Roman Mosaics KS2

Bring Roman art to life in your classroom with this engaging and hands-on Roman Mosaics KS2 scheme of work! Across six carefully sequenced lessons, children will explore the fascinating history and techniques of Roman mosaic-making. From analysing real Roman examples and experimenting with line, shape, pattern and colour, to planning and constructing their own mosaics, this unit builds artistic knowledge while encouraging creative expression. Pupils will explore mosaic techniques through both traditional and digital media, developing their understanding of how visual elements are used purposefully in art.

With clear planning, differentiated challenge cards and opportunities to evaluate materials and designs, this scheme offers rich cross-curricular links to History and Computing. Children will build their skills progressively, culminating in the creation of their own mosaic. Whether your class constructs individual mosaics or collaborates on a larger group piece, this unit provides everything you need to inspire, support and stretch learners of all abilities.

A Knowledge Organiser is available to support the learning in this scheme. It is included in the Complete Series download or can be purchased individually.

Why not upgrade to our Ancient Romans Topic Bundle – perfect if you're looking for a cross-curricular approach to your teaching.

What is a Roman Mosaic?

In this initial lesson the children are introduced to mosaics as a medium. They are challenged to explore how the Romans would create mosaics to decorate their homes and show off their wealth and status before identifying the common features that can be found in different Roman mosaics.

The lesson aims to begin to introduce key vocabulary such as tesserae, pattern, line, repetition, geometric and motif. The children go on to use these in their independent work as mosaic detectives.

Finally, the children are asked to compare the ancient mosaics to ones that are more modern. They are shown pieces by Antoni Gaudí to discuss how this medium has changed, or not changed over the course of 2000 years.

View Lesson 1

Exploring Visual Elements in Mosaics

This lesson aims to challenge your class to identify how the visual elements of line, shape, pattern and colour are used in art, particularly in Roman mosaics. They will discuss what these elements are, look for them in examples of mosaics and then recreate them as they experiment with placing tesserae.

The children's independent task includes them using their sketchbooks to start experimenting with tesserae and how their choices of colour and placement can begin to create different visual elements in a piece of art. They can use this time to discuss and explore how tesserae are used and what effects they can create.

The printable resources provide you with all the challenges to help guide your class's exploration of mosaic and visual elements.

View Lesson 2

Digital Mosaics and Pixel Art

This lesson pushes your class to explore a new digital medium and create mosaics in a different way. They will study the work of a modern digital artist and his portraits, exploring what was used as tesserae and how this adds to the artwork.

The children then go on to create their own digital mosaics, thinking carefully about the size and shape of the tesserae they're using and how this changes the mosaic. Alternatively, the children can have a go at creating pixel art and comparing this to a traditional mosaic. They are encouraged to think about the similarities and differences between these two art styles.

This lesson comes with guides and instructions on how to create digital art using different software. The children will have all they need to spend the lesson creating their artwork and eventually reflecting on their creations in their sketchbooks.

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Evaluating Tesserae

This lesson aims to give your class time to experiment, explore and evaluate different materials and their suitability as tesserae for a mosaic. They are challenged to identify different advantages and disadvantages of materials such as their ability to tessellate, durability and ease of use when creating a mosaic.

The children will spend a good portion of the lesson discussing and exploring the materials and recording their thoughts about each one in their sketchbook. They should be thinking like artists as they assess if a material would make a good tessera.

This lesson comes with printable resources to help prompt your children's evaluation of each material, as well as a detailed lesson plan and PDF lesson slides.

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Designing a Roman Mosaic

In this lesson, children will draw on everything they've learned so far to design their very own Roman-inspired mosaic. After revisiting the key features and techniques used in Roman mosaics, such as the use of bold central images, patterned borders and the flow of tesserae (andamento), pupils will begin to develop a simple but purposeful mosaic plan. Through class discussion, children will generate and agree on a clear set of design criteria to guide their work and help them make thoughtful artistic decisions.

Using inspiration cards, video clips and prior sketchbook explorations, children will choose a motif for the centre of their mosaic and consider the visual elements of line, shape, pattern and colour as they plan.

This lesson comes with all the supporting resources to help guide your class's design of a Roman-inspired mosaic. A detailed lesson plan, PDF input slides and differentiated activity ideas are also included.

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Making our Mosaics

This final lesson consolidates all your class's learning throughout this unit as they create their own mosaics. They are challenged to plan the placement of their tesserae and practise patience and methodical working as they transfer these onto the hard base.

There is an alternate activity with notes that help guide you through challenging your class to make their own clay tesserae to use in their final piece. This activity extends the unit to allow for drying and painting of the tesserae.

This lesson comes with accompanying Teacher Notes to help guide you through preparing and managing this activity, including grouting the mosaics. The detailed lesson plan and PDF slides give you everything you need to introduce this final lesson.

View Lesson 6

This Year 3/4 Art Knowledge Organiser has been created to complement this Roman Mosaics scheme. It is designed to support your children’s understanding of key vocabulary linked to this scheme of work. Relevant vocabulary and artistic skills have been identified to encourage children to apply their knowledge around this topic.

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