What makes Toontastic particularly appealing to educators is the use of a story arc for storytelling. Designed for ages 5-10, creators identify turning points in their narrative related to the story arc elements of setup, conflict, challenge, climax, and resolution.
Children begin by choosing from among a variety of settings, then pick their characters. They can edit their characters using paint and draw tools. Finally, creators animate the scene by moving around their characters and adding audio narration. The final step in the process is to add background music. The projects can be saved and shared online at ToonTube.
The Toontastic Jr. edition helps young children design stories with a beginning, middle, and ending. The free download includes 12 animated start starters.
The app is available in both an individual edition for free and a school edition at a small charge. The School Edition includes hundreds of additional characters and dozens of extra backgrounds.
A teacher’s guide and common core aligned lessons are also available.
To learn more about the app, go to http://www.launchpadtoys.com/toontastic/.
For a teacher’s guide, go to http://www.launchpadtoys.com/toontastic/parent-teacher-guide/.
For lots of example projects, go to ToonTube at http://toontube.launchpadtoys.com/.
