Early Primary, Elementary art lesson plans for Key Stage One students aged 5 - 7
Of all the art teaching I’ve been involved in working with early education phase has to be right up there as the best teaching experiences I’ve had. Art is usually ingrained in every day experience and often taught by teachers and classroom assistants who aren’t usually experts themselves, but they aren’t afraid to have a go. That quality is priceless and you should cherish it. It doesn’t really matter how good at art YOU are, it just matters that you provide opportunities and experiences to make art and explore. I wouldn’t worry about assessment either and learning objectives should be light and encouraging. Don't worry about doing it 'right', just focus on; tactile, sensory, colour, shape, texture, materials etc and keep on having fun.
My lessons (except the drawing units) contain full lesson plans that cover; Learning Objectives, Success Criteria, Differentiation, tips and hints, handouts for students, assessment guidance, artist links and cross-curricular links where appropriate. They also contain a full teaching Powerpoint presentation for you to use and full colour instructions and supporting pictures where relevant.
FREE fully illustrated downloadable Art & Design lesson plans
Suitable for Key Stage One; age 4 to seven years
Birds of Paradise – make a bird of paradise using PVA glue, ink and modelling clay
Tony Craggs – Make a junk mural using found plastics
Murakami – Learn to paint and mix colours through the fabulous work of Japanese artist Murakami.
Suitable for Key Stage Two; age 7 -11
Clay Animals – make clay animals using a water balloon and air dry or DAS clay.
Dogon Mask making – Study the African Dogon tribe then make your own mask for a fun occasion. You’ll need card, tape, paints.
Funny Fish – draw from line studies of fish then create your own cool cartoon fish.
Language of Drawing – Learn how to draw in abstract styles using your own secret code.
Macro Art – take macro close-up photos on your phone then make large scale drawings from them in whatever medium you wish.
Suitable for Key Stage 3; age 11-14
Me in a Box - Turn an old box into a wonderful personal piece of sculpture
Alien Landscape – learn the principles of landscape painting by creating an alien landscape.
Dreams – Draw a portrait of a sleeping person then use your computer to create a dream image.
Dogon Mask making - Study the African Dogon tribe then make your own mask for a fun occasion. You’ll need card, tape, paints.
Language of Drawing - Learn how to draw in abstract styles using your own secret code.
Macro Art – take macro close-up photos on your phone then make large scale drawings from them in whatever medium you wish.
Suitable for Key Stage 4/5; age 14-16+
Dreams - Draw a portrait of a sleeping person then use your computer to create a dream image.
Macro Art – Take macro close-up photos on your phone then make large scale drawings from them in whatever medium you wish.
Media Art – Pop Art with a big twist. This self-directed learning project will get you thinking about the effect of the media on us through your art.
Expressive Painting – Study the great painting masters, learn their techniques then apply them to your own compositions. You’ll need paint, brushes and paper for this.
Sketchbooks
Many schools spend a fortune buying expensive sketchbooks but with budgets being so tight it's worth making your own. You don't need expensive materials, it's dead easy. Simply fold a piece of packaging card in half and fill it with a few folded envelopes, junk mail, scrap paper, magazines and anything else you have lying around. Then put an elastic band around the middle. That's it!
Look at these fantastic examples from Gomersal Primary School and check out their brilliant blog for more art ideas. Better still, why not create your own blog and link to theirs? Sharing good practice is awesome!
Drawing Advice for early years
The biggest factor in teaching anyone to draw is mastering control and dexterity.
In such young children this will not be fully developed so you will usually see awkward attempts at realising thoughts and ideas. Drawings at this age are beautiful and profound and I still have my own children's first drawings. To aid improvement, focus on trying to draw simple shapes, circles, triangles, squares etc. This will not only improve drawing but also handwriting.
My main advice at this age is to draw often, draw with lots of different things; pencils, graphite sticks, twigs, ink, rolled up paper stumps and other art materials. For subject matter; apart from the obvious Still Life subjects, change the scale, draw big and draw impossible things such as the sound of raindrops, the feeling of the sun on your skin etc. and draw from memory and imagination.
There is some fabulous drawing resources available from the Big Draw website, it's well worth a visit! You might also try out some of the exercises below or my Foundation Drawing Unit from the Homepage.
Printmaking in the busy classroom
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This 80 page, fully illustrated guide to printmaking shows you thirteen simple printmaking exercises that can be done with a minimum of expertise, are low cost and will make the minimum of mess. Suitable for KS1, 2 or 3 MORE INFO
Assessment
Historically, there isn't a great deal of formal assessment done at the early years stage and in my opinion, it should be kept light and positive. Good use of formative assessment is the real secret here.
My new ebook; Assessing Art in Primary does just that. It shows you how to embed simple and effective assessment into your classroom practice. It also contains a thorough PROGRESSION model for skills and techniques from which you can select targets appropriate for your learners. Everything you need is included including exciting posters for your classroom.Also included is a set of photographs of children's artwork from each year group to enable you to measure and judge your progression.
Pixel Art
If you want to improve pen control and accuracy, this simple project can help. Give out some large squared paper and felt pens. Ask the pupils to create a pixel character by colouring in the squares! Do a search for Pixel art and you'll get some great examples. This is how computer game characters were designed years ago!
Computer version: Create a grid on the computer and use a square brush tool set to the grid size. This can be done on tablets too.
Craft version: Find some short square dowelling and provide different printing coloured inks. Pupils can print on coloured paper.
Basic Painting Care
A powerpoint that outlines basic principles and housekeeping of painting. A must have!
Painting
Most teachers of art in the early years stage teach the names and properties of the basic colours, as well as mixing secondaries from primaries, though colleagues at later years will tell you they still forget these when they are sixteen years old!
Basic brush control is taught too and holding the brush on the edge of the silver part of the barrel will improve this. I tell my children to imagine they are brushing a hamster, so that they go in the same direction and lift the brush from the paper, being gentle and careful as they paint. Children with a heavy hand will press too hard and brush in random directions, putting too much paint on the brush or too little. So it's important to show them how much paint to load the brush with. Also important is to show the children how to use the side of the brush for painting lines and edges and the tip of the brush for detail.
But this is of little help if the brushes they are using are too chunky and incapable of painting accurately. I know children need wider barrels to paint with at young ages, but they should try to use watercolour brushes and bristle brushes when able. Use soft watercolour brushes in size one or two for detail, size tens for middle-sized areas and sixteens or higher for large areas or washes. Use bristle brushes for poster paint or when painting on textured papers. I believe strongly that children as young as year one should be using decent quality brushes in a range of sizes. You can buy packs of brushes quite cheaply these days.
As an NSEAD registered art consultant, I offer a friendly, professional art consultancy service to schools, from early years right through to Secondary GCSE. I've worked with infant schools to improve art assessment, delivered primary school CPD on skills and progression, worked with Subject Leaders to raise attainment and done whole school, secondary art department audits including formal lesson observations and department reviews. My over-arching strategy is to support the professional development of hard working professionals with positive and constructive advice for improvement.
Training Courses
Please follow the link to see my latest CPD teacher training courses. If you can't see any that suits your needs, why don't you arrange for a bespoke in-school service?
