These KS1 'Can Buildings Speak?' Art lessons ideas for children in Year 1 and Year 2 will have your class looking at buildings in a whole new light. They will explore shapes, textures and patterns within buildings and find out what these features say about what kind of building it is as well as different architects' work which they will compare. The end focus of this module is creating a model of a famous building from recycled materials, including one or more aspects of buildings they will have studied.

This five-lesson pack comes with all you need to teach a building-themed Art unit. Each lesson within the pack has a detailed lesson plan, PDF lesson slides, differentiated activity ideas as well as all the printable resources you will need to support your class in their independent work.

Looking for more KS1 resources around the theme of buildings? Take a peek at our cross-curricular bundle Houses and Homes.

What does an architect do?

In this KS1 Art lesson the children will explore the work of several famous architects, including Gaudi, Hadid, Gang and Gehry. They will discuss what role the architect has in designing a building's appearance and think about how the building's purpose might affect the design.

Children will be challenged to describe the different buildings using the included picture cards as well as compare the different styles of the architects. They will also have the opportunity to express their opinions on the building designs.

This lesson comes with colourful and engaging printable resources needed to support the children with their independent work, as well as PDF lesson slides and differentiated activities.

View Lesson 1

Shapes in Buildings

Have you ever looked at a building and spotted clear shapes within the façade? Challenge your KS1 class to identify the 2-D shapes they can find in different building designs. They will discuss why these shapes might have been chosen and what effect they create in the appearance of the building.

Children are challenged to recreate the buildings they have looked at during the lesson using just 2-D shapes. Challenge them to make informed decisions about which shapes they are using to create a similar effect to the real building.

This lesson comes with engaging PDF lesson slides as well as a detailed lesson plan, differentiated activity ideas as well as all the printable resources you will need to support the children in their independent activity.

View Lesson 2

Finding Patterns

In this lesson your KS1 children will investigate the patterns, both intentional and unintentional, in the façade and features of buildings.

The lesson helps your children focus on patterns in an artistic sense, thinking about what a pattern is and how they are created. Children will have a go at using viewfinders to isolate patterns they find in pictures and buildings around them and copy them onto the provided worksheets or into their sketchbooks.

This lesson comes with printable resources to support your children's independent work. It also comes with a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activity ideas, as well as PDF lesson slides.

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Testing Textures

Can your class describe the way something will feel just by looking at it? This lesson focuses on the textures that are created by different materials on buildings. They will think about words to describe these different textures.

Your class then looks at different art mediums to recreate the textures they've seen, experimenting with the different ways they can mark paper to make it look like a shiny, fluffy, or rough texture. Alternatively, send them on a texture hunt to create rubbings. They can then use these in a collage of a familiar building.

This lesson comes with printable resources to support your children's independent work. It also comes with a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activity ideas, as well as PDF lesson slides.

View Lesson 4

Model Buildings

Children will look at buildings slightly differently in this lesson - as 3D shapes. They will then use this to help them build model versions of the studied buildings using recycled materials. They can be challenged further by attempting to include different shapes, patterns and/or textures in their models.

This lesson comes with colourful and engaging printable resources needed to support the children with their independent work, as well as PDF lesson slides and differentiated activities.

View Lesson 5