's a three-minute video tutorial that goes over the basics, as well as a simple but clear help page with instructions on how to put together a cartoon.

Common Sense Reviewer

Polly Conway Classroom teacher

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Teacher Reviews

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Featured review by
Amy K. , Classroom teacher

Classroom teacher

Cornell Senior High School
Coraopolis, PA

Fun site, great themes for digital story telling.

Overall this is a great product that can be used in many grades and classes. Students like the themes, and I like the ability to connect already themed movies to units that we do (Greece, Rome). You can upload pictures, videos, and audio files to embed in the projects. Students can also create mind maps with another of Creaza's tools. Storage is limited in the free version, though, and that is a downfall. Additionally, you can't download your files from the free version-- you have to show them from your account (which can be tricky for grading).

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Writing
W.4: Production and Distribution of Writing
W.4.4	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

W.4.6	With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting.
W.5: Production and Distribution of Writing
W.5.4	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

W.5.6	With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of two pages in a single sitting.
W.6: Production and Distribution of Writing
W.6.4	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

W.6.6	Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.
W.7: Production and Distribution of Writing
W.7.4	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

W.7.6	Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.
W.8: Production and Distribution of Writing
W.8.4	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

W.8.6	Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
W.9-10: Production and Distribution of Writing
W.9-10.4	Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

W.9-10.6	Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

Creaza Cartoonist

Versatile cartoon creator for silly or serious storytelling

Subjects and Skills: Creaza Cartoonist

Take a look inside

Lesson & Activity Ideas

Tool Overview

Learning Value

Rating Details

Overall Rating

Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Key Standards Supported

Writing

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