Take your class on a trip around the world as your class explore animals from each of the seven continents and create art to reflect the animals found in each one. Starting with British wildlife and ending all the way down in Antarctica, children will use visual clues to help them identify animals, explore patterns, colours and features, and have the chance to create varied, challenging and engaging art projects.

Detailed lesson plans, fun slideshows and differentiated activities are all included in this KS1 ‘Animal Art’ scheme of work, leaving you in the knowledge that everything is ready for you. All you need to do is get the paints out!

You might also like our Amazing Animals Topic Bundle –with ready-to-teach schemes of work across a range of subjects to fully immerse your class in their Animals topic.

British Wildlife

This scheme of work begins by challenging children to find the animals that have come to visit their classroom! They then spend some time looking at the shapes, colours and patterns of a variety of British animals, such as foxes, robins and hedgehogs.

The slides then take your class through some hints and tips for observational drawings, before they are challenged to draw their own British animal using the techniques they have learnt.

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African Adventures

Children are shown some pictures of animals as seen through binoculars to see if they can use visual clues to identify a variety of African animals, such as zebras, giraffes, lions and leopards. They then spend some time looking at the patterns and features of these animals before either creating African animal finger puppets, incorporating the patterns they have seen, or creating a painted animal pattern with a silhouette.

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Asian Elephants

It’s off to Asia in this lesson as your class are introduced to some common Asian animals, such as pandas, tigers and monkeys. They then focus on Asian elephants, looking particularly at the annual Jaipur Elephant Festival. They will be shown a variety of photos of decorated elephants, before using this as the inspiration for their own decorated elephant, either on paper or on clay.

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Australian Animals

Take a trip down under as your class find out about animals commonly found in Australia, such as kangaroos, koalas and wombats. They will then look at some examples of Aboriginal animal art and use this as the basis for their own animal artwork. The slides go through step-by-step processes for painting an Aboriginal animal dot painting, either on paper or on a terracotta pot.

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South American Rainforests

Children will find out about the animals of the South American rainforests in this lesson. Starting by identifying some animals from jumbled-up photos, they will then have the opportunity to describe these animals, identifying their colours, shapes and patterns. They are then challenged to either create a snake coil mobile or a model of a parrot that they can attach to their arms.

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North American Animals

Travelling north from the previous lesson, children will begin by seeing how many of the North American animals shown on the slides they can identify. They will then spend some time finding out about the importance of animals in Native American culture and learning about animal symbolism. They can then choose an animal or animals that they think best reflect their personality to use as the basis for some totem pole artwork.

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In the Antarctic

The final lesson in this series takes your class to the last remaining continent - Antarctica. They will look at some photographs of Antarctic landscapes to identify the features, colours and animals found there. They will then paint an Antarctic animal scene with the skill focus on mixing shades of blue paint.

View Lesson 7