Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Discipline:
Printmaking, Collage, Drawing

Key Concepts:

• That we can make a “plate” from which to “print”

• That there is a relationship between plate and print: e.g. negative / positive.

• That we can use print to create “multiples”

• That we can explore line, shape, colour and texture to explore pattern, sequence, symmetry and intention.

This pathway invites children to explore the world about them as a way to begin to understand the concept of “print”. 

Children use their own bodies, then things they collect around them, to create a variety of prints. They use their hands and feet to make prints, and they take rubbings of textures from the environment around them.  They make “plates” by making impressions in plasticine, and then by using printing foam. 

They explore how they can build up images by creating multiples, and use line, shape, colour and texture to explore pattern, sequencing and symmetry. 

Medium:
Paper, Printing Ink, Plasticine, Printing Foam

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Geography: Adapt to create imagery which explores symbols on maps.

History: Adapt to create portraits of significant individuals from history.

Maths: Pattern, repetition, pictorial representation, 2D/3D shapes.

Science: Adapt and use plants, trees, leaves, food chains, animals as inspiration to draw and make printed patterns.

PSHE: Peer discussion.

I Can…

• I can make simple prints using my hands and feet. 

• I can explore my environment and take rubbings of textures I find. 

• I can use my rubbings to make an image.

• I can push objects I find into plasticine and make prints.

• I can cut shapes out of foam board and stick them on a block to make a plate. I can print from the plate.

• I can draw into the surface of the foam board and print from the plate.

• I can use colour, shape, and line to make my prints interesting.

• I can create a repeat print.

• I can create a symmetrical or sequenced print. 

• I can use my sketchbook to collect my prints and test ideas.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Ready mixed paints, large sheets of cardboard (maybe primed with white paint), brushes, trays, soft pencils, handwriting pens, chalk, flowers for observation, collected objects (shells, leaves, twigs etc), wax crayons, plasticine, ink pads, printing foam, water soluble printing ink, small pieces of thick card, scrap sugar paper, glue, rollers.

Pathway: Simple Printmaking

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to introduce children to the idea that we can make single or multiple copies of an image through print. 

  Using simple methods to obtain relief prints, pupils explore the materials around them to understand how we can use repetition, pattern, colour, line, shape, and texture to make images. 

• Week 1: Printing with your Body
  

  Hands, Feet and Flowers

  

  Begin an exploration of printmaking using the “Hand, Feet and Flowers” resource to explore other ways of printing patterns using our bodies. This activity can work outdoors on a large scale but can also work well on tables in small groups. 

  Through this activity pupils directly experience what it means to make a “print”, discover how much paint they need and how much pressure they might apply. Children can use primary paint colours, start using the names of the colours, and they can also use ready mixed paint in other colours. 

  In this resource, pupils overlay their printed imagery with drawn imagery based upon flowers. You can choose if you proceed to this second activity, or if you prefer to leave the work as prints only, or if you wish to apply another theme or focus, i.e. draw hands, insects, etc. 

• Week 2: Making Rubbings
  

  Taking Rubbings & Making Compositions

  

  This week focus upon how you can make prints by rubbing dry materials such as wax crayon or pencil crayon, over textured objects.

  Encourage children to “think like an explorer” and venture into the classroom and playground to collect textures and objects which they can take rubbings from. Make sure children take rubbings from things around them like the ground, as well as from things which you can lift up and bring back to the classroom, like leaves.

  Invite children to use the rubbings to make a composition, working in a sketchbook or on large sheets. Adapt the “Taking Rubbings & Making Compositions” Resource.

• Week 3, 4 & 5: Explore & Develop
  

  Exploring Relief Printing

  Over the next few weeks, explore the following printing methods, continuing as far into the exploration as pupils are able.

  Give pupils plenty of time for discovery, experimentation and practice.

  As pupils travel further along the journey they will learn new skills and discover more about how to use their prints to explore pattern and intention. 

• Method 1: Plasticine Print
  

  Explore How Plasticine Can Be Used to Print

  

  Use the “Printing with Plasticine” resource to further explore how we can use the things we find around us to create impressions in plasticine which we can then print from.

  Collect shells, feathers, leaves, twigs, string, coins, lego etc, and invite the children to explore what happens when we push them into plasticine. What kinds of marks does each object leave in the plasticine? 

  Using ink pads with which to print means the plasticine will pick up even fine detail. 

  Once children have created a number of “prints” they can cut them out and stick them in their sketchbooks. 

• 
  

  Or…

• Method 2: Foam Print
  

  Additive & Incised Printing

  

  Use foam board and explore how you can make prints in two ways using the “Print Foam – Making Relief Prints” 

  

  Once pupils have created a number of prints, they can then cut into their prints and collage with them on a larger sheet of paper, thinking about more abstract concepts like pattern and repetition, or using the printed elements to build an image related to a theme, such as architecture or insects or plants. 

• Support with Drawing
  

  Observational Drawing

  

  Support the creation of prints with close observation and careful drawing using the “Continuous Line Drawing Exercise“.  Invite pupils to use a subject matter which informs the creation of prints, and work in sketchbooks. 

• Week 6: Reflect & Discuss
  

  Share and Celebrate the Outcomes

  

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

  Invite children to display the work in a clear space on tables or on the wall. Encourage positive language and a celebration of all their hard work! Recap with children about the exploration – where they started, what they discovered and what they enjoyed. 

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams.

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Make a Monogram

Create stamps using childrens initials

Pathway for Years 5 & 6

Disciplines:
Painting, Drawing, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That artists use a variety of media often combining it in inventive ways, to capture the energy and spirit of land or city scapes.

• That artists often work outside (plein air) so that all their senses can be used to inform the work.

• That as artists we are able to experiment with materials, combining them to see what happens. We can feel free and safe to take creative risks, without fear of getting things “wrong”.

• We can share our artistic discoveries with, and be inspired by each other.

• We can use sketchbooks to focus this exploration and we do not always need to create an “end result” – sometimes the exploratory journey is more than enough. 

In this pathway children are introduced to the idea that artists don’t just work in studios – instead they get out into the world and draw and paint from life, inspired by the land and city scapes where they live. Pupils also see how artists use their creative freedom to explore ways of working which involve different materials and media. 

Pupils extend and adapt existing sketchbooks so that they can make drawings/paintings at different scales and ratios. They are enabled to take creative risks, explore and experiment, without the pressure of having to “produce” an end result. 

Pupils are given the freedom to use mixed medium in ways which suit them and their subject matter.

Medium:
Graphite stick or soft B pencil, Handwriting Pen, Pastels & Chalk, Paper, (Sketchbook Making Task: Paper, string, elastic bands, glue)

Artists: Vanessa Gardiner, Shoreditch Sketcher, Kittie Jones, Saoirse Morgan

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Geography: Link your landscapes to your chosen topic e.g. cities in the Northern hemisphere, settlements and land use, digital mapping.

Science: Local habitat, Environmental changes.

PSHE: Responsibility to the planet, Collaboration, Peer Discussion.

I Can…

• I have seen how artists respond to land and city scapes in various ways by using inventive mixed media combinations.

• I have seen how artists work outside amongst the land and city scapes which inspire them, and how they use all their senses to capture the spirit of the place. I have been able to share my response to their work.

• I can extend my sketchbook thinking creatively about how I can change the pages giving myself different sizes and shapes of paper to work on.

• I can use my sketchbook to explore and experiment. I have taken creative risks and been able to reflect upon what worked and what didn’t work. 

• I have continued my exploratory work outside the sketchbooks, bringing my “sketchbook way of thinking” to larger sheets of paper. 

• I can share my journey and discoveries with others and am able to reflect upon what I have learnt.

• I can appreciate and be inspired by the work of my classmates, and I can share my response to their work.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, handwriting pens, sharpies, coloured pencils, oil/chalk pastels, charcoal, water colour, acrylic paint, ink, assorted papers and envelopes, glue.

Pathway: Mixed Media Land & City Scapes

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to introduce pupils to working in mixed media to create land or city scapes with energy and a sense of place.

  This pathway is about experimenting and exploring. The emphasis is on creative risk taking and discovery. 

  Children are encouraged to explore the format and composition of their work, and explore lots of media combinations through exploratory work.

• Week 1: Introduce
  

  Vanessa Gardiner & The Shoreditch Sketcher

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Vanessa Gardiner” resource to introduce pupils to an artist that takes her inspiration from the landscape. 

  Compare and contrast Vanessa with the Shoreditch Sketcher via “Talking Points: The Shoreditch Sketcher” resource. 

  

  Use “Making Visual Notes” to help pupils record and reflect on the artists’ work, and identify the things which might be of interest in their own work. 

• Week 2: Extend a Sketchbook
  

  Sketchbook Places & Spaces

  

  Use the “Sketchbooks Places & Spaces” resource to extend bought or made sketchbooks. 

  The idea here is to add pages of different sizes and ratios. Use cartridge paper or neutral sugar paper so that it can take a variety of media next week. 

  Make some pages which are long and thin and can fold back into the book accordian style. Make other pages fat and wide. Encourage pupils to think creatively about how they can extend their sketchbook ready for the next few weeks. 

• Week 3 & 4 & 5: Introduce & Explore
  

  Be Inspired by Kittie Jones or Saoirse Morgan

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Kittie Jones” or the “Talking Points: Saoirse Morgan” resource to be inspired by how the artist combines different media in their work to capture the energy and spirit of place. 

  Again use the “Making Visual Notes” resource to get pupils to think about the chosen artists approach approach in sketchbooks.

• Time to Experiment & Create
  

  Exploring Mixed Media

  

  With the emphasis on exploration and experimentation, ensure pupils work in sketchbooks, or if it feels right towards the end of the project on larger sheets of paper, to discover how they can use different combinations of media to capture the energy and spirit of place. 

  Use the “Mixed Media Landscape Challenges” resource to inspire and enable their exploration. Allow children to take their time and give them the space to explore as many of the challenges as feels right. We recommend structuring the challenges so all pupils do the same challenge at the same time.

  Ideally pupils will be able to draw outside, in whatever your local habitat is – the school grounds, or a local park. Try to work outside for at least one session, but if this is not possible or you wish to draw from a different kind of land or city scape (for example to link in with a curriculum theme) then pupils can draw from image or film. 

  You may like to use the free to access resources below as source imagery – or find your own.  

  Drawing Source Material: Drone Footage over Urban Landscapes

  Drawing Source Material: Drone Footage over Rural Landscapes

• Additional Inspiration
  

  Graphite Sketches

  Take inspiration from the ‘Graphite Sketches‘ resource and encourage pupils to explore perspective, tone and mark-making using water-soluble graphite and brushes.

• If you wish to extend or challenge:
  

  Introduction to Watercolour

  

  You may wish to use the “Introduction to Watercolour” resource if you wish to steer pupils towards a final outcome using watercolour. However, we’d emphasis that this isn’t necessary and a great deal of skills will have been learnt through the above exploration. 

• Week 6: Present & Share
  

  Share, Reflect, Discuss

  

  Time to see the work which has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  Display the work in a clear space, with sketchbooks open on desks – encouraging pupils to carefully and respectfully look in each others books. Walk around the work as if you were in a gallery. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their hard work.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work.

  You might like to assemble any loose drawings made on sheets into a Backwards Sketchbook. 

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit”.

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Talking Points: Mark Hearld

Explore the work of printmaker, collager and ceramicist

Never-Ending Landscapes

Take inspiration from observational drawings to create fictional landscapes

Sculptural Environments inspired by Hockney

Create a class installation inspired by artist David Hockney

Talking Points: Saoirse Morgan

Explore the work of seascape painter Saoirse Morgan

Layers in the landscape

Create relief sculptures of the landscape

diary of a sculptural sketchbook

Sculpt the landscape out of the paper

Painting the storm

A weather-inspired exploration of watercolour and graphite

Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Disciplines:
Drawing, Making, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That artists sometimes use sound to inspire their work. 

• That artists sometimes work in partnership with musicians. 

• That we can use both aural and visual senses to make art.

• That we can draw from our imagination, using lots of different kinds of abstract marks to express our feelings, whether they are quiet and focussed, or loud and expressive.

• That we can be inventive and make objects in 3 dimensions which make sounds, and which we want to interact with as humans. 

In this pathway children are introduced to the idea that artists often work in partnership and are often inspired by other art forms – in this case music and the visual arts. 

Children explore how other artists have used sound to inspire their artwork, and then go on to experiment with how they can use their mark making skills to both be influenced by, and to capture, the expression in music. 

Children then explore making skills to collage or make inventive instruments, creating a class “orchestra”.

Medium:
Paper, Drawing Materials, Paint, Construction Materials

Artists: Kandinsky, Various “Projection Mapping” artists

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Geography: Adapt the music you listen and draw to, according to geographical region or continent to help develop sense of place.

Science: The 5 senses, the human body, materials.

Music: Rhymes and chants, musical instruments, combining sounds.

PSHE: Explore the music made from instruments from other countries, Collaboration, Peer Discussion.

I Can…

• I have seen how some artists are inspired by other artforms such as music. I can share my response to their work, and listen to others.

• I can listen to sounds, and use my mark making skills to make marks in response.

• I can draw from observation whilst listening to a piece of music, and let the music inspire my drawing.

• I can use my imagination and work on a larger scale to make drawings of imaginative instruments, or I can use my hands to invent musical instruments made from construction materials.

• I can share my work with the class.

• I can reflect upon what I have made and share my work with the class. I can listen to their responses to my work, and talk about my response to their work. 

• I can take photos of my artwork.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, coloured pencils or pastels, handwriting pens.

Project 1: Paint an Imaginary Orchestra – Large (A1 or A2) cartridge paper or thin card, coloured paper, foil or metallic paper, marker pens, scissors, tape, paint, brushes.

Project 2: Making Musical Instruments – cardboard, wood, buttons, lids, shells, string, ribbons and other construction materials.

Pathway: Music and Art

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aim of Pathway

  The aim of this pathway is to introduce pupils to some of the links between art and music. Pupils use rhythm and sound to inspire artwork. 

• Week 1: Slow Drawing
  

  Drawing to a Metronome

  

  Settle students with some “Drawing to the Slow Rhythm of a Metronome“. Invite children to make careful, slow drawings with a sharp graphite pencil. Work in sketchbooks and introduce to children the idea that making drawings can be a quiet, slow, thoughtful activity. 

• Introduce an Artist
  

  Wassily Kandinsky

  

  Explore the work of Kandinsky who was a pioneer in abstraction. Use the free to access “Talking Points: Wassily Kandinsky” resource to find out what synaesthesia is, and how it helped him to paint music. Encourage children to have their sketchbooks open to make some “Making Visual Notes“.

• Week 2: Work in Sketchbooks
  

  Mark Making and Sound

  

  Enable learners to develop their mark-making skills with these 3 “Mark Making and Sound” exercises.

  This activity explores how we can use sound as a stimulus to develop the kinds of marks we can make.

  Children will find out how abstract mark making can capture the spirit of a piece of music.

  Children will then take what they have learnt about rhythm and mark making into observational drawing.

• Introduce an Artist
  

  Tomoko Kawao

  Explore the free to access “Talking Points: Tomoko Kawao” resource to discover an artist who makes large scale work using one unbroken movement of a brush.

  Use the questions at the bottom of the resource to help guide your class conversation. 

• Week 3: Sketchbooks
  

  Show Me What You See

  Working in sketchbooks, use the “Show Me What You See” technique to help pupils visually explore orchestras and musical instruments. Take inspiration from the free to access “Drawing Source Material: Orchestras and Instruments“.

  During the exercise, draw the children’s attention to the visual elements of the artwork, including talking about shape, colour and composition. As well as using line in sketchbooks to describe shapes, also use colour (pastel, crayon, pens etc).

  By the end of the session sketchbooks should be full of pupil’s interpretations of different elements (shapes, lines etc) from the video.

• Take a Break & Inspire
  

  Exploring Projection Mapping

  If you feel your pupils would benefit from being inspired by more art made by artists, introduce them to Projection Mapping and music with this video by Light Odyssey in our free to access “Talking Points: What is Projection Mapping“. 

  Use the questions at the bottom of the resource to help guide your class conversation.

• Play
  

  Paint Music with Google Arts & Culture

  Finish the session with this fun interactive activity. 

• Week 4 & 5: Find your Focus
  

  Explore Making or Drawing Instruments

  For the next two weeks work on one of the projects below. 

• Option 1
  

  Paint an Imaginary Orchestra

  

  Start the session with “Backwards Forwards” drawings before moving on to creating a “Cheerful Orchestra“.

  This workshop brings together mythical beasts and musical notes, however it can be adapted to link with curriculum topics such as animals or food.

  Encourage children to draw large and fast so that they can explore a range of materials to create the details. 

  This resource is split into 3 different parts. Depending on time you can pick and choose which activities you’d like your class to do.

  The first part of this resource explores inventing instruments. This is followed by responding to music with narrative. The final part of the activity entails children creating a self portrait of themselves playing an instrument.

  By the end of the session children will have formed an extraordinary noisy orchestra.

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 2
  

  Making Musical Instruments

  

  If you think your children would benefit, warm up using the “Making Prompt Cards” and follow on by creating music instruments below.

  Explore recycled materials to “Make Musical Instruments” and explore sound making. 

  This activity not only explores the process of making but also how to produce different sounds and rhythms with the invented musical instruments.

  Encourage children to make decisions about  material, form, design and colour, experimenting using simple tools to create unusual, surprising sounds.

• Week 6: Reflect and Discuss
  

  Present, Talk, Share and Celebrate

  

  End the pathway by taking time to appreciate the developmental stages and the final outcomes in a clear space.

  Depending upon the project option chosen, display the work appropriately including having open sketchbooks. Use the “Crit in the Classroom” resource to help you. 

  Encourage children to reflect upon all stages of the journey, and reference the artists studied. 

  If available, children can use tablets or cameras to take photographs of the work. 

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Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

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movement maps

Translate lines, marks and pattern into movement and memories

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Create a stormy painting to the sound of rainy weather

Sketchbooks & Performance

Create expressive drawings in response to performers and audiences

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Drawing, Animation, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That artists can make animations by creating drawings which move in a sequence.

• That we can use all our mark making skills and imagination to make our drawings visually engaging.

• That we can use our moving drawings to share narratives. 

In this pathway children are introduced to the idea that animations can be made by sequencing drawings. 

After exploring the work of other artists making drawn animations, children make simple “paper puppets” with moving parts. Pupils also make a “background” for their puppets, and if you wish, then go on to make very simple animations using tablets. 

Medium:
Paper, (Digital media)

Artists: Lauren Child, Steve Kirby, Andrew Fox, Lucinda Schreiber

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

English: Bring characters from literature to life.

History: Make an animated drawing / portrait of a well know historical figure.

Maths: Measuring, weight, position, direction, movement.

Science: Animals, the human body, habitats, materials.

Music & Drama: Link to drama to collaborate and act out short narratives.

I Can…

• I can talk about the work of other animators who make animations from their drawings. I can share what I like, and how it makes me feel.

• I can use my sketchbook to gather ideas from other artists, and start to think about a simple moving drawing I might make.

• I can use observational skills to look at source material to inspire my character and make drawings. 

• I can use my imagination to think about how my character might move.

• I can create a background for my character.

• I can use digital media to film my animation.

• I can share my moving drawing, either through an animation or by showing classmates how it would move. 

• I can reflect and articulate my thoughts about my own artwork and that of my peers. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, coloured pencils, handwriting pens, white and/or corrugated card, paper fasteners for moving joints, kebab sticks, masking tape, ready mixed paints, scissors.

(For shared background drawing) Black ink in pots, feathers cut as quills, black handwriting pens, Sharpies, pencils, roll of paper.

Pathway: Making Animated Drawings

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• The Aims of the Pathway

  The aim of this pathway is to introduce children to the idea that we can create moving imagery through sequenced drawings. 

• Week 1: Introduce
  

  What is Animation?

  Introduce children to the idea that we can make single drawings and then string them together to make the drawings move. Use the free to access “Talking Points: Making Drawings Move” resource to explore this idea.

• Explore
  

  Show Me What You See

  

  Working in a sketchbook, use the free to access “Drawing Source Material: The Natural World” resource to practice drawing skills.

  Think about how you can challenge pupils to make line drawings of animals using a handwriting pen (so they don’t worry about mistakes). Pause a moment on the video, give them a time limit of say 1 minute, and invite them to make a line drawing in one continuous line. Then move the film on, pause again and repeat. The drawings can be on the same page – like flickers or memories. The aim is just to warm up and to begin to tune into lines and shapes of animals and how they move. Use the “Show Me What You See” resource to support your facilitation.

• Week 2: Explore
  

  Paper Cut Puppets

  

  Watch the free to access “Talking Points: Paper Cut Puppets Showreel” to explore what might be possible when you make paper “puppets” which you can then animate. 

  With sketchbooks open as you watch the showreel above, invite the children to begin “Making Visual Notes” in their sketchbooks.  Ask them to pretend to be “magpies” and to jot down anything that they see which they would like to try. What catches their eye? Perhaps challenge them to keep their notes on one page so that the page is full of ideas and words. It doesn’t have to be in order, and colour could be used too. 

  Play the showreel more than once, pause it regularly and invite children to talk about what they see and what they like. 

  This kind of learning (gathering information) is a skill, so take it slowly and give them time to practice. Purposely stop the film in the resource and ask them to turn to their sketchbook to add notes. 

  Let children know that they will be creating their own paper “puppet” and describe their theme or area of focus might be (ie animals which live in the jungle, Ancient Egyptians etc). Then continuing in sketchbooks, and using source material which is appropriate to your theme, ask them to start planning what their puppet might be, and what action they would like it to perform.

  N.B Key here is that the action should be simple. For example, rolling eyes or moving an arm might be enough. Picking up a ball and throwing it will be too much for most children in the time given. 

• Week 3,4 and 5
  

  Make Your Moveable Drawings

  

  Use the following resources to enable children to make their moveable drawings.

  Please note all these resources follow a similar plan so visit them all and combine to suit.

  Cardboard Robots with Moveable Joints

  Making Drawings that Move

  Making Articulated Beasts Part 1

  Articulated Animals

• Invigorate!
  

  Explore the Work of Lauren Child

  

  At a point when children need an injection of energy, introduce them to the work of Lauren Child through the free to access “Talking Points: Lauren Child” resource. Explore how Lauren works as an artist and look for clues and tips in her working process. Use sketchbooks for “Making Visual Notes“. 

• Additional Activity
  

  Creating a Background

  

  You may like to invite the pupils to create a background for their moveable drawings, appropriate to the theme.

  This could be a shared drawing, as shown in the “Shared Ink Drawing” resource, or it could be a drawn background for each child.

• Additional Activity
  

  Animating the Drawings

  If you have access to tablets, you may like to animate some of the drawings, you could also spend less time making the moveable drawings and more time animating them if that is of interest to you.

  

  Find out how to make digital animations using the “Exploring Digital Animation” resource.

• Week 6: Present Work
  

  Share, Reflect, Celebrate

  

  If children have animated their articulated beasts, pull down the blinds and watch all of the animations together. 

  Present all work in a clear space and take the opportunity to visit all work made like a mini gallery. Use the “Crits in the Classroom” resource.

See This Pathway Used In Schools

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
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Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

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A School full of characters

Explore capturing facial expressions through cartoon sketches

Chimera Drawings

Create chimera drawings and use the ‘articulated beasts’ resource to make them move

Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Disciplines:
Drawing, Collage, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That artists can be inspired by the flora and fauna around them.

• That we can use careful looking to help our drawing, and use drawing to help looking.

• That we can use a variety of materials to make images, and that the images we make can become imaginative.

• That we can create individual artwork, and that we can bring that artwork together to make a shared artwork.

In this pathway children are introduced to the idea that many artists use flora and fauna to inspire their work. We look at artists who used drawing as a way to accurately capture the way plants and insects look, and artists who use their imagination to create their own versions of flora and fauna.

Children spend time engaged in close looking as a way to build drawing skills. They also experiment with new materials. 

They practice cutting and collage skills and explore shape and colour to build images.

Finally there is the opportunity for children to work collaboratively on a shared background for the artwork, and pupils can see how their individual efforts are valued as part of a larger class artwork. 

Medium:
Handwriting pen, Graphite, Oil pastel, Paper & Collage

Artists: Eric Carle, Joseph Redoute, Jan Van Kessel

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

English: Explore The Very Hungry Caterpillar, or books illustrated in similar style.  

Geography: Explore habitats, soil, vegetation, cities/towns/villages, seasonal weathers. Use language which supports these ideas.  

Science: Identify common and wild plants, insects, food chains, life cycle, living and decay. 

PSHE: Responsibility to the planet, Collaboration, Peer Discussion. 

I Can…

• I have enjoyed looking at art made by other artists inspired by flora and fauna. 

• I can look closely at insects and plants and make drawings using pen to describe what I see.

• I can experiment using graphite and oil pastel and make my own insects.

• I can cut out shapes in different colours, and use these shapes to make an insect or bug. I can think about its body parts and what I would like them to look like.

• I can work with my classmates to make a shared drawing.

• I can share my artwork with the class. I can listen to what my classmates like about it and I can share what I like about their work. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Sketchbooks, soft pencils, coloured pencils, oil/chalk pastels, handwriting pens, graphite, collage papers, A1 paper, water colour and/or ready mixed paint over sugar paper, brushes, scrap papers.

Pathway: Inspired by Flora & Fauna

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of Pathway

  The aim of this pathway is to introduce children to the idea that artists can be inspired by the flora and fauna around them. 

• Week 1: Introduce
  

  Explore the Work of Artists Who Are Inspired by Flora & Fauna

  

  Introduce children to the work of one or more artists on the free to access “Talking Points: Artists Inspired by Flora & Fauna” resource. Use the resource as a starting point to encourage an exploration. You may also have artists local to you who are inspired by your local flora and fauna. 

  Invite pupils to make drawings in their sketchbooks of their favourite artworks as a way of enabling them to start to build a collection of “experiences” in their sketchbook. Make time as you look at the resource above for this activity. 

• Week 2: Show Me What You See
  

  Drawing from Film

  

  Working from the free to access “Drawing Source Material: Insects” resource, invite children to make drawings of the insects, working in their sketchbooks.

  Pause the films at various points, and invite the children to verbally describe what they see, what they notice, before inviting them to make sketches in their books. As they sketch, give them a time limit (like 5 or 10 minutes) and talk to them about the things they just noticed, so that they think of these things as they draw.

  Use a handwriting pen and encourage them to make their drawings fill the page. 

  Use the “Show Me What You See” to support your facilitation.

• Week 3: Deepen the Exploration
  

  Using Graphite and Oil Pastel

  

  Use the “Graphite and Oil Pastel” resource to encourage children to expand their mark making.

  Pupils can draw again from the films above, or from colour photocopies, or if you can get them, buy (or loan) insect samples. Encourage children to continue close and careful looking. 

  Remember this is also about learning how a new material works (oil pastel and chunky graphite). Pupils will need to work on a slightly larger scale to accommodate the medium.

• Week 4 & 5
  

  Make Your Minibeast Collage

  

  Invite the children to make individual mini beast collages which you can display as one. Use the “Mini Beast Artwork” resource. 

• Inspire
  

  Introduce Eric Carle

  

  When you feel children need a break or need inspiring, use the free to access “Talking Points: Eric Carle” resource to invigorate them. 

• Extension
  

  Collaborate

  

  If you have time, or if you have a group of pupils who need a challenge, invite them to work together to make a painting of a flower meadow. This could exist as an artwork in itself, or as a background to your collaged minibeasts.

  Use the “Drawing Source Material: Wild Flower Meadow” resource if they need to work from imagery. 

  Use the “Wild Flower” resource to see a painting activity which you can use. 

• Week 6: Share & Celebrate
  

  Display, Reflect & Talk

  

  Tidy the room and make space to see the sketchbook work as well as the final outcomes. 

  Remind the pupils of the progress they made, and the artists they saw along the way. Invite them to make links between the work they made in sketchbooks, on drawing sheets and final pieces, and the work by artists. 

  Encourage them to feel safe to share how they feel about their own work, and nurture an environment where pupils feel able to comment on their classmates work, treating everyones work with respect.

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit”.

See This Pathway Used In Schools

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

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Make insect sculptures

Create shiny insect sculptures

Drawing with tape

Create a forest on a classroom wall

Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Disciplines:
Architecture, Drawing, Sketchbooks, Collage, Making

Key Concepts:

• That architects design buildings and other structures which relate to our bodies and which enhance our environment. 

• That architects take inspiration from the environment their building will exist in, and from the people they will serve, to design exciting structures. 

• That we can use drawing as a way to help us process and understand other people’s work. 

• That we can use digital tools such as drones and film to inspire us.

• That we can use our imaginations to make architectural models to explore how we might design buildings relating to a particular need or stimulus.

• That we can use “Design Through Making” (some call it Make First) as a way to connect our imagination, hands and materials. 

This pathway gives pupils the opportunity to explore architecture. We start with an exploration of architects and some of the ways they work, and pupils then go on to create their own architectural model. 

The pathway can be adapted so that the pupils make architecture which relates to their own environment, a chosen brief, or in response to another culture, country or era. 

Themes:
Habitat, Community, Culture, Purpose

Medium:
Construction Materials

Artists: 
Hundertwasser, Zaha Hadid, Heatherwick Studios

This pathway will take approximately half a term, based upon a weekly art lesson. 

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Please find the CPD session recording of the Be An Architect pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Geography: Adapt to explore habitats, cities, towns and villages, ports & harbours.

History: Make houses inspired by the architecture of different ages or cultures, for example buildings damaged during the Great Fire of London.

Maths: Use language which supports understanding of Measuring, 2D/3D shapes.

Science: Explore properties of materials e.g. make your architecture waterproof, rough, smooth?

PSHE: Collaboration, Peer Discussion, Ethnic Identity, Different Religions (architecture representative of).

I Can:

• I have explored the work of some architects. I have seen that they design buildings, and that “architecture” can be large, incredible buildings, or smaller places near where I live.

• I can share how architecture makes me feel, what I like and what I think is interesting.

• I can use my sketchbook to help me look at architecture really carefully. I have used drawings and notes. I have explored line and shape. 

• I have seen how architects use their imaginations to try to design buildings which make people’s lives better and I can use my own imagination when thinking about architecture I might design.

• I can make an architectural model of a building around a theme thinking about form, structure and balance, and the way the model looks.

• I can explore a variety of materials and explore how I can reshape the materials and fasten them together to make my model. 

• I have seen that I don’t need to design on paper first; that I can design as I make. 

• I have reflected upon what I have made, shared it with others, and been able to share my thoughts about my own piece and the models of my classmates. 

• I can used digital media to document my work, including taking photographs and short videos.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, coloured pencils, felt tip pens, handwriting pens,

Construction Materials (see list here )

Pathway: Be An Architect

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to introduce children to the idea that architects design and make buildings, and to give pupils the opportunity to explore architecture around them, and to create their own architectural models. 

• Week 1: Introduce
  

  What Is Architecture?

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Thinking about Architecture” resource to begin an exploration of architecture. 

  Create a conversation around more well known architecture and architecture in your local environment. What are the landmarks in your area – old or new?

• Drawing to Aid Looking
  

  Explore & Draw

  

  Invite children to work in sketchbooks. Use the free to access “Drawing Source Material: Exploring Architecture” resource to inspire drawings using the pupil’s chosen drawing medium. We suggest using a handwriting pen, and challenging the pupils to make several drawings – perhaps taking no longer than 5 or 10 minutes each. Guide the children with your voice during the drawing session to the things you would like them to notice.

• Week 2: Introducing an Artist
  

  Exploring the Work of Hundertwasser

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Hundertwasser the Architect” resource to introduce pupils to the work of an architect.

  Use the images and videos to frame a discussion around his work and enable the pupils to articulate their response.

• Drawing to Aid Thinking
  

  Show Me What You See

  Use sketchbooks and the “Show Me What You See” method to help pupils with “Making Visual Notes” about what they see and think. They might use pen, pencil, coloured crayons, felt tips, to gather information and collect ideas as they see the images on the whiteboard. Make sure any notes they write can be single words (i.e. they don’t have to write full sentences). 

• Weeks 3,4 & 5
  

  Making Architecture

  

  Use the “Be An Architect” resource to enable pupils to create their own architectural inventions. 

  Provide plenty of materials and try to use the “Design Through Making” approach. 

  Take your time with the making and give children time to start to understand what different materials can do for them, and how they can manipulate materials and fasten them together. 

  Remember children are not making pieces of architecture “in the style of” an artist or architect. Instead, they are making their own work, though they will have their minds opened by looking at the work of other creative practitioners.

  Encourage children to be inventive about what kinds of shapes and structure they use and which three dimensional forms they want to create. How will their pieces of architect stand? What is their purpose? Who are they for?

  

  Encourage the use of colour/coloured materials to further develop the pieces, and have sketchbooks open on desks and encourage children to reference them and add to them. 

  

  Link the project to architecture from other cultures, countries and eras if you would like to link it to other curriculum areas.

  Or, if you would like children to make pieces of architecture more relevant to their local community, think about how you can bring in images or visits of local areas as a backdrop to their work. (see “You May Also Like” below for more resources to help this).

• 
  

  Interventions

  Use one or more of the following “interventions” if you feel children need more stimulation. 

• Intervention 1
  

  Being Imaginative

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Bridge Design” resource to help children see how architecture can be almost anything. You may not want them to design bridges (though you may!) but talk about these bridge designs as a way to open their minds to be brave and use their imagination. 

• Intervention 2
  

  Inspired by Drones

  

  Use the free to access “Drawing Source Material: Drone Footage” resource to give children a fresh perspective on the world. Does it change how they think about their own designs? 

• Week 6: Share & Celebrate
  

  Present, Reflect, Review

  

  Clean a space and present the finished architectural models next to the sketchbooks. Give all work the space it deserves and encourage children to walk around as if they were in a gallery – discussing the work with their partners before coming together as a class. Use the “Class Crit” resource to help. 

  Invite children to take photographs or films of their architectural models. Encourage them to really get down on eye level with their models to create interesting images, and use windows and doors as viewpoints. You might also like them to use lighting (torches) to create shadows. 

  Explore how children can take high quality photographs of 3d artwork with this resource.

See This Pathway Used In Schools

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Anglo Saxon Architecture

Making Architecture Inspired by Anglo Saxon Architecture

Houses from Around the World

Drawing and Collaging

My House

A Cardboard Construction Project

Ink & Foamboard Architecture

Exploring Colour and Form

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines: Drawing, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That when we draw we can use gestural marks to make work.

• That when we draw we can use the expressive marks we make to create a sense of drama.

• That when we draw we can move around.

• That when we draw we can use light to make our subject matter more dramatic, and we can use the qualities of the material (charcoal) to capture the drama.

In this pathway, children discover how to make drawings that capture a sense of drama or performance using charcoal.

Children are freed from the constraints of creating representational drawings based on observation – instead they use the qualities of the medium to work in dynamic ways. Linking drawing to the whole body helps children see drawing as a physical activity, whilst a sense of narrative feeds the imagination. 

This pathway will take approximately half a term, based upon a weekly art lesson. 

Theme:
Cave art, Movement, Human Body, Relationship of Body to Place

Medium:
Charcoal, Paper, Body

Artists: 
Heather Hansen, Laura McKendry, Edgar Degas

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Find the Zoom CPD session introducing this pathway here.

Find a Zoom CPD exploring the properties of Charcoal here.

Before you begin, explore some simple tips for improving outcomes from this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Music & Drama: Listen to music to influence marks and movement while children do the “Dancing with Charcoal”.

I Can…

• I have seen how artists use charcoal in their work. I have been able to talk about the marks produced, and how I feel about their work.

• I have experimented with the types of marks I can make with charcoal, using my hands as well as the charcoal.

• I can work on larger sheets of paper, and I can make loose, gestural sketches using my body.

• I can understand what Chiaroscuro is and how I can use it in my work.

• I can use light and dark tonal values in my work, to create a sense of drama. 

• I have used my body as a drawing tool to make drawings inspired by movement, and seen how other artists do the same.

• I have taken photographs of my work, thinking about focus, lighting, and composition.

• I have shared my work with my classmates and talked about what I felt was successful and what I might like to try again. I can voice what I like about my classmates work and how it makes me feel. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Watch Artist  Lancelot Richardson to find out about the different types of charcoal and how you can use them in the “Introduction to Charcoal” resource.

Use hairspray as a “fixative” for the chalk drawings. Spray outside or in a well ventilated room.

Materials

A2 sugar paper, A4 paper for ‘pallets’, willow charcoal, erasers, hairspray (for fixing), white chalk.

Project 1: Drawing by torchlight – Torches, small toys/objects, charcoal, white chalk, buff sugar paper.

Project 2: Small cardboard boxes, charcoal, A2 sugar paper, scrap card/modelling materials, small toys/objects, tape, drawing materials as above.

Project 3: Charcoal Cave – Medium/large cardboard box, newsprint, charcoal (ideally both willow and compressed) rags, small toys or dollhouse furniture.

Project 1: Charcoal and Dance – A2 or A1 paper/wall paper, charcoal.

Pathway: Gestural Drawing with Charcoal

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to introduce children to the idea of making gestural drawing, exploring charcoal as a medium. How can we use our bodies to inform how we make marks?

• Week 1: Explore Charcoal
  

  Introduction to Charcoal

  The pathway begins with an an introduction to charcoal as a drawing medium.

• Introduce an Artist
  

  Introduction to Laura McKendry

  

  Introduce children to the work of Laura McKendry who uses charcoal to make large gestural drawings of dogs, using the free to access “Talking Points: Laura McKendry” resource.  Use the questions on the resource to help guide a class conversation. 

• Introduce an Artist
  

  Introduction to Edgar Degas

  

  Contrast the work of Laura (above) with the charcoal drawings of Degas using the free to access “Talking Points: Charcoal Drawings by Edgar Degas” resource.

  Use the questions on the resource to help guide conversation.

• Week 2: Explore Charcoal
  

  Exploring Charcoal

  For Weeks 2 and 3, invite children to draw on large sheets of sugar paper and fix the work using fixative or hairspray. 

  

  Next, children will begin to explore charcoal for themselves. Use the “Discovering Charcoal Warm-Up Exercise” resource to support their exploration. 

  Think about how they can experiment with mark making to create line, shape and tone. Explore the “Talking Points: What is Chiaroscuro” resource to  get pupils to think about light and dark. 

• Push Further
  

  Drawing Large

  

  You may like to watch the “Drawing Large” resource video to understand how your drawings can become very gestural. If you use this resource think about how children can use charcoal to make big loose marks, and use rocks or fossils as their subject matter. 

• Week 3: Personalise the Journey
  

  Drawing Like a Cave Person

  

  Remind children of the beginnings of drawing with “Talking Points: Cave Art“, and inspire simple mark making, through the medium of charcoal and handprint art.

  Be inspired by historic and contemporary images of cave art. Use the “Drawing Like a Caveman” resource to encourage children to explore how they can use charcoal and hands to explore mark making further. 

• Week 4 & 5: Find your Focus
  

  Choose a Project

  Choose one of the projects below, depending on how you want to link to other curriculum areas, experience, space and preferred approach. 

• Option 1
  

  Charcoal & Drama

  Explore how students can use charcoal to explore narrative and creating a sense of drama. Remind them of ‘chiaroscuro’ to deepen their exploration.

  Explore the following resources. You may choose to follow one resource, or combine more than one:

  

  “Drawing by Torchlight” resource…

  and/or

  

  “Set Design with Primary Aged Children” resource… 

  and/or

  

  “Charcoal Cave” resource.

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 2
  

  Charcoal & Dance

  Pupils will explore how they can use charcoal and gestural movements made by the body to explore charcoal, dance and performance. 

  

  Introduce the work of Heather Hansen using the free to access “Talking Points: Heather Hansen” resource. 

  

  Follow with the free to access “Talking Points: Dancing with Charcoal” resource.

  If you feel the children need a warm-up, find out how dance can be used as a response to art with the “Talking Points: Dancing to Art“

  Consider how you can enable the children to respond creatively in the space you have.

  You may want to run the project in the hall or large space, using cheap wallpaper lining paper taped together as your drawing surface. 

  If you don’t have space for the above, notice how in the last video on the Heather Hansen resource, the schools work on smaller sheets of paper in pairs or groups using hands and arms rather than whole body. 

  Whichever you choose, think about using digital media to record the event, or performing to an audience. Think about recording sound and using light to make it a multimedia performance.

• Week 6: Present and Review
  

  Share, Reflect & Celebrate

  

  Children can make a “Backwards Sketchbook” using the drawings made on loose sheets of paper. 

  Invite children to present all work in a clear space and take the opportunity to visit the work made like a mini gallery. Use the “Crits in the Classroom” resource. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

what is drawing?

Find out more about what drawing is & can be

Sketchbook Exercise: Drawing Brushes with Charcoal

Experiment with charcoal to create drawings of paintbrushes

Dressing Up As Fossils

Explore mark making on fabric

Balancing observational and experimental drawing

Balance observational drawing skills with more experimental, explorative drawing

movement map

Translate lines, marks & pattern into movement

the AccessArt Drawing Journey for children: pedagogy and understanding

Plan a dynamic and rewarding creative education in drawing for ALL children

charcoal as a medium

Explore all charcoal resources on AccessArt

warm up exercises

Find a range of warm up activities to start your session with

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines: Drawing, Collage, Design

Key Concepts:

• That the act of making drawings can be mindful.

• That we can use line, shape and colour to create patterns.

• That we can use folding, cutting and collage to help us create pattern.

• That we can create repeated patterns to apply to a range of products or outcomes.

In this pathway, children have the opportunity to explore pattern and develop a range of technical skills and knowledge through drawing and collage.

The pathway also introduces them to the idea that working with pattern can be a mindful activity, and that as humans we respond to patterns made by other people.

This pathway will take approximately half a term, based upon a weekly art lesson. 

Medium:
Paper, Pens, Paint

Artists: 
Rachel Parker, Shaheen Ahmed, Andy Gilmore, Louise Despont

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

History: Focus on patterns from your chosen ancient civilisation.

Maths: Measuring, symmetry, tessellation/repeated patterns, orientation.

Science: Look at patterns in the structure of fruits or plants, reflections and shadows.

Music: Use music and sound when doing mindful drawing as part of this pathway.

I Can…

• I can relax into making a sensory drawing using a pencil, making marks on the page without having a predefined outcome. 

• I have explored the work of an artist who creates artwork inspired by pattern. I have thought about where we use pattern in our life to make our worlds brighter.

• I can work in my sketchbooks to explore how I can make drawings inspired by “rules.” I can generate lots of different types of patterns.

• I can make a tessellated design and think about colour and shape, exploring positive and negative shapes.

or

• I can explore the work of a surface pattern designer and make my own repeating pattern, exploring colour, shape and composition. 

or

• I can fold paper and use pattern to make an object which other people can respond to.

• I can present and share my work. I can reflect and share my thoughts with others. I can listen to the reflections of my classmates and feedback on their work. 

• I can take photographs of my work.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, handwriting pen, A2 cartridge paper, rulers, tape, string, coloured paper & card.

Option 1: Making Tessellated Designs – Thin cardboard or stiff paper, pencils, handwriting pens, felt tip pens, scissors, masking tape.

Option 2: Creating Repeated Patterns – Collage papers, A3 cartridge paper, ruler, masking tape, PVA glue, scissors, scanner for digital rendering (optional).

Option 3: Puzzle Purse – 21X21cm squares of card, soft pencils, handwriting pens, felt tip pens, ruler.

Pathway: Exploring Pattern

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to enable a mindful approach to working with pattern. Pupils explore how artists and designers use pattern in their own work, and then go on to explore ways in which they can create pattern in a playful way. 

• Week 1: Slow Down & Tune In
  

  Making a Sensory Drawing

  

  The aim of the first session is to enable children to quieten and slow down into the process.

  Use the “Making a Sensory Drawing” resource as a warm-up, enabling children to make sensory patterns without a theme or subject focus. The emphasis should be on the process not outcome. 

  The repetitive nature of the exercise will allow the children to not worry about outcome, but will encourage them to make decisions as they go along. Use needles and sharp pencils with a variation of width to create a rhythmic piece.

  Work on thicker paper (cartridge or sugar paper is ideal). Work on sheets small enough to be stuck into sketchbooks at a later point. 

  Spend half an hour on this.

• Look and Talk…
  

  Shaheen Ahmed

  

  Explore the free to access “Talking Points: Shaheen Ahmed” resource to discover an artist who explores patterns, signs and motifs that hold significance to her identity. Use the questions at the bottom of the resource to help guide your class conversation.

• Week 2: Inventing & Exploring
  

  Rules and Resolutions

  

  Use the “Rules and Resolutions” resource to enable children to explore the idea that they can devise their own process criteria to help them make drawings. 

  Work in sketchbooks and encourage children to collaborate and discuss aims and outcomes. 

• Week 3, 4 & 5: Find your focus
  

  Explore Tessellations, Surface Pattern or Puzzle Purses

  For the next three weeks work on one of the projects below. Intersperse the projects by looking at the work of the artists below to help inspire your journey. 

• Option One
  

  Making a Tessellated Design

  

  Explore working in colour and making patterns which fit together over and over again by using the “Making Tessellated Designs” resource. 

  This activity links really well with maths. Begin by asking them to invent a shape. Push them further by asking them to look at an object and try to create a shape inspired by it.

  Use the project to explore colour. What happens when they make a tessellated design using complimentary colours? How many colours do they need? How does the design change if they use cold colours, or warm colours? 

  Use sketchbooks to test colours and refine tessellation design, and then make final outcomes on larger sheets of cartridge or sugar paper. 

• Explore an Artist
  

  Explore Andy Gilmore

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Andy Gilmore” resource to explore the work of an artist inspired by repeated shape and pattern. See where Andy finds inspiration. Remember, pupils are not aiming to reproduce Andy’s work – just introduce the artist to the children and build their creative thinking, visual literacy and oracy skills through conversation. 

• 
  

  Or…

• Option Two
  

  Explore Surface Design with Rachel Parker

  

  Explore the work of surface pattern designer Rachel Parker.

• 
  

  Make A Repeat Pattern

  

  Use the “Creating Repeated Patterns” resource to enable pupils to think about colours and shapes, and the relationship between these components to create an overall balanced pattern. Using collage allows them to make these creative decisions as they work.

  Get children to think about where they find patterns, what are they used for? Make it known that children can grow up to make patterns for a living if they enjoy the process.

  Have their sketchbook open and ask them to make notes about their decision making, with swatches and thoughts as they go along.

  For the second part of this session children will get the opportunity to scan their pattern into the computer and create a repeat pattern using a Word Document or an equivalent editing software.  

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 3
  

  Making a Puzzle Purse

  

  Use the “Making a Puzzle Purse Part One” resource to show children how to make an origami puzzle purse.

• Explore an Artist
  

  Louise Despont

  

  Explore the work of an artist who makes meditative drawings through pattern with the free to access “Talking Points: Louise Despont“. Use the conversation to highlight to children how the act and outcome of drawing can help with feeling calm and in the moment. 

• 
  

  Making a Puzzle Purse Part Two

  

  Adapt the “Making a Puzzle Purse Part Two” resource, focusing on pattern rather than narrative. Explore colour, line, and shape to create patterns within the puzzle purse. Use the folded geometric structure to help inspire pattern making. 

• Week 6: Reflect & Discuss
  

  Present, Talk, Share and Celebrate

  

  End the pathway by taking time to appreciate the developmental stages and the final outcomes in a clear space.

  Invite children to display the work in a way that best suits the project, have open sketchbooks. Use the “Crit in the Classroom” resource to help you. 

  Have children use tablets or cameras to take photographs of the work. 

  Encourage children to reflect upon all stages of the journey, and reference the artists studied. 

See This Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Making Ruler Drawings

Use a straight edge to explore how you can find freedom by applying simple rules to your drawing

Explore Paper weaving

Explore different methods for paper weaving

Making Stronger Drawings

If children in your class struggle with making confident drawings try this warm-up/intervention exercise

Pattern and Collage

More tips and ideas in this whole school project

Pathway for Years 5 & 6

Disciplines:
Design: Typography, Drawing, Collage, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That when designers work with fonts and layout it is called Typography.

• That we can use the way words look to help us communicate ideas and emotions.

• That we can create our own typography and combine it with other visual elements to make artwork about chosen themes. 

In this pathway children are introduced to typography design and they explore how they can create their own fonts and designs. Children explore how we can use visual letters and other elements to help convey ideas and emotions.

They are introduced to the work of an artist and a designer who have both used lettering combined with maps to produce maps which tell stories. Children then go on to create their own visual and often three dimensional maps. 

Themes:
Identity, Environment, Habitat

Medium:
Pencil, Pen, Paper

Artists: Louise Fili, Grayson Perry, Paula Scher, Chris Kenny

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Please find the CPD session recording of the Typography and Maps pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Geography: Trade links, digital mapping, ordinance survey maps, detailed sketching of maps.

History: Create maps inspired by your chosen ancient civilisation topic e.g. an Anglo Saxon settlement or village.

Maths: Pictorial representations, 2D / 3D shapes.

PSHE: Collaboration, Peer Discussion.

English: Leaflets, posters

I Can…

• I have understood that Typography is the visual art of creating and arranging letters and words on a page to to help communicate ideas or emotions. 

• I have seen how other artists work with typography and have been able to share my thoughts on their work.

• I have explored how I can create my own letters in a playful way using cutting and collage. I can reflect upon what I like about the letters I have made.

• I have drawn my own letters using pen and pencil inspired by objects I have chosen around me. I can reflect upon why my letters have a meaning to me. 

• I have used my sketchbooks for referencing, collecting and testing ideas, and reflecting. 

• I can make my drawings appear visually stronger by working over maps or newspaper to make my marks stronger.

• I have seen how some artists use their typography skills and drawing skills to make maps which are personal to them. I have been able to reflect upon what I think their maps mean, what I like about them, and what interests me.

• I can use my mark making, cutting and collage skills to create my own visual map, using symbols, drawn elements and typography to express themes which are important to me.

• I have shared my work with the class, reflected upon what was successful and been able to give useful feedback on the work of my peers. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, handwriting pens, cartridge paper, black sugar paper, assorted papers/cards, old maps or newspapers, A1 cartridge paper, assorted small objects and plants, PVA glue, tape, scissors.

Pathway: Typography and Maps

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to give pupils the opportunity to explore the work of designers who work with font and typography. Pupils go on to create their own typography and develop their skills further in a visual map project. 

• Week 1: Introduce Typography
  

  What is Typography?

  

  Visit the free to access “Talking Points: What is Typography” resource. Enable children to understand how typography can be used creatively to express thoughts and communicate ideas visually. Make some “Visual Notes” in sketchbooks.

• Introduce an Artist
  

  Louise Fili

  

  Explore the work of Louise Fili who is a pioneer in establishing herself as a woman working in Typography. Use the free to access “Talking Points: Louise Fili” resource to see how she and her team created a poster for the New York Subway. 

• Play & Experiment
  

  Play with Cut Out Typography

  Invite the children to create their own letters in a playful way to discover arrangements they like. Use the “Cut Out Typography” resource.

  Stick the outcomes in your sketchbook. Think about what you like about the letters you create, and what you might like to develop further.

  

• Week 2: Continue Exploring
  

  Create Your Own Typography

  Create your own letters of a typeface in an intuitive and fun way in the “Create Your Own Typography” resource.

  Work on large sheets or in your sketchbooks. Explore as many variations of letters as you can. 

  If you have time, develop a whole word or even phrase, but pay just as much attention to each letter. 

  

  Pupils will be drawing on previous knowledge and skills in creating varied mark-making. For a recap on mark-making explore “Finding Marks Made by Artists“.

• Week 3: Developing Stronger Drawings
  

  Explore Making Powerful Visual Imagery

  Sometimes we need help to make our drawings visually powerful. 

  Use the “Making Stronger Drawings” resource to help you develop strong mark-making skills. 

  If you don’t have maps to work on you can do the same exercise working on newspaper or other paper which is pre-printed. 

  

• Week 4 & 5: Creating a Visual Map
  

  Messages in Maps

  The next stage of the project is to apply your new typography skills and your powerful drawing skills to make a visual map. 

• See How Artists Create Maps
  

  Grayson Perry & Paula Scher & Chris Kenny (and the Marauder’s Map)

  Maps don’t just have to tell us where to go. They can also be very personal places which reveal things about the artist that made them, or they can be comments about culture, place and time. They can also be a place where messaging is concealed and revealed. They can be based upon reality or imagination, or both.

  

  Introduce children to a selection of artists who use maps in their work to express identity. Create “Visual Notes” in sketchbooks inspired by your choice of artists.

  Choose from the following of free to access Talking Points:

  • “Talking Points: Grayson Perry ‘Map of Days’” Please Note: Please be advised that at 1.51 of the video via this link there is inappropriate language shown on the map. You may wish to show up to this point or to skip past the shot of the language in question.

  • “Talking Points: Paula Scher”

  • “Talking Points: Chris Kenny“

  Or explore the design and typography used in the visual Marauder’s Map using the “Talking Points: Hogwarts’ Maps” resource.

• Make
  

  Begin Making a 3D Visual Map

  Using ideas developed from the Typography activity in Week 2, follow the “3D Visual Maps” resource to understand how we build on the idea of creating visual text, and how this can be applied to map making.

  

• Develop
  

  Annotate Your 3D Visual Maps

  Ask the children to use explorations of identity to annotate their 3D Visual Maps with typography, references, thoughts, ideas and associations. They can do this both in 2D and 3D, using cut out paper. See “Manipulating Paper from 2d-3d” for inspiration.

  Questions to ask:

  Where am I in my map? Why have I chosen to place myself here and what is around me?

  What words do I associate with home and where I live?

  What things or places am I surrounded by and why is this important to me?

  

• Week 6: Reflect and Discuss
  

  Share and Celebrate the Outcomes

  Lay the maps out on the floor if possible. You could even use the playground or school hall if the weather/space allocation permits.

  Ask the children to walk around each other’s work. Take time to absorb and discuss.

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

inspired by google earth

Use images from Google Earth as inspiration for drawings

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Personalise letters according to interests

inspired by google earth: Making

Use images from Google Earth as inspiration for a sculpture

Making Maps Magical with Thermochromic Paint

Explore thermochromic paints, making maps which reacted to the heat of hands

Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Disciplines:
Printmaking (Mono Print), Drawing, Collage

Key Concepts:

• When we make mono prints we use mark making to create one off prints.

• When we make mono prints we create an impression of a drawing.

• That we can generate playful narratives and inventions through drawing.

• That we understand that using a range of marks will generate different effects when creating mono prints.

• That we can create creative responses to different stimuli and make the work our own.

Building on the exploration of drawing in Autumn term 1, this pathway starts with two explorations of drawing – one drawing from photographs or film, and two drawing from small, closely observed objects.

In both sessions pupils develop drawing and mark making skills.

Children are then introduced to mono print. They explore the work of an artist who uses mono print in his own work, and are introduced to a simple mono print technique.

Classes then have a choice of projects to develop mono printing and drawing skills, depending upon their preferred area of subject focus.

This pathways encourages children to take creative risks and use drawing as a way to playfully invent and create narratives.

Themes: Natural and Manmade Forms, Invention, Narrative

Medium: Graphite pencils, Oil Pastels, Carbon Paper 

Artists: Xgaoc’o X’are, Leonardo Di Vinci

This pathway will take approximately half a term, based upon a weekly art lesson.

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

See the recording of the hour long zoom CPD to introduce teachers to this pathway.

Curriculum Links

English: Link to English by asking children to draw upon their own experience for narratives.

Geography: Adapt to explore habitats, continents. 

Maths: Use language to develop understanding of symmetry (peeling back monoprints). 

Science: Animals, trees, materials. 

PSHE: Peer discussion. Collaboration.

Be aware that you leave the making open enough for the children to explore fully and freely (not constrained by working too closely to a theme).

I Can…

• I can make drawings using photos from films as my source material.

• I can look closely guided by my teachers voice, and work in my sketchbook or on paper to make drawings using soft pencil or handwriting pen. 

• I can look closely at small objects close to me and make drawings with soft pencil or handwriting pen at the same scale or size. 

• I can think carefully about which marks I will include in my drawing.

• I can share my sketchbook work with the class and talk about what I like about my work. I can listen to others talking about their work, and sometimes I can add my thoughts. 

• I have seen what a mono print is and have explored the work of an artist who uses mono print. I can share my thoughts on the artists work. 

• I can use carbon paper to make mono prints.  I can experiment with the kinds of marks I make, and think about how they help make my drawings interesting.

• I can base my drawings upon careful observational looking. I can slow down my looking and mark making and work for 5 to 15 minutes on a drawing. 

• I can explore a theme and make mono prints using my imagination to make my drawings personal.

• I can share my work and talk about what I like, and what I would like to try again.

• I can enjoy looking at the work of my classmates and sometimes I can share my thoughts about their work. 

• I have understood that through art, I can invent and discover.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft pencils, oil pastels/wax crayons, handwriting pens, carbon paper, A3 cartridge paper, tracing paper.

Pathway: Exploring the World through Mono Print

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to encourage children to explore the world around them through monoprint. How can we use line, mark, shape and colour to make imagery informed by our own perception of the world?

• Week 1: Explore
  

  Draw from Stills & Film

  

  Children will spend the first week making drawings in their sketchbooks. Use the free to access “Drawing Source Material: Natural World” resource to inspire their drawings.

  Use the “Show Me What You See” resource to help guide the children’s drawing. 

• Week 2: Drawing from Observation
  

  Drawing Small

  

  Use the “Drawing Small” resource to help children become aware of the relationship of drawing, looking and mark making. 

  Pupils will work in sketchbooks or on larger sheets of loose paper.

  If you want further challenges, invite children to draw with their non dominant hand, create a blind drawing, a backwards forwards drawing and also a continuous line drawing.

  By the end of week two sketchbooks should be full of a variety of images – from drawings of the natural world capturing movement and energy made in week one, to collections of small, still,  found objects made in week two. 

• Recap
  

  Reflect and Discuss

  

  End week two with a short class or small group discussion about the sketchbook work. Encourage children to remember what they did and discuss whether pupils prefer drawings from week one or week two. 

• Week 3: Introducing Mono Prints
  

  What is a Mono Printing?

  Introduce pupils to the technique of mono printing with ink. Watch this video on “trace monotype” and find out how you can facilitate a lesson on printmaking.

  NOTE: In this pathway you will be using a slightly different method which is cleaner and easier!

• Introduce an Artist
  

  Explore the Work of Xgaoc’o X’are

  

  Explore the work of Botswanan Printmaker Xgaoc’o X’are using the free to access “Talking Points: Xgaoc’o X’are” resource. Use the questions on that resource to discuss his work.

• Experiment
  

  Mono Printing With Carbon Paper

  

  Use the “Mono Printing with Carbon Copy Paper” resource to start the print making journey.

  This activity encourages children to look carefully at their subject matter and make thoughtful marks in response. The addition of oil pastel enables children to experiment with colour and shape as well as line.

  Children can either draw from the same objects that they drew in week two, or new objects. The aim of the session is for pupils to explore and see what they can do with this technique – the journey is more important than any final outcome. Pupils will work in sketchbooks or on sheets of paper. 

• Week 4 & 5: Find Your Focus
  

  Choose a Theme

  

  Choose from one of the projects below, or adapt a similar approach to your own area of focus/curriculum theme. 

  All the resources below share the common aim of enabling children to explore printmaking with a focus on mono print. Whatever the focus or theme you attach make sure you give pupils plenty of freedom to play and invent.

  Give children plenty of time and space to explore, take creative risks, discover and share, without working towards a predefined outcome. Encourage and celebrate individuality.

  Have sketchbooks open on tables and encourage children to make notes (whatever form they take), and record and reflect.

• Option 1
  

  Mono Printing Session with ‘Change, Grow, Live’

  

  If you’d like to continue the theme of animals/natural habitat/natural world, then use the “Mono Printing Session with Change, Grow, Live” resource to make prints inspired by animals. (Pls note: the resource describes using carbon copy paper to print and also using ink and rollers to print. In this case use carbon copy paper). 

  Xgaoc’o X’are’s prints are inspired by the cave drawings made by his ancestors. It could be interesting to get children to think about a narrative involved in the animals that they choose to draw. For example an animal that they think represents them.

  Invite children to bring in animal toys or find images of animals with significance to them.

• Option 2
  

  Inventions Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci

  

  If you would like to continue working with small objects and link to curriculum areas such as materials, then you might like to use the “Drawings of Inventions Inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci” resource. 

• Week 6: Display & Reflect
  

  Present, Talk, Share and Celebrate

  If children worked on separate sheets of paper throughout the project, consider if they would like to make a “Backwards Sketchbook” from the experimental loose prints and drawings made throughout the half term.

  Invite children to display the work in a clear space, and walk around the work as if they are in a gallery. Open out sketchbooks. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their hardwork.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams. 

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Painting & printing the savannah

Give children the opportuntity to mono print, paint and collage

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Printmaking (Stencil/Screen Print), Collage

Key Concepts:

• That we can be inspired by key artworks and make our own work in creative response. 

• That we can use shape and colour as a way to simplify elements of the world.

• That shapes have both a positive and negative element.

• That we can arrange shapes to create exciting compositions.

• That we can build up imagery through layering shapes.

• That we can use collage to inspire prints.

In this pathway children use close looking and the “Show Me What You See” technique to explore artwork from a particular artist, movement or era. Children then explore how they can use shape and colour to simplify elements, inspired by the Cut-outs of Henri Matisse. 

Using first collage, then simple printmaking methods, pupils play with positive and negative shapes and spaces to create meaningful compositions in response to the original artworks they looked at. 

Medium:
Paper, Printmaking Ink,  Stencils & Crayons

Artist: Henri Matisse, Claire Willberg

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Find the Zoom CPD session introducing this pathway here.

See the recording of the Zoom CPD session exploring Screen Printing in the classroom.

Curriculum Links

History: Choose a painting as inspiration which typifies a particular historical period, for example, a painting from  Ancient Egyptian. 

Maths: 2D/3D shapes, pattern. 

PSHE: Peer discussion.

I Can…

• I can explore an artwork through looking, talking and drawing.

• I can use the “Show Me What You See” technique to help me look closely, working in my sketchbook making drawings and notes using pencils and pens.

• I can cut shapes directly into paper, using scissors, inspired by the artwork.

• I can collage with my cut elements, choosing colour, shape and composition to make my own creative response to the artwork.

• I can add to my collage, using line, colour and shape made by stencils. 

• I can explore negative and positive shapes.

• I can take photographs of my work.

• I can share my work with my class. I can reflect and share what I like, and what I would like to try again. I can look at the work of my classmates and give useful feedback through class or small group discussion. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, coloured pencils, oil/chalk pastels, A3 or A2 sugar or cartridge paper, collage papers, PVA glue, scissors.

Option 1: Monoprinting with Carbon Paper – Carbon paper, sharp pencil or pen, oil pastels.

Option 2: Explore Stencils – Card, oil pastels, scissors.

Option 3: Screenprinting mesh, water-based printing ink, tray, acrylic printing medium, scrap card for squeegee, embroidery hoop (optional), newsprint.

Pathway: Working with Shape & Colour

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to enable pupils to respond to a painting from another culture or era, using visual literacy skills to come to their own understanding of the artwork. 

  Children then go on to make their own creative response to the original painting, using layering of shape, colour and line using printmaking and drawing. 

• Week 1: What’s Your Focus?
  

  Choose an Artwork to Focus Your Exploration

  Choose a painting or artwork which you would like to explore. 

  This might be a painting in a local museum or gallery, a painting available online, or a painting from another era or culture which ties in with a curriculum area.

  Here are some free to access ideas:

  • Focus upon the Bayeux Tapestry

  • Focus upon Egyptian Painting

  • Focus upon an art work from Google Arts & Culture

  

• Use Close Looking & Drawing to Explore
  

  Show Me What You See

  Working in sketchbooks, use the “Show Me What You See” technique to help pupil’s visually explore your chosen artwork.

  You can find a detailed explanation of the “Show Me What You See” resource here. 

  During the exercise, draw the children’s attention to the visual elements of the artwork, including talking about shape, colour and composition. As well as using line in sketchbooks to describe shapes, also use colour (pastel, crayon, pens etc).

  By the end of the session sketchbooks should be full of pupil’s interpretations of different elements (shapes, lines etc) from the paintings.

• Week 2: Look and Talk
  

  Painting With Scissors

  Visit the free to access “Talking Points: Henry Matisse Cut Outs” resource to introduce pupils to the idea of “painting with scissors”.

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Romare Bearden” resource to introduce pupils to the work of African American artist Romare Bearden who was influenced by patchwork quilts derived from African-American slave crafts and the work of Matisse. Bearden illustrated Homer’s Odyssey using collage.

  

  Refer to the “Drawing With Scissors” resource to see how to explore a historic (or contemporary) painting through printing. (Using just the part of the resource about collaging with cut elements).

• “Paint with Scissors”
  

  Begin to Cut Shapes

  

  With the original artwork on the white board and sketchbook work from Show Me What You See, provide pupils with coloured paper (sugar or coloured paper, or even old paintings which can be cut up) and invite them to start cutting out shapes made in response to the original artwork. You may want to refer back to “Drawing With Scissors“ resource. 

  You might like to split the class into groups – each taking a section of the original artwork, or you might like to give pupils more space to choose elements they particularly like. 

  Don’t waste any paper – at the end of the session encourage pupils to keep the paper which has been cut away (you can sort it into sizes) as well as the positive “shapes”. 

  “Envelopes” can be made/stuck in sketchbooks to keep paper elements safe until next week. 

  You might like to see the “Positive and Negative Shapes” resource (to be done). 

  Continue this work into week three.

• Week 3: Continue “Painting with Scissors”
  

  Collaging with Cut Elements

  

  Continue the process described in the “Drawing with Scissors” resource. Invite pupils to begin to lay down their cut elements to make collaged compositions, working on A3 or larger paper.

  Encourage children to explore playfully before they decide where to stick shapes down on the page. Think about composition and meaning. Remember they are not trying to recreate the original artwork, instead they are making a creative response (which is personal) to the artwork.

  Remind pupils they can use the pieces of paper which have had shapes cut out of them, and so introduce negative shapes into their work.

  Continue into week four.

• Continue with Collage
  

  Finalise Collages

  

  Continue the process described in the “Drawing with Scissors” resource.

  Finalise first stage of collages ready for second part of the project. By this point all cut elements should be stuck down onto each pupil’s piece of paper.

• Week 4 & 5: Add Further Detail
  

  Stencils, Masks or Line

  

  Continue the process described in the “Drawing with Scissors” resource.

  The final stage of the project is to add further detail to the artwork by working over the collaged elements. 

  You can choose which method you want children to use from the 3 options below. Choose the option you think will best help pupils respond to the original artwork.

  The aim of this final stage is to add further definition or clarity to the collaged composition, using a different medium to make the artwork feel more dimensional (collage can be quite a “flat” medium).

• Option 1
  

  Printed Line

  

  Revisit the original artwork and get pupils to look closely at the qualities of line the artists used.

  Use the “Mono Printing with Carbon Paper” resource and use carbon paper to add line drawings over the top of the collaged sheets.

  Remember the drawings do not have to line up with the exiting imagery. Layering imagery of different types will give exciting results.

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 2
  

  Explore Stencils

  

  Use the “Explore Stencils, Composition and Expressive Mark Making with Oil Pastels” resource and invite children to create masks and stencils out of card, thinking about negative and positive shapes. Use the masks and stencils over the original collaged artwork, using oil pastel as a medium.

  Encourage the children to use a range of mark making and experiment with colour blending so that they get an understanding of the qualities of oil pastels.

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 3
  

  Simple Screen Printing Hack

  

  If you are feeling more confident, you may want to give pupils the opportunity to explore simple screen printing as an alternative way to explore masks and stencils. See our “Talking Points: Screenprint“

  Give children the opportunity to try out screen printing with this “Simple Screen Print Hack“. Watch all 3 videos before starting.

  Ask children to prepare their stencils and masks prior to printing. Remember that they will need stencils and masks of every element including clothing, face detail or any big shapes within the background. 

  As with Option 1 and 2, be inventive about the shapes which are overlaid over the collaged elements – remember the shapes do not have to line up with the collaged composition – exciting and surprising outcomes can be achieved by creating new shapes and lines over the first collage. 

• Week 6: Reflect & Discuss
  

  Share, Reflect, Discuss

  Time to see the work which has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  

  Invite pupils to display the work in a clear space, and walk around the work as if they are in a gallery. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their handwork.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams.

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

• Extension
  

  Extension: Animating With Used Masks, Stencils, Or Left Over Shapes

  

  Claire Willberg repurposes the paper that she uses in her printing process to create visually exciting animations. See her animations in “Talking Points: Claire Willberg“.

  Get your children to keep their stencils and masks once they’ve been used and make a stop motion.

  See the “Animation Software” resource for support. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources
You May Want To…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Using Sketchbooks, Drawing and Reflective Tools in the 20th Century Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Explore 20th Century paintings and sculpture, using sketchbooks & drawing as tools for looking

Using Drawing to Get Closer to 18th Century Portraits at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Explore different drawing exercises for capturing 18th Century portraiture

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Drawing, Sculpture, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That we can take inspiration from other artforms such as film and literature and make work in 3 dimensions in response.

• That through making work in another medium we can make the work our own, re-interpreting and re-inventing. 

• That we can explore character, narrative and context and create objects (sculptures) which convey these qualities through their form, texture, material, construction and colour. 

In this pathway children are enabled to make sculptural equivalents of characters from film and literature. 

The pathway begins with an introduction to the work of two artists who use their sketchbooks to help them make the transition from words/film to image/object.

Pupils then use their own sketchbooks to explore their response to the original stimulus, and then go on to develop and make a sculptural character. 

The pathway is easily adapted to which ever books/films you are studying in class. 

Medium:
Paper, Drawing Materials, Modelling & Construction Materials (Modroc, clay, plasticine etc). 

Artists: Rosie Hurley, Inbal Leitner, Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Find the Zoom CPD session recording exploring Figure Drawing here.

Find the Zoom CPD session recording exploring Modroc here.

Curriculum Links

English: Link to “character” books such as Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot, Dirty Beasts, The Minpins or James and the Giant Peach to inspire making.

Science: Materials, animals, micro habitats.

Maths: 2D/3D shapes, measuring, weight.

PSHE: Responsibility to the planet, collaboration, peer discussion.

I Can…

• I have seen how artists are inspired by other artists often working in other artforms. 

• I have understood how artists sometimes use sketchbooks to understand and explore their own response to an artists work. 

• I can use my own sketchbook to explore my response to the chosen book/film, making visual notes, jotting down ideas and testing materials.

• I can make a sculpture using materials to model or construct which is inspired by a character in a book or film. 

• I can reflect and share how the way I made my sculpture helps capture my feelings about the original character. 

• I can enjoy looking at the sculptures made by my classmates and see ways in which they are different and similar to each other and to the original character. 

• I can share my feedback about my classmates work. 

• I can take photographs of my work thinking about focus, background and lighting. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, coloured pencils, oil/chalk pastels, handwriting pens, A3 or A2 cartridge paper.

Option 1: Modroc or Clay Characters – Newspaper, masking tape, modroc, air dry clay, acrylic or ready mixed paint, brushes, trays.

Option 2: Plasticine Characters – A3 cartridge paper, modelling plasticine, constructed materials, corrugated card circles.

Option 2: Flying MinPin Characters – Air dry clay, wire, A4 or A3 cartridge paper, tissue paper, feathers, PVA glue.

Option 3: James and the Giant Peach Literacy Garden – assorted construction materials.

Pathway: Telling Stories Through Drawing and Making

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway introduces children to the idea that we can use literature and film to inspire our making, and that through making we can retell / re-invent stories. 

• Week 1: Introduce
  

  Be Inspired by Artists and Illustrators

  

  Introduce the Illustrator Inbal leitner and hear how she used a sketchbook to develop characters and artwork inspired by a poem through the “My Tiger Sketchbook” resource. 

  Use the “Rosie Hurley: Esio Trot” resource to see how Rosie made a whole 3D set inspired by Roald Dahl’s book, and how she used sketchbooks to help develop and refine her ideas.

  Use sketchbooks for “Making Visual Notes” about techniques and ideas which seem important to the class. 

  

• Week 2: Exploring Drawing
  

  Using Quentin Blake’s Drawings as Inspiration!

  Use the “Inspired by Quentin Blake’s Drawings” resource to try three simple exercises to help children draw from life, and explore how we might use exaggeration as a tool to help us convey the intention of our drawing.

• Week 3, 4 & 5: Find Your Focus
  

  Begin Making

  Choose a piece of literature or poem and take inspiration from one or more of the making resources below.

  Remember to use sketchbooks throughout, reminding children of the way Inbal Leitner and Rosie Hurley used their sketchbooks. 

  Use the “Play and Explore: The Ingredients and Elements of the Poem” resource to help support children translate text into imagery.

• Option 1
  

  Modroc or Clay Characters

  Use the “Make a Roald Dahl Character” resource to make a 3d sculptural character. This resource uses modroc but you could also use airdry clay. 

  

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 2
  

  Plasticine Characters

  Use the “Plasticine Models and Decorated Plinths inspired by ‘Dirty Beasts’” resource to create sculptures from plasticine and found materials.

   

  

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 3
  

  Flying Minpin Characters

  Use the “Flying Minpin Birds” resource to make hanging sculptures. 

  

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 4
  

  James & The Giant Peach Garden

  Use the “James and the Giant Peach Garden” resource to explore making work in a variety of media around one text. 

  

• Week 6: Reflect & Discuss
  

  Share and Celebrate the Outcomes

  Clear the space and display all work including sketchbooks so that pupils and teachers can appreciate the work.

   

  

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

  If you have class cameras give pupils the opportunity to take photographs of their sculptures – thinking about how they can best present and light their sculptures. Explore how children can take high quality photographs of 3d artwork with this resource.

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

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You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

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Making Papier-Mache Marionette Puppets Inspired by Characters in a Historical Painting

Investigate historical puppets and recreate characters from books or artwork

Pop-up puppets Inspired by Characters in a Historical Painting

Create puppets to help children engage and interact with the image and the narrative

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Drawing, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That we can tell stories through drawing.

• That we can use text within our drawings to add meaning.

• That we can sequence drawings to help viewers respond to our story.

• That we can use line, shape, colour and composition to develop evocative and characterful imagery. 

In this pathway children explore how we can create sequenced imagery to share and tell stories. 

The pathway starts by introducing two artists: one an illustrator and the other a graphic novelist and author. Children use sketchbooks to gather ideas from the way the artists work. 

There is then a choice of two projects: the first explores the creation of an accordian book – inspired by a piece of literature, exploring how we can use drawing in an illustrative or even fine art sense to tell stories. 

In the other option children draw upon graphic novels and make a comic strip style telling of a piece of poetry. 

Medium:
Drawing Materials, Paper

Artists: Laura Carlin, Shaun Tan

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

English: Use The Jabberwocky by Lewis Carol as inspiration for this pathway, or choose another story or graphic novel of your choice.

History: Create your own sequenced story inspired by an event in history ie from The Anglo Saxon, The Viking, Ancient Greeks, Ancient Egyptian or The Roman eras.

Science: Use language to support concepts around light and shadow, and how this can be explored on paper through drawing.

PSHE: Supports Collaboration, Peer Discussion.

I Can…

• I have explored the work of artists who tell stories through imagery. 

• I can respond to the work of illustrators and/or graphic novelists, “reading” the visual images and sharing my thoughts. 

• I can work in a sketchbook to record my ideas and thoughts generated by looking at other artists’ work.

• I can use a sketchbook to generate ideas about how I might respond to a piece of poetry or prose.

• I can use line, shape, and colour using a variety of materials to test my ideas.

• I can think about how I might use composition, sequencing, mark making and some text in my drawings.

• I can create a finished piece which contains sequenced images to describe a narrative. 

• I can share my work with others and talk about my journey and outcome. I can listen to their feedback and take it on board.

• I can appreciate the work of my classmates and think about similarities and differences between our work. I can share my feedback on their work.

• I can take a photograph of my work, thinking about lighting and focus. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Watch the “How do Non-Specialist Teachers Teach Art” video if you are a non-specialist teacher to understand how to model an open and exploratory approach.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, handwriting pen, coloured pencils, oil/chalk pastels, charcoal, graphite, ink, paints, A2 or A3 cartridge paper (cut & into folded accordion books).

Pathway: Storytelling Through Drawing

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to enable pupils to think about how they can create sequenced drawings to share or tell a story. 

• Week 1: Introduce Two Artists
  

  Laura Carlin & Shaun Tan

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Laura Carlin” and “Talking Points: Shaun Tan” resources to introduce children to 2 artists that tell stories through imagery.

  Laura uses writers’ text to inspire her visuals, working as an illustrator, whilst Shaun Tan creates his illustrations for his own stories, in the genre of graphic novels. 

  Use the “Making Visual Notes” resource to students understand how they can use sketchbooks to gather ideas from the way other artists work, and store them for use later on. 

• Week 2: Drawing Warm Up
  

  Drawing Stories

  

  Set the scene for the half term by inviting children to “Draw Stories“.  Use toys, poetry and their own text to create richly illustrated narratives, contained within a single drawing.

  Work in sketchbooks or on larger sheets of paper. 

• Week 3, 4, & 5: Find Your Focus
  

  Choose your Project

  Choose one of the following projects. Each one enables pupils to explore how they can build and share a story through a series of images. 

• Option 1: Accordian Book
  

  Illustrating The Jabberwocky

  

  Explore the “Illustrating The Jabberwocky” resource. You can adapt the teaching ideas in this resource to any text, book, or poetry you choose, but it works best with writing which is rich in evocative imagery. 

  The resource provides plenty of opportunity for children to explore different materials such as charcoal, graphite, ink or pastel.

  

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 2: Poetry Comic
  

  Explore Manga

  

  Use the “Creating a Poetry Comic” resource to enable children to explore how they might create a comic inspired by poetry. 

  Use sketchbooks to develop ideas. You may also like pupils to turn the comics into a folded zine. 

• Week 6: Share and Reflect
  

  Present, Talk, Celebrate

  

  End the pathway by taking time to appreciate the developmental stages and the final outcomes in a clear space.

  Pupils will display the work appropriately to fit with the chosen project including having open sketchbooks. Use the “Crit in the Classroom” resource to help you facilitate the session. 

  Encourage children to reflect upon all stages of the journey, and reference the artists studied. 

  If available, children can use tablets or cameras to take photographs of the work. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Make a dummy book

Develop ideas for an illustrated book by first making a dummy book

comics inspired by museum collections

Construct stories inspired by museum items

ink collages inspired by the wolf wilder

Use a well loved children’s book as a starter for creating a collage

3 panel drawing challenge

Use everyday objects to construct short stories

drawing storyboards

Use storyboards as a way of developing both drawing and visual story telling skills

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Cyanotype, Anthotype, Painting with Natural Pigments, Drawing, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That we can use the world around us as “ingredients” with which to make art.

• That photographs are created when a light sensitive surface is exposed to light.

• That we can manipulate the world around us, transforming it into art.

In this pathway children are introduced to Cyanotypes, and the work of the first female photographer Anna Atkins. They are also introduced to artist Frances Hatch, who finds and makes pigments from the landscape she is drawing.

Children then go on to make their own imagery, choosing one or more methods, to make artwork which is rooted in the materials and place in which it was made. 

Medium:
Natural pigments from earth and plants, paper, light.

Artists: Frances Hatch, Anna Atkins

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Maths: 2D shapes, pattern.

Science: Wild and garden plants, trees, structure of plants, local environment, birds, every day materials and properties, planting and growing, the four seasons.

PSHE: Responsibility to the planet.

I Can…

• I have explored how artists make art from natural materials around them, such as pigments from plants, the ground, and sunlight. 

• I have understood how materials can be transformed through my actions.

• I can reflect upon artists work, share my response and listen to the response of my classmates.

• I can use my sketchbook to collect ideas. 

• I can make visual notes about how artists have made images.

• I can use my sketchbook to try out ideas and experiment.

• I can make a finished piece, which might be part of a larger class artwork.

• I can share my experience and artwork, talk to my classmates about what I like and what I would like to try again. 

• I can use a camera or device to take photographs of my work.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, coloured pencils, oil/chalk pastels.

Option 1: Cyanotypes – ‘Sun paper’ or cyanotype solution, found objects or natural forms.

Option 2: Primal Painting – Foraged plants or vegetables, rolling pins for mashing, paper brushes.

Option 3: Anthotypes – Plants, leaves, spices, rolling pins/masher, bowls, jars, water, fine sieve/coffee filter, watercolour paper, brushes, picture frame/clear perspex, flat object, such as pressed flowers.

Pathway: Using Natural Materials to Make Images

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aim of the Pathway

  This pathway encourages children to explore how they can use materials found around them to make images. 

• Week 1: Introduce Artists
  

  Frances Hatch

  

  Introduce pupils to the work of Frances Hatch through the free to access “Talking Points: Frances Hatch” resource.

  Use the questions on the resource to stimulate a discussion about the way Frances employs curiosity about her environment to build her practice. Scroll down the images in the “Working WITH and In the Landscape” resource to explore with pupils. 

  Invite pupils to work in sketchbooks. Use the “Making Visual Notes” resource to get children to jot down and draw things of interest to them. 

• Week 1: Introduce Artists
  

  Anna Atkins

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Anna Atkins” resource to introduce children to the work of the first female photographer who used cyanotypes. 

  Work in sketchbooks again using the “Making Visual Notes” resource to collect and consolidate information. Or use the “Show Me What You See” technique.

  By the end of the first session pupils should have two or more sketchbook pages full of visual notes. 

• Weeks 2, 3, 4, 5: Find Your Focus
  

  Choose Your Project

  Choose one or more of the projects below to enable a practical exploration.

• Option 1
  

  Making Cyanotypes

  

  Inspired by the work of Anna Atkins, children will make cyanotypes.

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: What is a Cyanotype?” resource to explore what a cyanotypes is. 

  Use the “Talking Points: What is Negative Space” resource to explore the idea of negative space, and how we can use it in our artwork. 

  Use sketchbooks to plan and build. What will pupils collect to use on the cyanotype paper? What will the focus of the exploration be?

  Use sun paper as an easy way to make cyanotypes. Ask pupils to consider how they will display the results, bringing all images from the class into one artwork for display.

  TIP: When you expose your prints you can also use a sunny window – taping the paper and object to the window on the inside. 

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 2
  

  Primal Painting

  

  Inspired by the work of Frances Hatch, paint using natural pigments.

  Use the “Primal Painting” resource to enable pupils to be curious about the things around them. Forage in school grounds or your local environment. If you live in an urban environment you can bring in vegetables to supplement vegetation from local parks or pathways.

  Revisit the free to access “Talking Points: Artists as Explorers and Collectors resource”.

  Work in sketchbooks to define the focus of the artwork. Use sketchbooks to experiment, making notes about which materials they use and how.

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 3
  

  Making Anthotypes

  

  Use the “Making Anthotypes” resource to understand how pupils can make images from the sun and things around them.

  Revisit the free to access “Talking Points: Artists as Explorers and Collectors resource.”

  Work in sketchbooks to define the focus of the artwork. Encourage children to use their sketchbooks to experiment, making notes about which materials were used and how.

  TIP: Use boxes with lids to keep the prepared paper away from the light, or use a heavy cloth over it. When you expose your prints, the above resource recommends you use glass and a frame to hold the image still – but you can also use a sunny window – taping the paper and object to the window on the inside. 

• Week 6: Present and Celebrate
  

  Share, reflect, discuss

  

  Time to see the work which has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  Invite pupils to display the work in a clear space, and walk around the work as if they are in a gallery. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their hard work.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams.

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Home made inks

Make your own inks from the plants around you

Exploring Cyanotype by Maru Rojas

Artist and educator Maru Rojas shares how to create beautiful cyanotype images

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Sculpture, Creative Thinking Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That artists think carefully not just about what they make, but also how they present what they make. 

• That when we view sculpture (or other art), the context (way it is presented) affects how we react to it. 

• That how something will be seen can help us shape what is made.

• That we can give thought to how we display the art we make, to help us understand how people will view our work. 

In this pathway children begin to think about two very important aspects of making art: context and presentation.

When we make art that others will see, it’s important that we understand how we present the work will influence the way people see the work. This pathway presents an opportunity for pupils to discover and question the role of the “plinth” in sculpture. 

Children explore how other artists use the idea of “plinth” to make work. There are then three choices of project. The 1st explores how we can present found objects to re-see them as sculpture, making a mini gallery. 

In the 2nd project children make sculptures of themselves, putting a version of themselves on a plinth, and in the 3rd children plan an artwork or performance for a fictional plinth in their school. 

Medium:
Clay, Paper, Drawing Materials, Various Modelling & Construction Materials

Artists: Anthony Gormley, Yinka Shonibare, Thomas J Price

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

English: Make ‘plinth people’ of characters from your chosen book. Explore how they can be displayed to interact with one another and tell the story. Use “plinth” to give voice/performance to narratives in English.

History: Create plinth people inspired by figures from your chosen civilisation topic e.g. the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses or Roman Emperors. Use “plinth” to give voice/performance to characters in history.

PSHE: Supports Collaboration, Peer Discussion.

I Can…

• I have seen how some artists choose to display their work on “plinths” and I have understood how the way a work is displayed can affect the way the audience sees the work. 

• I can use my sketchbook to collect ideas about how other artists consider how their work is displayed. 

• I can use clay to make quick three dimensional sketches  of figures sitting on “plinths”. I can use the clay to capture  character/emotion of the body.

The following I Can statements are dependent upon project chosen.

Pocket Gallery:

• I can find objects around me and think about how I can re-see them when I display them as art objects.

• I can manipulate materials to make an environment for the art objects.

• I can think about how the audience might react and capture this in my artwork.

The Fourth Plinth Challenge:

• I can work as a small team and plan an art project around how we would use a plinth in our school, taking ideas of other people on board and contributing my own.

• I can think creatively about art/object/performance/audience.

Plinth People

• I can use my sketchbook to think about my interests/personality traits which I am proud of.

• I can imagine how I could create a version of myself that I would like to see on a plinth.

• I can make a sculpture/ plinth from construction materials which shows a version of myself, using things like body position, clothes, props and fine details to give the sculpture character. 

All Projects:

• I can share my work with others, and talk about my response to the project, what worked well and what I would like to try again. I can listen to the response to my work from my classmates and take on board their feedback.

• I can appreciate the work of my classmates, understanding where there are similarities and where there are differences. I can share my response to their work.

• I can take photographs of my artwork, thinking about focus, lighting and composition. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Clay, thick cardboard (cut up boxes), small wooden blocks (or lego).

Option 1: Pocket Gallery – Camera, printed photographs, white card, foamboard (or cardboard boxes turned on their side), a collection of small objects, torches, acetate filters or sweet wrappers, rubber bands, PVA glue, scissors.

Option 3: Plinth People – (for the pre made plinths), corrugated card, wire, fine casting plaster,

(for the figures) Wire, construction materials, fabric, glue.

Pathway: The Art of Display

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to encourage pupils to think about how the way we present our art (the context) can change the meaning of the work we make, or change the way others see it. 

  Pupils explore “plinths” as a device, and use the exploration to inspire their own sculpture. 

• Weeks 1: Introduce
  

  What is a Plinth?

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: What is a Plinth?” resource to introduce children to the concept behind “plinth” and to explore some of the artists who have contributed to the Fourth Plinth Project in London. 

  Invite children to make visual notes in their sketchbooks. Use the “Making Visual Notes” resource to help this process. 

• Week 2: Introduce an Artist
  

  Talking Points: Thomas J Price

  

  Explore the work of a sculptor who challenges ideas about who should be commemorated as sculptures in the free to access “Talking Points” Thomas J Price” resource. 

  You might like to use the “Making Visual Notes” resource to see how to encourage pupils to use their sketchbooks whilst looking at an artist or art work. 

   

• Warm-Up
  

  Clay Figurative Sketches

  

  Provide children with the opportunity to explore clay as a “short term” construction and modelling material through “Clay Figurative Sketches“.

  This activity will enable children to begin thinking about the distinctions between ‘audience’ and ‘art’.

• Week 3, 4 & 5: Find Your Focus
  

  Explore & Make

  Choose one of the following projects to help focus and deepen children’s understanding of how context and presentation help define the meaning of artwork. 

• Option 1: Become a Curator
  

  Pocket Gallery

  

  In the “Making a Pocket Gallery” resource,  children are invited to curate, photograph and build.

  Inspire children to be artists and curators. Encourage conversation about “intention”, “curating” and encourage reflection skills by making a “Pocket Gallery“.

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 2: Plan an Art Event
  

  The Fourth Plinth Challenge

  

  Invite children to work in small teams to respond to the Fourth Plinth Challenge found at the bottom of our free to access “Talking Points: What is a Plinth?“

  Use sketchbooks to generate ideas, encouraging children to think as creatively as they can about how they might create and use a “plinth” in your school. 

• 
  

  Or…

• Option 3: Build Sculptures
  

  Plinth People

  

  Enable children to make dynamic figures which stand on a plinth. Invite them to build up from a single wire to form “Plinth People“, thinking carefully about the position of their figures.

  Encourage children to make notes in their sketchbooks about their decision making. Include some swatches of fabrics and makes notes on why certain fabrics were/weren’t selected.

• Option 4:
  

  Billboard Challenge

  Invite children to imagine they were given a billboard – what would they put on it? 

  Coming Soon

• Week 6: Celebrate
  

  Share, Reflect, Discuss

  

  Time to see the work that has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  Invite children to display the work in a clear space, and walk around the work as they are in a gallery. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their hard work.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams. Explore how children can take high quality photographs of 3d artwork with this resource.

   

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

See This Pathway Used In Schools

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

The friendship tower

Create three-dimensional figures

How To use Modroc

Find out how you can facilitate a mod roc led session

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Painting, Sewing, Drawing, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That artists can combine art and craft using painting and sewing together to make art.

• That when we use two media together such as paint and thread, we can use their unique qualities in different ways to build an image.

• That the skills we learn in one medium such as mark making in drawing, can be used in another such as sewing.

• That we don’t have to use materials in traditional ways – it is up to us to reinvent how we use materials and techniques to make art. 

In this pathway children are introduced to artists that combine paint and sewing, art and craft, to make work. 

Children explore how these artists use fabric, paint and thread to make work in response to landscapes (and sometimes the people within those landscapes). 

Children are invited to start by creating an underpainting on cloth, using paint in a fluid and intuitive way. They then go on to explore sewing not as a precise technical craft, but as an alternative way to make intuitive, textural marks, over the painted backgrounds. 

Sketchbooks and drawing are used as a way for pupils to discover their own personal response to the landscape used as stimulus, and as a way to explore mark making, colour and composition. 

Medium:
Fabric (Calico), Paint, Thread

Artists: Alice Kettle, Hannah Rae

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Find a recording that supports the Finding Marks Made by Artists resource here.

Curriculum Links

Geography: Adapt your focus to create sewn landscapes/oceans according to topic.

History: Create a sewn scene inspired by a local history event.

Science: Explore habitats, Local environment, materials.

Maths: Pattern, measuring.

I Can…

• I have explored how artists combine media and use them in unusual ways to make art.

• I can share my response to their work.

• I can use my sketchbook to make visual notes capturing ideas that interest me.

• I can use my sketchbook to test ideas and explore colour and mark making.

• I can use paint to create a background on fabric, mixing colours to create different hues, tints and dilutions.

• I can use thread and stitching to create textural marks over the top of my painted canvas, creating interesting marks which reflect my response to the landscape. 

• I can share my work with others and share my thoughts about the process and outcome. I can listen to their feedback and take it onboard.

• I can appreciate the work of my classmates enjoying the similarities and differences between our processes and outcomes. I can share my feedback on their work. 

• I can take photographs of my work, thinking about lighting and focus.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft B pencils, coloured pencils, handwriting pens, Calico or other neutral fabric cut into A4 or smaller rectangles, acrylic or poster paint, brushes, card for palettes, sewing thread, needles.

Volcano option: Large canvas sheet, white emulsion paint, acrylic or ready mixed paint, materials to create texture

Pathway: Cloth, Thread, Paint

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to introduce children to how artists use textiles and sewing to make art. The pathway explores how we can use cloth, paint and thread to explore colour and texture, creating imagery inspired by land and seascapes.

• Week 1: Introduce Artists
  

  Hannah Rae & Alice Kettle

  

  Introduce children to the work of textile artists Alice Kettle and Hannah Rae through the free to access “Talking Points: Alice Kettle” and  “Talking Points: Hannah Rae” resources.

  Use these artists to inspire class discussions about how artists use cloth, thread and paint to make work. 

  Use the “Making Visual Notes” resource to help children understand how they can use sketchbooks to collect, process and consolidate information absorbed while they look at artists work. 

  

• Week 2: Develop Mark Making
  

  Finding Marks Made by Artists

  

  Use the “Finding Marks Made by Artists” resource to help pupils understand how artists use a variety of marks, and to develop their own mark making vocabulary. Choose a landscape based image from the resource as inspiration. The mark making that pupils develop will then be used later in the pathway when they work in stitch.

  Work in sketchbooks or on larger sheets of paper. Use sharp soft B pencils or handwriting pens. If you need a further challenge explore pens of different line weight such as sharpies and marker pens. 

  You can find a zoom recording of how to use the Finding Marks in Drawings Made by Artists here. 

• Weeks 3, 4 & 5
  

  Find Your Focus

  Decide as a class if you’d like your theme to be land or water. Adapt the resources below to suit. You can also adapt the theme to suit a curriculum theme such as volcanoes (below). 

• 
  

  Start with the Canvas

  

  Use the second part of the “Making Painted & Sewn Landscapes” resource and use stitch to create texture, marks and energy on the painted canvas. 

  Continue to use sketchbooks as a tool to experiment with mark making, looking back to the “Finding Marks Made by Artists” task earlier in the pathway. 

  

• 
  

  Stitch!

  

  Use the “Making Painted & Sewn Landscapes” resource to enable an exploration of how to make painted and sewn squares. 

  Use sketchbooks as a tool to develop ideas, explore colour and experiment with mark making. 

  You may like to use the following free to access Drawing Source Material resources in your class:

  Wild Flower Meadow
  Drone Footage Natural Landscape
  Drone Footage Urban Landscape
  Moving Water 

  Or better still have the pupils explore their own environment and make work in response to the habitat/environment local to them. 

  

• Adaptation
  

  Volcano Adaption

  If you wish to adapt this resource to a volcano theme:

  Begin by introducing children to the work of Frank Bowling with our free to access “Talking Points: Frank Bowling“. 

  

  Explore the “Volcano Painting Inspired by Frank Bowling” resource and adapt to help you create a painted background. Use stitches to add lava/rocks etc thinking about energy and flow.

• Week 6: Share & Celebrate
  

  Share, Reflect, Discuss

  

  Tidy the room and make space to see the sketchbook work as well as the final outcomes. 

  Remind the pupils of the progress they made, and the artists they saw along the way. Invite them to make links between the work they made in sketchbooks, on drawing sheets and final pieces, and the work by artists. 

  Encourage them to feel safe to share how they feel about their own work, and nurture an environment where pupils feel able to comment on their classmates work, treating everyones work with respect.

  Use the “Crit in the Classroom” resource to help you. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

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The AccessArt Village

Explore how to create a stitched house to make a village

Blood Bags

Link arts & crafts with science by creating textile blood bags

A Stitched house

Stitches and mark making

Straight Line Drawings

Stitches and drawing

Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Disciplines:
Making, Drawing, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That artists use their creativity to look at the world in new ways, and use their hands to transform materials into new things. 

• That making art can be playful and fun. That we can create things for other people to enjoy/use.

• That we can use our imagination to help us shape the world. 

In this pathway children are enabled to use their imagination and transform a familiar object (a stick) into new forms.

The pathway begins with a simple sculptural warm-up which encourages children to think creatively and laterally about how they can use materials to create a small sculpture. 

Depending upon project choice, children then go on to make stick people inspired by Guatemalan Worry Dolls, make a treehouse, or make a mask.

Sketchbooks are used throughout to help children brainstorm, record and reflect. 

Medium:
Twigs, Construction Materials, Paper, Wool, Drawing Materials

Artists: Chris Kenny

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

English: Link to Julia Donaldson’s Stick Man.

PSHE: Collaboration, Peer Discussion, Ethnic Identity.

I Can…

• I can take a familiar object like a stick, and use my imagination to think about what it might become.

• I can use my sketchbook to generate ideas and to test ideas.

• I can use a variety of materials to transform my object thinking about form and colour.

• I can cut materials with simple tools and fasten materials together to construct my sculpture.

• I can share my sketchbook and sculpture with the class and talk about how I made it and what I liked. I can listen to my classmates feedback about my work.

• I can listen to my classmates talk about their own artwork and I can share my thoughts about their work.

• I can take a photograph of my sculpture, thinking about focus. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Roots and shoots materials such as a pebble, wire, tape, string, wool, paper, card, or other small found items and construction materials.

Project 1: Stick People – Sticks, string, wool, fabric scraps, tissue paper, glue.

Project 2: Tree house – Twigs, plant pots, newspaper, a stone, cardboard – brown corrugated card, coloured card, string, fabric, glue sticks, small pieces of wood (i.e. lolly sticks, coffee stirrers, match sticks etc) and other construction materials.

Project 3: Twig Masks – Twigs, masking tape, coloured tissue paper, glue.

Pathway: Stick Transformation Project

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  The aim of this pathway is to help children understand how artists use their creativity to re-see, re-invent or reimagine the world around them. 

  The pathway encourages children to look again at something they are familiar with – in this case a stick or twig, and think how they can use their creativity to  transform it. 

• Week 1: Making and Playing
  

  Roots and Shoots

  Use the “Roots and Shoots” resource to start with a making warm-up exercise to encourage pupils to think creatively about the world around them.

  Let the process of playing and exploring with the materials lead children to the end result. Remember that the outcomes will be fragile and may not last due to the nature of the task, so be sure to take photographs of them at the end of the session to add to sketchbooks. 

• Weeks 2, 3, 4 and 5: Choose your Project/s
  

  Find Your Focus

  Choose one or two projects from the options below depending on how much time you have and how slowly the pupils work. 

  Watch “Design Through Making” to remind yourself that it’s okay for children to  just make first!

• Project One: Introduce & Create
  

  Stick People

  

  Follow the pathway below to make stick people out of found twigs!

  Watch this video of ‘Stick Man’ as a light hearted introduction to the idea that sticks and twigs can be reimagined into different things!

  ---

  

  Watch the free to access “Talking Points: The Craft of Worry Dolls” resource to understand the Guatemalan tradition of making worry dolls. 

  ---

  

  In the first session take a look at the free to access “Talking Points: Chris Kenny” to inspire children to see how sticks can be reinvented as people.

  Take the children outside to find the perfect sticks and use our “Worry People” resource to create a class full of stick people.

  Use sketchbooks to design clothes and explore how the position of arms/legs/body affects personality of stick person. 

• 
  

  Or…

• Project Two: Introduce & Create
  

  Tree House

  

  Transform twigs into trees and use them to ignite imagination and build playful treehouses. 

  Start by exploring the free to access “Talking Points: Treehouses” resource for some inspiration.

  Continue by using the “Treehouse Challenge” resource.

  Use sketchbooks throughout as a way to sketch out ideas and make visual notes. 

  

• 
  

  Or…

• Project Three: Introduce & Create
  

  Twig Masks

  Use sticks, masking tape and tissue paper to create these simple masks.

  Adapt the “Making a Mask from Sticks” resource.

  Link to an existing curriculum topic if appropriate, or consider using the free to access “Source Material: Oceans” to find videos to inspire an underwater theme. 

  Use the “Ruler Drawings” resource to help children capture what they are seeing in straight lines, pausing the videos and giving pupils time to work in their sketchbooks. This will help them when they are reimagining twigs.

  If possible, go outside and forage for twigs with the children.

  Spend the next two sessions creating your crustacean inspired twig masks. 

• Week 6: Present and Celebrate
  

  Share, Reflect, Discuss

  

  Time to see the work which has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  Invite children to display the work in a clear space, and walk around the work as if they are in a gallery. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their hard work.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams. Explore how children can take high quality photographs of 3d artwork with this resource.

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

See This Pathway Used In Schools

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Learning from Permaculture Design Principles

See how you can use materials in an environmentally friendly way during art lessons

Nests: Materials, Tools Testing & sketchbooks

See how twigs can be used as mark making tools

Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Disciplines:
Painting, Sketchbooks

Key Concepts:

• That artists sometimes use loose, gestural brush marks to create expressive painting. 

• Expressive painting can be representational or more abstract.

• Artists use impasto and sgraffito to give texture to the painting.

• Artists sometimes use colour intuitively and in an exploratory manner.

• That we can enjoy, and respond to, the way paint and colour exist on the page. 

In this pathway children are introduced to the idea that they can use paint in an intuitive and exploratory way. 

The pathway starts with an introduction to artists who use paint and colour to create exciting gestural and abstract work.

Children explore primary colours and secondary colours through expressive mark making, connecting colour, mark making and texture (of paint) through abstract work.

Pupils then explore the brush work of two old masters when we focus in on details of paintings to understand how they built the work.

Pupils then go on to draw from a colourful still life, finally making expressive and gestural paintings with acrylic paint. 

Sketchbooks are used throughout to record, experiment and reflect. 

Medium:
Acrylic Paint, Paper

Artists: Marela Zacarías, Charlie French, Vincent Van Gogh, Cezanne

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Find the Zoom CPD session introducing this pathway here.

See the recording of the Zoom CPD session exploring Colour Mixing.

Curriculum Links

Geography: After looking at the expressive landscapes by Van Gogh and Cezanne, be inspired by your local landscape (United Kingdom) and use gestural brush strokes to paint a scene you know or see, or explore weather, habitat, river or sea.

I Can…

• I have seen how artists, contemporary and old masters, sometimes use paint in an expressive, loose way to create paintings full of life and colour. 

• I can start to share my response to the work of other artists.

• I can use my sketchbook to fill full of colour and brush marks, inspired by other artists.

• I can recognise primary colours and mix secondary colours. I can experiment with hues by changing the amount of primary colours I add.

• I can use various home made tools to apply paint in abstract patterns. I can be inventive.

• I can make a loose drawing from a still life.

• I can see colours and shapes in the still life.

• I can use my gestural mark making with paint, and incorporate the colours and shapes in the still life to make an expressive painting. 

• I can share my experiments and final piece with others and share what I liked and what went well.

• I can enjoy the work of my classmates and I can see how all the work is different. I can share my response to some of their work. 

• I can take a photograph of my final piece, thinking about focus and lighting. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft pencils, handwriting pens, a selection of ‘found tools’ such as old shoe brushes, string, wire, rags, thick strips of card, cardboard (for pallets), acrylic or ready mixed paint, a selection of bright still life objects eg plastic blocks, cups, balls, colourful mugs etc, cartridge paper.

Pathway: Expressive Painting

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  The aim of this pathway is to enable children to explore expressive use of paint. This includes exploring colour, colour mixing and intention behind mark making. 

• Week 1: Introduce
  

  Marela Zacarías & Charlie French

  

  Begin the exploration by introducing children to the work of Marela Zacarías and Charlie French. 

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Marela Zacarías” resource and the free to access “Talking Points: Charlie French” resource. 

  Use the questions on the resources to help guide a class discussion to explore the different ways artists might use colour and mark making to make art. 

  Have sketchbooks open and make time during the exploration for “Making Visual Notes“

  They might for example use colour to note down the colours in the artists work, or try to copy the kinds of marks the artists use in their work. 

• Week 2: Explore
  

  Expressive Painting & Colour Mixing

  

  Use the “Expressive Painting and Colour Mixing” resource to explore primary and secondary colours and mark making. 

  The resource explains how to explore on paper and then transfer to sketchbooks as a way of consolidating learning and reflecting. 

• Week 3: Explore
  

  Brush Work of Van Gogh & Cezanne

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: Brush Work of Van Gogh & Cezanne” resource to enable an exploration of the way the artists used thick paint and loose brushwork to create expressive work. 

  Use sketchbooks for “Making Visual Notes“. For example make time for the pupils to use similar brush marks in their sketchbooks, or invite pupils to try to capture the colours in Cezanne’s work. 

  Invite children to create their own mark making tools. Take inspiration from the “Experimental Mark Making Tools” resource.

• Week 4 & 5: Explore & Create
  

  Gestural Mark Making with Acrylic Paint

  

  Use the “Gestural Mark Making with Acrylic” resource to enable an exploration of making gestural and expressive paintings. Children begin by working from a still life of colour and form, and progress to making abstract paintings. 

  If you are pushed for time miss out the collage step midway through. 

• Week 6: Present & Share
  

  Share, Reflect, Discuss

  

  Time to see the work which has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  Invite children to display the work in a clear space, and walk around the work as if they are in a gallery. Give the work the respect it deserves. Remind the children of their hard work.

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams. 

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Painting with Plasticine

Use plasticine to create images with texture and colour

Gestural Drawing

Use sharpie pens to create gestural layered drawings

Pathway for Years 1 & 2

Disciplines:
Drawing, Sketchbooks, Collage

Key Concepts:

• That artists explore the world, seeing things around them in new ways, and bring things back to their studios to help them make art.

• That we can go into our own environments, even when they are very familiar to us, and learn to see with fresh eyes and curiosity.

• That we can use the things we find to draw from, using close observational looking.

• That we can explore and use art materials, be inventive with how we use them, taking creative risks and enjoying accidents as well as planned successes. 

• We can use the shape of the page, and the way we arrange elements on the page, to create compositions which we like. 

In this pathway children are introduced to the idea that artists can be collectors: they go out into the world, look at things in new ways, and bring things back to the studio to inspire their art.

Children explore observational drawing and experimental mark making, and think about how they can use composition to create their artwork. 

The exercises and projects in this pathway encourage children to begin to develop hand-eye coordination through slow and paced looking. This is balanced by encouraging children to nurture a playful exploration of media, a curiosity towards the world around them, and to begin to take creative risks/trust instinct. 

Themes:
Natural Forms, Seasonal Changes, Patterns, Symmetry

Medium:
Graphite, Handwriting Pen, Watercolour / Brusho, Wax Resist

Artists: 

Rosie James, Alice Fox

This pathway will take approximately half a term, based upon a weekly art lesson. 

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

Curriculum Links

Geography: Adapt to explore habitats. 

Maths: Use language to develop understanding of patterns, sequence, symmetry, pictorial representation, repetition. 

Science: Identifying common and wild plants, trees, structures of plants, exploring local environments and habitats, seasons, planting and growing. 

PSHE: Peer discussion, Collaboration. 

I Can…

• I have seen how some artists explore the world around them to help them find inspiration.

• I can explore my local environment (school, home, etc) and collect things which catch my eye.

• I can explore composition by arranging the things that I have collected.

• I can talk about what I collected, and how and why I arranged the things I collected.

• I can take photographs of my artwork and I can think about focus and light.

• I can use careful looking to practice observational drawing, and I can focus for 5 or 10 minutes.

• I can hold an object and I can make a drawing thinking about the way the object feels. 

• I can combine different drawing media such as wax resist and watercolour, graphite and water, wax crayon and pencil in my observational drawings.

• I can work small in my sketchbook and on large sheets of paper, exploring how I can use line, shape and colour in my work.

• I can cut out and collage to explore composition.

• I can talk about the work I have made with my classmates, sharing the things I thought were successful and thinking about things I would like to try again.

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

Soft pencils, handwriting pens.

Project 1: Wax Resist Autumn Leaves – A3 cartridge paper, metallic wax crayons, brusho ink.

Project 2: Autumn Floor Drawings – Water colour, graphite, charcoal, soft B pencils, inks, A2 paper.

Pathway: Explore & Draw

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  In this pathway pupils are introduced to the idea that artists are inspired by the world around them. Children are empowered to go out into the world, re-see, collect and re-present through drawing. 

• Week 1: Introduction
  

  Artists Are Collectors & Explorers

  Introduce children to the idea that artists are often collectors and explorers. 

  

  Visit the “Talking Points: Artists As Collectors & Explorers” resource and choose from one or more artists. Enable children to understand that by exploring our environments with “fresh eyes” and curiosity we can find inspiration for our artwork. 

  Use sketchbooks to make visual lists of places and things you could explore and collect in your school, home and area. 

• Week 2: Explore and Collect
  

  Explore and Collect

  

  Get active and invite children to go outside into the playground or school area to collect and create “Patterns With Nature”.

  Play with the objects to create new shapes and patterns on the ground, around branches, and on logs. Be curious. Think about how even ordinary things like twigs and pebbles might be interesting when you really look at them.

  Gather the objects back to the classroom and explore composition and arrangements on paper and table tops. Don’t fasten anything down. Just play with the compositions you can make. Can you sort by colour, size, material, type?

• 
  

  Photograph Your Work

  Take photographs of the compositions. Ask the children to adapt and change how the objects are arranged or to photograph them from different angles or orientations.

  Remember to reflect on the different elements of the session: active gathering and careful documentation. Discuss how the children found these approaches.

  Create “Digital Collages” using this resource.

  

  Print out the photographs and save them. They can be used later in the project.

• Week 3: Sketchbook Work
  

  Two Drawing Exercises

  Working in a sketchbook and using a variety of media (handwriting pen, pencil), try the exercises below, drawing the things you collected the week before as individual items (i.e. not part of a bigger composition). 

• Exercise One:
  

  Continuous Line Drawing Exercise

  

  Continuous Line Drawings are a great way to get participants to loosen up, get them to look closely, and make new and interesting marks on the paper. With younger children (6 to 10) we sometimes call them “squiggle drawings”.

  For full instructions visit the “Continuous Line Drawing” resource. 

• Exercise Two:
  

  Feely Drawings

  

  Make drawings inspired by sense of touch. This is a fun way to encourage children to be really curious about what they are drawing. How do they use the sense of touch to find the  information they need to make a drawing? Can you forget what you know by sight? And how does this make your drawings look?

  For full instructions visit the “Feely Drawings” resource. 

• Week 4 and 5: Projects
  

  Choose a Project

  Choose one of the two projects below to explore how pupils can bring all their skills together into a finished drawing. 

• Project One:
  

  Wax Resist Autumn Leaves

  

  In the “Wax Resist Autumn Leaves” resource, children are introduced to wax resist techniques, inspired by the rich colours and shapes of autumn leaves.

  Begin with observational drawing techniques, using the objects you collected from your environment as subject matter, followed by an immersive exploration of colour and scale using wax crayons and Brusho Crystal Colours. If your pupils collected other objects rather than leaves, simply adapt the resource to suit. 

  You might also like to visit the “What is Composition?” resource to help pupils think about how they might build an awareness of composition in their artwork. 

• 
  

  Or…

• Project Two
  

  Autumn Floor Drawings

  

  Use the “Autumn Floor Drawing” resource which you can find as the second part of the resource. to give pupils the opportunity to continue practicing their observation and mark-making skills, this time bringing in two added elements:

  1) Thinking about composition. These drawings have no top or bottom as they are inspired by the fallen leaves and twigs on the ground. You might like to talk to pupils about composition using the “What is Composition?” resource. 

  2) Great experimentation with different media. Explore graphite, water soluble graphite, wax resist and watercolour or ink, or a combination of all those media. 

• 
  

  Reflect, Share, Talk

  

  Time to see the work which has been made, talk about intention and outcome.

  Give the work the respect it deserves and clear a space to see all the work made, including the sketchbook work made earlier. Remind the children of their hard work and enable them to connect all the elements of their learning. 

  If you have class cameras or tablets, invite the children to document their work, working in pairs or teams. 

  You might like to assemble the drawings made in Week 2 and 3 into a “class” Backwards Sketchbook. 

  Use the resource here to help you run a class “crit” to finish the project. 

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

Scroll drawings

Encourage children to experiment with size and ratio

Larger than life Scroll drawings

Explore drawing objects life sized, using a selection of media

Help children to draw larger

Explore a more gestural approach

Pathway for Years 3 & 4

Disciplines:
Drawing, Sketchbooks, Sculpture

Key Concepts:

• That artists can learn from the world around them. That artists can draw parallels with other beings/events to help us understand things about ourselves.

• That artists take creative risks. That artists try to say new things by manipulating and representing the materials of the world.

• That we can feel safe enough to take creative risks in our own work. That we can explore materials and ideas feeling free from criticism.

• That we can express our personality through the art we make.

• That we can use materials, tools and the ideas in our head to explore line, shape, form, balance and structure.

• That making art can be hard, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t doing it right or aren’t good at it. It just means we are doing it.  

In this pathway children explore formal drawing and sculpture skills like line, mark making, shape, form, balance and structure, but they also just as importantly explore how it feels to make art. They explore how they can appreciate a sense of challenge, and a feeling of trying things out without fear of failure or “wrong or right”.

Pupils start by seeing how artists sometimes help us learn about ourselves by drawing parallels with other lives. Pupils apply this knowledge by looking at how birds build nests – what can we learn from them about the traits we might show when we make experimental drawings and build sculpture?

Medium:
Various Drawing Materials, Construction Materials 

Artists: Marcus Coates

This pathway will take approximately half a term, based upon a weekly art lesson. 

If you use this resource in your setting, please tag us on social media: #InspiredBy @accessart (facebook, twitter) @accessart.org.uk (instagram) and share the url. Thank you!

Teaching Notes

Find the MTP for this pathway here.

See the recording of the hour long zoom CPD to introduce teachers to this pathway.

Curriculum Links

Geography: Link with birds and migration via the North and South hemisphere.

Science: Language to support understanding of materials, habitats.

PSHE: Supports Responsibility to the planet, Collaboration, Peer Discussion.

I Can…

• I have seen how we can learn about ourselves through art.

• I can feel safe to take creative risks when I work. I can enjoy the feeling of experimenting with materials.

• I can feel ok when I am being challenged by materials and ideas. I can feel ok when I don’t know exactly what I’m doing.

• I can use a variety of drawing materials to make experimental drawings based upon observation. 

• I can construct with a variety of materials to make a sculpture. 

• I can see my personality in what I have made.

• I can talk about the work I have made with my classmates, sharing the things I thought were successful and thinking about things I would like to try again.

• I can appreciate the work of my classmates and I can share my response to their work, identifying similarities and differences in our approach and outcomes. 

• I can take photographs of my work thinking about presentation, focus and lighting. 

Time

This pathway takes 6 weeks, with an hour per week. Shorten or lengthen the suggested pathway according to time and experience. Follow the stages in green for a shorter pathway or less complex journey.

Materials

A3 cartridge paper, soft B and hard H pencils, ink, graphite sticks, water soluble graphite, wax crayons, water colour.

Construction Materials (see list here )

Pathway: Sculpture, Structure, Inventiveness & Determination

A PDF of this pathway can be found here.

• Aims of the Pathway

  This pathway aims to provide children with the opportunity to connect drawing and making, encouraging the freedom to be inventive and exploratory. 

  The processes involved ask children to take creative risks, and to feel ok if they feel challenged by creating art. 

• Week 1: Introduce
  

  Introduce artists who are inspired by things that birds can teach us

  

  Use the free to access “Talking Points: What Can We Learn From Birds!” resource to explore how artists draw parallels with other beings so that we can learn about ourselves. 

• Weeks 2 & 3: Exploratory Mark Making
  

  Drawing Nests

  

  Use the “Drawing Nests” resource to explore how pupils can use a variety of media to create observed and expressive drawings of nests. 

  The resource explores how their drawings might feel relatively “neat” or might feel “messy” – both are fine! We are able to express our personality through art!

  Use sketchbooks to test materials. If children need drawing source material use our free to access “Drawing Source Material: Nests” resource. Invite children to create their own “Experimental Mark Making Tools” to create expressive and personal drawings.

  Stop at the making activity (you will do that next week).

  Explore the resource below to see a similar activity in a school:

  Nests: Materials, Tools, Testing & Sketchbooks

  Nests: Observational Ink Drawing

  Nests: Wet and Dry Media

  

• Weeks 4 & 5: Making
  

  Making Nests

  

  Use the “Perseverance, Determination and Inventiveness: Building Nests” resource to encourage children to explore how we practice and nurture valuable life skills when we make sculpture. The resource takes its starting point from what it must be like to be a bird, and place those first tentative twigs in place when nest building begins. How can children use their own instinct and intuition to make sculpture?

• Week 6: Present & Share
  

  Share, Reflect & Discuss

  

  Use the “Crit” resource to help you run a class critique. 

  Clear a space and present drawings, sketchbooks and sculptures made.

  Walk around the space as if it were a gallery. Enable a conversation about the journey and skills learnt (personality traits as well as technical skills). 

  Take photographs of the work. Explore how children can take high quality photographs of 3d artwork with this resource.

See the Pathway Used in Schools…

If You Use AccessArt Resources…
You might like to…

Join our Facebook Group

Join the AccessArt Network group on Facebook and ask questions of others using our resources

Share and Tag

Share photos of work made by tagging us on social media

You May Also Like…

Help Children draw larger

Encourage children to work larger so that they can fully explore a wider range of mark making/materials/techniques