In my last post I talked about ways to structure art and design across the school and also in the classroom. This post is going to be an example plan for an art unit linked to the Great Fire of London. The unit supports the development of basic skills in art, reinforce vocabulary for writing and historical understanding which build towards a final piece. The structure of each session is very similar.

Lesson 1  – Research and experimentationgfl 1

Skill – colour mixing

Vocabulary – colour, tone, shade, hue, tint.

Starter – page prep – two fire images and two words linked to topic are given to the children. Children can rip these up or keep whole but to stick in the corners of their page leaving space to work on. Short date and title also included on the page (10 minute task).

Display an image of London on Fire. Talk about what the children notice. What do they think is happening in the picture? Why? What colours do they notice? What do they like and dislike about it and what questions do they have about it? What do they think the artist might have used to create the piece of artwork?

Explain that they are going to create their own Great Fire of London scenes. Recap the history of the event. What happened? What destroyed London and why? What is fire like? Display an image of fire and get the children to generate vocabulary to describe what it's like. NOTE – it's a good point to remind children about the dangers of fire and how we never go near it etc.

Talk about the different colours that they might notice in the flames. Are they all one colour?

gfl 2

Recap colour mixing – primary and secondary colours with the children. Model how we can change the same blob of paint a number of times by adding another colour to it gradually, also the layout of sketchbook, working in rows of circles for colour swatches and giving them a name drawing on vocabulary from the start of the session. (Art vocabulary – shades, tones, hues, tints)

Children to then have a go at this using the success criteria.

Success criteria (display this only – do not put this in sketchbooks)

I have mixed a variety of different colours to represent fire

I have organised my sketchbook neatly

I have named my colour swatches

Go round and support children – modelling in your sketchbook. Including mistakes. Use pause points etc. to look at good examples referring back to success criteria.

Evaluate – Referring back to the success criteria discuss the following as a group looking at examples of work. What has worked well? What challenges did we overcome? What do we need to improve?

Lesson 2 – Research and experimentation.

Skill – colour, drawing

Vocabulary – colour, line, tone, shade, tint, hue, form, light, dark.

Starter – Page prep using different fire images to ones used in last session.

Recap last session. Look back at some of the vocabulary collected to describe fire from last session. Explain that rather than the colour we are going to explore the shapes fire makes and the way that it moves. You may want to watch a short video of fire burning – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_LUpnjgPso . Again reiterate the dangers of fire and how we don't go near it. Collect verbs and adjectives to describe the fire and what it is doing. Display these.

Give the children a variety of drawing materials including – chalk pastels, oil pastels, pencil crayons, wax crayons and felt tips. Talk about the different materials and explain to the children that these will create different marks and different lines on their paper. Each material is different and will not behave in the same way.

In sketchbooks children are to experiment with making the different shapes that fire makes using each material. Give children vocabulary – names of the materials and encourage them to include these with their experiments. These could be pre cut out labels to save time that they just stick in.

Success criteria  (display this only – do not put this in sketchbooks)

I have created the shapes fire makes

I have used each material at least once

I have labelled my experiments

I have organised my sketchbook carefully.

Use sketchbook to go around and support/model including when experiments don't work. Use pause points to draw children to examples and encourage them to think about next steps etc.

Evaluation ( as previous session)

Lesson 3 – Research and experimentation

gfl3Skill – Drawing

Vocabulary – line, tone, shape, space, texture, light, dark.

Starter – page prep. Use images of Tudor houses

Recap history on Tudor London and what the children know about the streets at the time and what it was like to live in London during Tudor times? Look at images of Tudor houses. What do the children notice about these? What shapes can you see?

Give the children a variety of drawing materials – pencil, black pencil crayons, fine liners, ink and a stick, biros, graphite, charcoal, chalk. The children are to experiment with drawing the Tudor houses using  the different materials. Remind the children again that each material will behave differently. Talk about how some will create thick lines and some thin lines – how some will be lighter and darker than others.

Success criteria

I have drawn the shapes in a Tudor house

I have used each material once.

I have organised my sketchbook carefully

As in other sessions go around with your sketchbook modelling and supporting others. Use pause points and refer back to the success criteria.

Evaluate – as in session 1.

Lesson 4 –  Design

Skills – drawing and composition

Vocabulary – composition, shape, space, line, texture, dark, light, height, width.

Page prep – as previous sessions. Use images linked to theme

Recap what the children have covered so far and what materials they have used. What have they learnt about each material and the way that it behaves? What kind of line do they make etc?

Explain that the children are going to create their own street scene of the Great Fire of London. Look back at the houses they drew and what shapes they notices. Also recap what they know about Tudor London and what the streets were like at the time. Explain that this session the children are going to design their own little stretch of Pudding Lane. Get the children to divide the space they have into four sections (some will need support with this). In each section they are to work out their own little stretch of houses. Encourage them to think about houses with different heights and widths. Also for them to think about the designs on the front of the houses and the tiles on the roof. Ensure that the children refer back to previous work on Tudor houses.

Success criteria

I have designed 4 different streets.

I have used my knowledge of Tudor houses.

I have used houses of different widths.

I have used houses of different heights.

Support and model as previous sessions

Evaluate as previous sessions.  Ask the children to identify their favourite design and their reasons why.

Lesson 6 – Making

Skills – painting and colour

Vocabulary – paint, colour, line, tone, shade, tint, hue, form, shape.

Explain that they are going to start their final pieces in this session and that they are going to use the experiments they made on fire and flames. Look back at the work they did in sketchbooks and talk about what the fire was like and how it behaved. What materials did we use to create fire? Which materials were most effective in creating the shapes and colours to represent fire?

Give the children a long strip of high quality paper (cartridge or lining paper). Explain that they are going to create the flaming backdrop to their street scenes.

The children are to draw out their flames and paint these using the colours they have developed previously in their sketchbooks. Once these have dried they can use oil pastels, wax crayons and felt tips to add other details into the flames. They can also paint the background to the flames in black paint.

Evaluate

Lesson 6 – Making

Skills – printmaking

Vocabulary – line, tone, shape, space, mono printing, ink, roller.

gfl 4

Recap what the children are working towards and the skills and techniques they have developed so far. What did they develop in the last sketchbook? Explain that this week they are going to use printing to create our street scene.

Talk about what they think printing might mean and when they might have experienced printing before? Look at examples of buildings created through mono printing.

NOTE – with KS1 depending on the class and their experience it could be worth doing this in small groups to support the children. Two tasks are happening at the same time.

Explain that they are all going to get a turn a printing their design they have chosen in their sketchbooks on different pieces of paper. Those who are not printing are going to use white card and fine liners to draw out their scenes to create lanterns.

Modelling the process

Roll out a square of black ink onto perspex or the table (depending on the surface it will come off).

Place the paper (use a range of cartridge, brown paper, photocopy of Tudor map of London) on to the ink.

Draw the design on the the back holding the pencil at a distance – trying not to touch the paper.

Peel away and see the design.

Evaluate

Carry this out in small groups of 4 with the children while the others are supported by another adult to create their lanterns.

Lesson 7 – Making

Skills – collage

Vocabulary – layer, texture, rip, tear, cut, composition.

Look back at the children's prints from session 5. What did we learn about the printing? What was it like? Was it easy? What made it difficult and why?

Using your models from last session explain that the children are going to use these as a basis for their collage.

Look back at the flame backgrounds they created a couple of sessions ago. Show the children your example and model ripping and cutting our houses from your prints and adding them to the bottom of the fiery scene to create the street. Show them how to layer them to build up rows of houses behind each other like the city and ways to layer the different papers to create an interesting composition.

Show the children that it is important to play around with the shapes and where they want them before they glue them down.

Lesson 8 – Evaluate

Lay out all of the work the children have done (sketchbooks, final pieces, lanterns)  and talk through the processes they have used over the unit.

Get each child to share something about their own work and how they feel about it. What they like? What they think they could improve? What they would change? What difficulties they overcame?

Take photographs of the children's final places and allow the children to stick these in their sketchbooks. With these ask the children to write a sentence or a few words to explain how they feel about the work they have done over the unit.