A blank page asks a lot of a seven-year-old. A page of empty boxes asks for much less: draw this moment, then the next one. That small shift is why comic strips work so well in elementary classrooms. Children practice sequencing, dialogue, and retelling without ever facing a wall of lines.
This page has seven free printable comic strip templates for elementary students, from a three-panel strip for kindergarten to a six-panel page for fifth grade. Every one prints straight from your browser. Pick a template below, press its button, and choose Save as PDF or send it to the printer. No sign-up, no email form.
The short version
- Kindergarten and 1st grade: three large panels (Beginning, Middle, End) with tall primary writing lines.
- 2nd and 3rd grade: four boxes (First, Next, Then, Last), each with a speech bubble already drawn in and lines to write on.
- 4th and 5th grade: six panels in mixed sizes with blank bubbles, caption boxes, and one big action panel.
- Plus four extras: a story retell organizer, a science story strip, a superhero strip, and a blank six-panel page. All print on US Letter or A4 and save as PDF.
Printable Comic Strip Templates by Grade Level
Panel count and line height matter more than decoration. A kindergartner needs big boxes and tall lines. A fifth grader needs room to pace a scene. So the three main templates change as children move up: fewer, bigger panels at the start, a ready-made speech bubble in the middle, and mixed panel sizes with blank bubbles at the top end.
Each preview below prints at full page size. The button opens your browser’s print dialog. Choose Save as PDF there if you want a file instead of paper.
Kindergarten & 1st Grade: Simple 3-Panel Strip with Large Boxes
Looking for a 3 panel comic strip template PDF that a five- or six-year-old can actually use? This one gives every panel a big drawing box and two rows of tall primary writing lines underneath, each with a dashed midline to show letter height. The boxes are labeled Beginning, Middle, and End. That’s the whole structure, and at this age it’s plenty.
Think of it as a comic strip template for kindergarten PDF that grows with the child. The kindergarten narrative standard (W.K.3) asks children to combine drawing, dictating, and writing to tell about events in the order they happened and to give a reaction. A three-box strip is that standard on one page. In first grade the same sheet supports retelling a familiar story with key details (RL.1.2).
In kindergarten, let the drawing carry the story and take dictation on the lines. In first grade, ask for one sentence per box, with a capital letter at the start and a period at the end. Stick figures are welcome. The box is the assignment, not the art.
Grades K–1 · US Letter or A4
2nd & 3rd Grade: 4-Box Strip with Speech Bubbles and Writing Lines
By second grade, children can hold a fourth beat in their heads, and the story starts to have a real shape. This 4 box comic strip template for elementary classrooms labels the boxes First, Next, Then, and Last. Every box has a speech bubble already drawn in, so dialogue is part of the plan from the first pencil mark. A student who’s stuck can start there: who is talking, and what are they saying?
Below each box sit two rows of writing lines, which makes this a printable comic strip template with speech bubbles and a blank comic strip template with writing lines in one sheet. The picture shows what happened. The lines say it in a sentence or two.
As a 2nd grade comic strip template printable, it matches what the grade 2 narrative standard asks for: a short sequence of events, details about actions, thoughts, and feelings, time words that signal order, and a sense of closure (W.2.3). First, next, then, and last are exactly those time words, printed where children will see them.
In third grade the same page works as a 3rd grade creative writing comic strip worksheet. Give a prompt, such as the morning the school bus started talking or the mitten that went missing, and ask for one problem and one solution inside four boxes. If you want prompts ready to go, 25 easy comic strip ideas for school projects sorts them by grade and subject.
Grades 2–3 · US Letter or A4
Upper Elementary (4th & 5th Grade): 6-Panel Layout with Action Frames
By fourth grade the problem flips. Children have plenty to say and need room to pace it. This upper elementary comic book template uses six panels in mixed sizes: a wide opener, one large action panel in the middle with a heavier border, and three smaller panels underneath for reactions and the ending. There are blank speech bubbles for dialogue, caption boxes for narration (the little label that says “Later that night…”), and a jagged burst for the loud moment.
There are no writing lines on this one. Students decide how much text each panel needs, which is half the skill. Grades 3 through 5 are asked to write narratives with effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences (W.3.3 to W.5.3), and a six-panel page makes the sequence visible before anyone polishes a sentence.
One rule keeps these pages readable: one idea per panel. If a panel needs three sentences, it’s really two panels. Students who want to go further with panel size and pacing can read our guide to panel composition.
Grades 4–5 · US Letter or A4
3-Panel, 4-Box, and Speech Bubble Layouts: Which One to Use
Here are all seven templates side by side. The grade levels are a starting point, not a rule. A confident second grader can take the six-panel page, and a fourth grader who’s struggling can go back to four boxes without anyone noticing.
| Template | Best for | Writing lines | Speech bubbles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · 3-panel strip | Beginning, middle, end (K–1) | Two tall rows per panel | None, draw your own |
| 2 · 4-box strip | Sequencing and short stories (2–3) | Two rows per box | One drawn in every box |
| 3 · 6-panel page | Longer stories and dialogue (4–5) | None | Blank bubbles, caption boxes, burst |
| 4 · 5-box retell organizer | Retelling and summarizing (2–5) | Four rows per box | None |
| 5 · 4-box science story | Experiment write-ups (any grade) | Two rows per box, plus a words box | None |
| 6 · 4-panel superhero | Creative writing, early finishers | Two rows per panel | Blank bubble and burst |
| 7 · Blank 6-panel page | Free drawing, cut-and-sort games | None | None |
Panel count is a pacing tool. Three panels force a child to choose what matters. Six let them breathe. When a student stalls on a long page, the fix is usually a shorter page, not a longer deadline.
Classroom Uses: Retelling, Sequencing, Science, and Superheroes
Why comics at all? Reading Rockets notes that most graphic novels for young readers have easy-to-follow plots, which helps children see how a story is stitched together (Reading Rockets). Making a comic puts the child on the other side of that. They have to decide what goes in each box, and that decision is planning, the hard part of writing. For storyboard sheets and whole-class sets, our classroom comic templates guide goes wider.
Reading Comprehension and Retelling
The templates form a ladder, and that’s on purpose. Reading Rockets suggests moving from simple sequence routines, like Beginning, Middle, End and First, Next, Then, Last, toward summarizing routines like Somebody Wanted But So Then (summarizing strategy). Templates 1 and 2 are the first rung. Template 4 is the next one.
Template 4 is a comic strip graphic organizer for reading comprehension. Five boxes carry the prompts Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then: the main character, the goal, the problem, the solution, and the outcome (K20 Center). Students draw each part and write a sentence or two underneath. Read the five sentences in a row and you have a summary.
Use it as a retelling a story comic strip worksheet after a read-aloud. Have children tell the story to a partner first, with no paper, and draw second. Retelling keeps the events in order. Summarizing is a step up, because the student has to pick the important parts instead of listing everything. That jump is bigger than it looks, so let the boxes do some of the choosing.
Grades 2–5 · US Letter or A4
Story Sequencing Activities
Sequencing is the natural home of the blank comic strip. For a blank comic strip for story sequencing activity, use Template 7, the plain six-panel page. It has no labels or numbers to give the answer away.
Ask each student to draw four to six steps of something they know well: making toast, planting a bean, getting ready for school. Cut the page apart along the gaps, shuffle the panels, and swap with a partner. The partner puts them back in order and explains which clue gave each one away. The explaining is where the learning happens. Then hand out Template 2 and have each student write First, Next, Then, and Last sentences for a new strip.
Science and History Storytelling
Template 5 turns a science note into a short story. The four boxes read I wondered, I tried, I saw, and I learned, with a science words box at the bottom. It’s a science story comic strip template elementary classes can use after almost any hands-on activity: ice melting, beans sprouting, magnets picking things up.
The words box does the heavy lifting. Before drawing, children pick three vocabulary words from the unit and use them in their captions. A drawing of a seedling is nice. A drawing labeled roots, with a sentence that uses the word correctly, shows the child understood it.
The same strip works in social studies. Write your own headings over the printed ones, such as a day in the life of a pioneer kid or the steps of a historical event, and keep the facts to what the class has actually read.
Any grade · US Letter or A4
Creative Writing and Early Finishers: The Superhero Strip
Every superhero story already has a plot built in. Meet the hero, trouble arrives, action, the day is saved. Template 6 is an easy superhero comic strip template printable that hands children that structure and lets them fill it with their own character. They name the hero and the superpower at the top, then draw.
Don’t fuss about drawing quality. A round head, a cape, and a strong pose are enough. The burst in panel three is there so sound effects stay fun, and so children learn early that a comic can say POW without a full sentence.
Creative writing · US Letter or A4
A Google Slides Comic Strip Template for Elementary Classes (Built in 5 Minutes)
We don’t offer a ready-made Google Slides file, and we’d rather say so than send you hunting for one. What works well is a simple build: design the layout in BlankComic, then make it the background of a slide. Students can’t drag the panels around by accident, and they can type straight into the bubbles. If your class lives in Docs instead, there is a table-based method in our guide to making a comic strip on Google Docs.
Google Slides comic strip template in six steps
- Open the BlankComic editor and pick one of the 30 starting layouts under Layout. Drag panel edges to resize, and add speech bubbles if you want them already in place.
- In Layout, choose Custom and enter a size with the shape of your slide, for example 960 × 540 px for 16:9. Landscape fits a screen best.
- Export the page as a PNG.
- In Google Slides, click Slide, then Change background. Next to Image, click Choose and select your PNG (Google’s steps).
- Students add text boxes over the bubbles, plus shapes or images if you allow them.
- In Google Classroom, attach the deck and choose Make a copy for each student so every child gets their own (Classroom help).
Want to skip Google entirely? Students can build the whole comic in the editor. There’s no account, nothing to install, and nothing stamped on the export. Save the project as a .blank file to keep editing later, because an exported PDF or PNG can’t be reopened in the editor. One honest limit: BlankComic is a layout and lettering tool with a simple draw tool, not a full illustration studio. For elementary comics that’s usually exactly enough. The five-minute getting started guide covers the basics.
Download Your Free Printable Blank Comic Book Pages
The plain six-panel page below is a free printable blank comic book page for kids. Save it as a PDF from the print dialog and you have a file. It has six equal panels, a title line, and nothing else, which makes it the most flexible sheet in the set: free drawing, cut-and-sort games, or the first page of a class comic book.
Template 7 · Blank 6-panel page · US Letter or A4
All seven templates, one click each:
- 1 · 3-panel strip with writing linesGrades K–1
- 2 · 4-box strip with speech bubblesGrades 2–3
- 3 · 6-panel page with blank bubblesGrades 4–5
- 4 · 5-box story retell organizerGrades 2–5
- 5 · 4-box science storyAny grade
- 6 · 4-panel superhero stripAny grade
- 7 · Blank 6-panel pageAny grade
Printing tips
Getting a PDF. Press a button, then pick Save as PDF as the destination in your print dialog. That gives you a file you can email, drop into a shared folder, or attach to a class page.
Paper size. The pages are drawn in US Letter proportions and print with a small margin. On A4 they scale to fit. If your printer asks, choose Fit to page.
Ink and paper. Everything is black or gray lines on white, with no filled backgrounds, so photocopying is fine. Standard copy paper handles pencil and colored pencil well. Markers can show through, so use heavier paper if you plan to hand them out.
Prefer a bound book to loose sheets? The blank comic books on our Books page are made for that. For more blank pages sorted by age, see Blank Comic Book for Kids. And if you’re exporting pages you built yourself, Exporting for Print vs. Web explains which format to pick.
Frequently Asked Questions About Elementary Comic Strip Templates
Are these comic strip templates free for classroom use?
Yes. Print as many copies as you need for your classroom, homeschool group, or tutoring sessions. There is no account, email form, or fee. Please don’t sell the sheets or repost them as your own. A link back to this page is always welcome.
Can I use these templates in Google Slides or Google Classroom?
Not as a ready-made Slides file, but it takes about five minutes to build one. Design a layout in the BlankComic editor, export it as a PNG, and set it as a slide background through Slide, then Change background. In Google Classroom, attach the deck and choose Make a copy for each student so every child gets their own.
What is the best panel layout for younger elementary kids?
Three panels. Kindergarten and first grade do best with three big boxes labeled Beginning, Middle, and End, with tall writing lines underneath. Move to four boxes (First, Next, Then, Last) in second grade, and to six panels around fourth grade.
Which template works best for retelling a story?
Template 4, the five-box retell organizer. Its boxes follow the Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then routine, so students draw and write the character, goal, problem, solution, and outcome. For younger children, use the 3-panel or 4-box strip with Beginning, Middle, End or First, Next, Then, Last.
Do students need to be good at drawing?
No. Stick figures work fine. The box tells the child where one moment ends and the next begins, and the writing lines carry the details.
Can children make comic strips on a computer instead of paper?
Yes. The BlankComic editor runs in a browser with no account and nothing to install. Students pick a layout, add speech bubbles and captions, and export a PDF or PNG. Saving the project as a .blank file lets them keep editing later.
Sources
The standards, reading strategies, and Google steps in this guide were checked against these pages. Standard numbers and wording can differ by state, so check your own state’s version.
- Common Core W.K.3: kindergarten narrative writing: the official standard text.
- Common Core Reading: Literature, Grade 1: includes RL.1.2 on retelling stories.
- W.2.3: grade 2 narrative writing: California Department of Education listing of the standard.
- Narrative writing standards, grades K to 7: W.3.3 to W.5.3 side by side.
- Reading Rockets: Summarizing: moving from sequence routines to summarizing routines.
- Reading Rockets: Graphic Novels for Young Kids: how comics-style books support young readers.
- K20 Center: SWBST: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then explained.
- Google Docs Editors Help: change a slide background: adding an image background in Slides.
- Google Classroom Help: Create an assignment: the Make a copy for each student option.