Year 4: Art and design skills

In this collection of lessons children learn and develop their skills in: design, drawing, craft, painting and art appreciation; creating an optical illusion print, replicating a plate in the famous willow pattern, carving sculptures out of soap, drawing a collection of still life objects, painting and mixing colours like Paul Cézanne and learning about the role of a ‘curator’

Choose your lesson

Introduction to sketchbooks

This video introduces the sketchbook - a must for all artists to record their ideas, inspiration and a place to practise and refine their skills

Lesson 1: Design: Optical illusions

Inspired by the ‘lenticular prints’ of Luz Perez Ojeda, children carefully cut two images into strips and by alternating them side by side, in sequential order, and then folding, they create an optical illusion piece of art

Lesson 2: Design: Willow pattern - Option 1

Applying understanding of tone and tints to create a traditional willow pattern style plate depicting a tale of their choice

Lesson 2: Design: Willow pattern - Option 2: The Christmas story

Applying understanding of tones and tints to create a traditional willow pattern design style plate depicting the Christmas story.

Lesson 3: Paul Cézanne

Learning how Cézanne influenced the shift to modern art, children work in his style, mixing colours using short, angular strokes and painting in various directions

Lesson 4: Craft: Soap sculptures (Original scheme)

Referring to the works of Barbara Hepworth, children use a variety of tools to carve a piece of soap into a sculpture

Lesson 5: Drawing: Still life

Children look at the still life artworks of Giorgio Morandi and then arrange a collection of objects in an interesting way to sketch, drawing the outlines of the objects before adding in light, medium and dark tones to their work

Lesson 6: Learning about the work of a curator (Original scheme)

After learning about the role of a 'curator', children curate an exhibition of their own based on either a collection of their most recently created art works or an exhibition designed for aliens, showcasing examples of objects commonly found on planet Earth

Assess your pupils

Assessment resources for use at the start of the unit to assess where pupils are in their learning and at the end of the unit to assess progress. Go to assessment resources
For copyright reasons, you may not screenshot this page.
Press esc to exit