I know it’s only July, and it’s summer break, but I want to share a beginning of the year, Get to Know You Action Figure Activity with you. This activity will help you not only ease back into the school year, but help you get to know your students more quickly and give you an instant bulletin board to boot! It also is a fun way to use AI in a creative, meaningful way….check it out!

Set

• If possible show students an action figure in a box that is current or vintage. If you don’t have one, you can always use an image of one. Ask students if they have seen the social media trend of action figure toys based on real people? Ask if they’ve ever imagined themselves as an action figure and if so, how would they describe themselves?
• Explain that they will actually be doing just that, creating an action figure toy of themselves.

Materials

• iPads or Laptops
• Projector & Screen
• ChatGPT (optional)
• Colored Pencils or Markers (optional)

Activities

• First, decide how you will have your students create their action figure. If you have access to technology and feel comfortable have your students use AI to generate their action figure. If you don’t have access to technology or don’t feel comfortable having students use AI, then have them hand generate their action figure using the provided template and colored pencils or markers.
• Before having students complete the guide sheet, you may want to generate one of yourself to use as a sample regardlesof the option you are using. I did that with myself to use as the feature image on this post. This will help you understand the process.
• Begin with having students complete the Action Figure Guide Sheet. This will help them narrow down their choices.
• Once the guide sheet is complete, have students use the information to write into ChatGPT to generate the image or have students hand generate their action figure using THIS TEMPLATE from SlideShare. If using AI, simply type in the name, description and all of the information when prompted and ask it to create an action figure toy package. Once the image is generated, it will ask if you need to revise anything. Once you’re satisfied with the results, copy it into a class slide deck that you create for your class by period or block and students can paste it in and all you have to do is displaying them when it’s time to share or print them off for the bulletin board display.
• Once the images are created, students will share with the class as an ice breaker, get to know you type of activity.
• Create the bulletin board by displaying the printed off  action figure portraits or the hand generated portraits in a way that all portraits can be seen.
• Ask students to wrap up the activity, by completing the reflection portion of their guide sheet before turning it in.

Attachments

• Action Figure Guide Sheet (PDF)
• SlideShare Template (website)