Year 3 Creature Construction: sculpture worksheet

“Joining Materials Together” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 3 art unit “Creature Construction: sculpture”, for children aged 7 to 8, and takes about 20 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 9 to 14 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Joining Materials Together

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 3 · Art & design · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can name assembly techniques and say how they join materials in a sculpture.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which shape is this?
cubecuboidcylindersphere
2.
Which of these is a primary colour?
greenblueorangepurple
3.
This square is drawn flat on paper. Is a sculpture flat like this, or can you walk round it?

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola wants to join a card tube to a box for her sculpture. Watch how she picks a join.

Watch me

Ola wants the tube to stay on, even when the box is moved.

If she only rests the tube on top, it could roll off.

So she glues the tube to the box to make a strong join.

Now you

1.
Sam joins a tube to a stick by tying string round both in a knot. Is this join glueing? Circle yes or no.
YesNo

C Your turn7 min

Each row shows materials joined in a new way. Circle the technique that joins them.

A still-life of a cardboard tube, bottle tops, string, tin lids and sticky tape on a wooden table

1.
Ayo sticks a paper flower firmly onto a card base. Which technique is this?
GlueingStackingSlottingWrappingTying
2.
Three card boxes are placed one on top of another. Which technique is this?
GlueingStackingSlottingWrappingTying
3.
A card tab is pushed through a narrow cut in a tube and locks in place. Which technique is this?
GlueingStackingSlottingWrappingTying
4.
Strips of newspaper are wound round a cardboard tube to cover it. Which technique is this?
GlueingStackingSlottingWrappingTying

Say it out loud: What changed from one row to the next, the materials or the join? How do you know?

D Spot the mistake3 min

An assembled sculpture of card tubes, bottle tops and string standing on a table

Sam says: “A sculpture can only be made from one material, like clay.”

1.
Is Sam right? Circle yes or no.
YesNo

E Think deeper4 min

1.
Look at the picture. Name one object that could be joined to a base. Say which technique you would use and why it holds well.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Joining Materials Together · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. cuboid

2. blue

3. Look for: Says a sculpture is not flat: it is 3D and you can walk round it.

B

1. No If your child says yes, ask: what holds the tube and stick together? The string and knot hold them, so this is tying.

C

1. Glueing your child may have picked stacking because the flower sits on top. Stacking only places things on each other. Ask: what holds the flower to the base?

2. Stacking your child may have picked glueing. Nothing is stuck here, the boxes are only placed carefully on top. Ask: is anything fixed to anything?

3. Slotting your child may have picked wrapping because the tube is round. Wrapping covers a thing with material. Look for the narrow gap the tab fits into.

4. Wrapping your child may have picked tying. Tying uses string and knots. Here the strips cover the tube, so it is wrapping.

D

1. No your child may have said yes because clay is a common sculpture material. Look at the picture: card, bottle tops and string are joined together. Picasso made a bull's head sculpture from a bicycle seat and handlebars.

E

1. Look for: A named object from the picture, with one technique from glueing, stacking, slotting, wrapping or tying, and a reason it holds.

Words to use

Say“Show me where the join is. What is holding these two pieces together?”

Instead of“Just tell me the answer, it's obvious.”

After the sheet

Gather a cardboard tube, a bottle top and some string. Build a tiny sculpture, then say which join you used for each part and why.

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

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

Shapes hiding in creatures(with a plan)
Build a small test model(with a plan)
Choosing Materials for a Creature(with a plan)
Finish your creature(with a plan)
Light and dark shading(with a plan)

Every Year 3 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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