Year 2 Art that travels: stories, land and journeys worksheet

“Cutting Stories with Paper” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 2 art unit “Art that travels: stories, land and journeys”, for children aged 6 to 7, and takes about 22 minutes.

Print it on A4. The child's pages come first; the answers, and what each wrong answer tells you, are on the grown-up page that follows. Weeks 33 to 36 of the year, 4 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Cutting Stories with Paper

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 2 · Art & design · about 22 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can explain how one cut line can change flat paper into a shape that stands out.

A Look back3 min

1.
Mix red and yellow paint. What colour do you get?
orangepurplebrown
2.
How many sides does this shape have?
3.
Mix blue and yellow paint. What colour do you get?
greenorangepurple

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola draws a spiral on a sheet of paper. She cuts along it from the outside to the middle.

A sheet of plain paper with a spiral cut through it, opened into a looping shape above a table

Watch me

Ola starts at the outside edge.

She cuts round and round with no gaps.

The spiral cut lets the paper open up into a loop.

Now you

1.
Kit cuts a spiral without lifting the scissors. Is it one continuous line?
YesNo
2.
Zara cuts part of a spiral. She leaves a gap, then cuts the rest. Is it one continuous line?
YesNo

C Your turn6 min

Look at each cut. Decide whether it is one continuous line. Hanji is a traditional paper from Korea.

Scissors beside a sheet of plain paper with a pencil spiral drawn on it

1.
Ali cuts a straight line across a sheet. He never lifts the scissors. Is it one continuous line?
YesNo
2.
Ali cuts half a straight line. He leaves a gap, then cuts the rest. Is it still one continuous line?
YesNo
3.
Sort these cuts. Write each one in the right column.
a spiral cut, scissors never liftedtwo cuts with a gap betweena zigzag cut without stoppinga dotted line cut in small pieces
Continuous line Not continuous
4.
Join each word to its meaning. Draw a line from each word on the left to its match on the right.
Continuous lineSpiral cutHanji
traditional Korean papernever lifts off the paperopens into a loop when cut

Say it out loud: What changed between this row and the last? Is there a gap, or did the shape change?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Thin paper strips hanging from a string in a sunny room

Lou says: “Artists only make pictures, so paper cut into strips is not art.”

1.
Is Lou right? Write yes or no, and why.

E Think deeper4 min

A stack of old hardback books with plain covers and one book open

1.
Choose one favourite word from a story. Write it on a paper strip. How could you cut the strip to show what the word means?

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Cutting Stories with Paper · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. orange

2. 3

3. green

B

1. Yes

2. No

C

1. Yes

2. No If your child says yes, ask them to find the gap. A gap means the cut is no longer one continuous line.

3. Not continuous: two cuts with a gap between, a dotted line cut in small pieces · Continuous line: a spiral cut, scissors never lifted, a zigzag cut without stopping If your child puts the zigzag in Not continuous, ask: is there a gap in the cut? If not, it is still one line.

4. Continuous line → never lifts off the paper; Spiral cut → opens into a loop when cut; Hanji → traditional Korean paper

D

1. Look for: Says No and gives a reason, such as artists can make art with words or with cut paper strips. If your child says yes, ask them to think of a sculpture made from cut paper strips. Is it a picture?

E

1. Look for: A named word and a reason linked to a feeling, a story or how the word looks when cut.

Words to use

Say“Is there a gap anywhere in your cut? How does the paper open up?”

Instead of“Just keep cutting, it doesn't matter if you stop.”

After the sheet

Draw a big spiral on a sheet of newspaper with a pencil. Cut slowly along it with an adult's help. Hold up the middle and watch it loop.

Tick what your child got right in StudyDen. Anything missed comes back in a later Look back box, so there's no need to redo the sheet.

The rest of this unit

3 more sheets come with a StudyDen plan, in teaching order:

Create a History Map(with a plan)
Clay Travellers and Patterns(with a plan)
Patterns that tell you(with a plan)

Every Year 2 art worksheet

The worksheets plan opens a printable sheet for every lesson in Years 1 to 6, each with its answers on a separate page for you. It costs £6.99 a month or £59 a year for the whole family, with no free trial.

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