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One-Off Art Lessons for KS2
Looking for one-off Art lessons for your KS2 class? Whether you’re a supply teacher looking for a go-to Art lesson just in case, a class teacher looking for a meaningful end-of-term activity, or you just need something to do with your children for an afternoon, we’ve got a ton of ready-made Art lessons that need little or no prep (apart from gathering one or two simple art supplies).
Cross-Curricular Art Lessons
Teaching a one-off Art lesson doesn’t have to mean your class don’t engage in meaningful learning. There are lots of ways you can incorporate cross-curricular links in your Art lesson:
Maths: Reflection, Rotation and Symmetry
Our Investigating Patterns scheme of work for Year 3 or Year 4 children (ages 7-9) includes a great lesson that would work perfectly as a one-off and that will get your children exploring the ideas of reflection, rotation and symmetry in shapes and patterns.
Similarly, our Japanese Art scheme for Year 5 or Year 6 (ages 9-11) has a lesson on the Japanese idea of Notan, which involves looking at the amount of light and dark space in a piece of artwork. In this one-off lesson, your children will be able to produce some really stunning works of art that incorporate the ideas of reflection and symmetry.
History: Art through the Ages
If you’re studying a particular period in History, enhancing this with a few one-off Art lessons is a great way of engaging your class further in the topic. And even if you’re not, trying out these Art lessons with your children might just spark their interest in a period or event and get them wanting to find out more.
You don’t need to be studying the Vikings to enjoy this Knots and Patterns lesson from this Year 5/6 Viking Art scheme of work. It teaches your class an addictive skill that your they will love to recreate again and again.
Likewise, the Coat of Arms lesson from our Tudors topic provides a great one-off Art lesson for lower KS2 children as they explore the symbolism behind images and colours used in coats of arms. Use the lesson as time for personal reflection as your class design coats of arms that reflect their personalities.
Science: Animals, Plants and Planets
KS2 children are required to learn about animals and plants in their Science lessons, but there’s no reason why this learning has to be restricted to Science.
Teach them how to draw rainforest animals through this one-off Art lesson for Year 3 or Year 4 children. The step-by-step pictures are all set out so you can just hand it over to the children to complete independently (after trying out an example altogether).
Or why not explore botanical illustrations with your children? This will challenge them to look closely at a variety of plants in order to sketch them accurately.
Another fun one-off Art lesson that can feed into your Science teaching is our Origami Star lesson for children in upper KS2. Equally fun whether you’re learning about space or not!
Covering the Art Objectives
Despite the Art objectives on the National Curriculum being somewhat sparse, there are one or two elements of it that can sometimes get overlooked when planning out an Art curriculum. These one-off Art lessons can help plug some of these gaps:
Learn about great artists in history
You don’t have to spend weeks on looking at a particular artist to help your class get a feel for their artwork and contribution to the art world. Adding in one-off lessons about famous artists whenever you have a spare hour or two can really help broaden children’s artistic perspective.
This lower KS2 lesson on Seurat will get your class enthusiastic about Pointillism through a simple but fun activity.
Or teach your class how to draw a proportional self-portrait through this Frida Khalo lesson. After looking at some of Khalo’s striking self-portraits, your class can have a go for themselves.
Another lovely lesson that both helps your class learn about an artist, and how to paint in their style, is this Monet’s Landscapes lesson for upper KS2 children. The slides go through a step-by-step process for how to paint like an Impressionist that can easily be taught in an afternoon.
Learn about great architects and designers in history
Teaching about famous artists in the KS2 Art curriculum is commonplace (quite rightly) but less emphasis is given to architects and designers.
Teach your lower KS2 children about Sir Christopher Wren and St Paul’s Cathedral in this fun lesson from our Famous Buildings scheme that is perfect for a one-off last-minute lesson. All you need to prepare is some pencils or black fine-tip pens and you’re ready to go.
Our Jewellery Designers lessons are also great for covering the ‘designers’ element of the curriculum. Try this Tiffany & Co. and Pendants lesson which explores the jewellery designs of Tiffany & Co. before challenging your class to make their own pendants. In fact, each of the lessons in this series lends itself to being taught independently should you wish it.
Festivals
It’s lovely when you have the chance to go off timetable and engage in activities to celebrate particular events or religious festivals, and we have lots of ready-to-teach Art lessons that are all planned out for just such occasions.
Lunar New Year
Instead of busting out another Chinese lantern for your Lunar New Year celebrations, why not teach your upper KS2 class how to draw a Chinese dragon using the step-by-step instructions in this one-off Art lesson?
Diwali
Teach your Year 3 or Year 4 children to create beautiful Mehndi patterns using this lesson from our Indian Art scheme of work. There’s even a video demonstrating a simple but effective way to do this.
Christmas
In Britain, Christmas is synonymous with panto! If you’re looking for an end-of-term Christmas Art lesson, challenge your class to design some costumes for a pantomime character.
‘Just Because’ Art Lessons
Sometimes, of course, you just want to do art for art’s sake...because art is fun!
One of our most popular Art lessons is this Optical Art pack from our Art Illusions scheme. In this lesson, your class will learn how to create eye-bending works of art in a jiffy.
Our Is Graffiti Art? lesson from the Street Art series for Year 5 and Year 6 children also goes down well. In this lesson, children discuss what art is and whether graffiti is included in the definition. They also get to design their own ‘throwie’!
Whichever one-off Art lessons you choose to do with your KS2 children, we’d love to see the end results! Tweet us, tag us on Instagram or post to our Facebook page to show off your class’s masterpieces.
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