Collection of Resources: Drawing & Making Inspired by “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak

The original sessions were run with children aged 7 and 8. 

The resources below can be used with children aged 7 to 11 (older KS 1 children and KS 2 children).

The following areas are explored:

• Mark making (quills and ink and pen and pencil)
• Preliminary sketches through to finished drawing
• Making a shared drawing
• Colour mixing (soft pastels)
• Making sculpture (plastic bags, wire, modroc)
• Collage
• Themes include narrative, landscape and character
• Appreciation of work or author / illustrator Maurice Sendak

Each of the 8 sessions below took 1 hour with a small group of children. If you are working with a larger group of children the activities may take longer.

If you follow all 8 sessions you will cover all the areas of exploration listed above. However if time is short, you can easily complete a smaller body of work in two or three sessions, depending upon your chosen area of exploration.

The sessions might be used in the following contexts:

• Classrooms (as part of art lessons or literature-inspired exploration)
• After school art club
• With MAT pupils
• Community groups (i.e. Scouts and Guides)
• Gallery, Museum or Art Organisation workshops

AccessArt is a UK charity which inspires and enables high quality visual arts teaching and learning. We are funded by our members – all income from memberships helps us create new resources for the benefit of our members. 

You must have full membership to access the resources. You can find out more about the benefits of joining AccessArt here. Membership starts at just £3.50 per month – find out how to join here.