Year 3 Imagined spaces and shared stories worksheet

“Charcoal Worlds: Draw and Smudge” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 3 art unit “Imagined spaces and shared stories”, 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 33 to 36 of the year, 4 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Charcoal Worlds: Draw and Smudge

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

Today I can use charcoal pressure, smudging and layering to change the mood of a drawing.

A Look back3 min

1.
Which of these are primary colours? Circle them.
redpurpleyellowgreen
2.
Red and yellow mixed together make which colour? Circle it.
orangegreenpurplebrown
3.
Which is darker: pale grey or black? Circle it.
pale greyblack

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola draws a tall tower in charcoal. She changes how hard she presses, and the tower looks different each time.

A tall charcoal tower with a pale lit side and a dark shaded side

Watch me

A hard press makes a dark, heavy mark.

A soft press makes a pale, feathery mark.

Press in between and you get the middle tones.

Ola uses all five steps to show light falling on her tower.

Now you

1.
Kit draws two walls. He presses hard on the first and softly on the second. Which wall is darker? Circle it.
the wall pressed hardthe wall pressed softly

C Your turn7 min

Look at the tones and the marks. Work through each row.

1.
Sort these marks. Write each one in the right column.
heavy black markspale feathery marksdeep dark shadowfaint grey haze
Pressed hard Pressed softly
2.
You draw a doorway in charcoal, then rub your finger along one edge. Is that edge sharp or blurry now? Circle it.
sharp edgeblurry edge
3.
Put these steps in order to draw a stormy sky. Number each box 1 to 4.
1. Rub out a white line for lightning
2. Draw a rough cloud shape
3. Shade the cloud dark
4. Smudge the shading with a finger
4.
You put dark marks on top of a light grey patch. The patch now looks: lighter or darker? Circle it.
lighterdarker

Say it out loud: What changed from one row to the next? Did the press change, the smudge change, or the layers change?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Ria says: “Charcoal is only for colouring in outlines, so a smudge is a mistake.”

1.
Is Ria right? Circle the true sentence.
Ria is right: smudges spoil a drawing.Ria is wrong: smudges are a technique artists choose.

E Think deeper4 min

A misty charcoal forest with soft smudged trees and dark shadows at the base

1.
Make up your own imagined place drawn in charcoal. Write one sentence about its atmosphere and why.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Charcoal Worlds: Draw and Smudge · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. red, yellow your child may have picked a mixed colour. Ask: can you make this colour by mixing two others? If yes, it is not a primary colour. Show red, yellow and blue paint first.

2. orange

3. black If your child picks pale grey, ask them to press hard, then lightly, and say which mark is darker.

B

1. the wall pressed hard your child may think a soft press makes a darker mark. Ask them to press lightly, then hard, on scrap paper and compare the two marks side by side.

C

1. Pressed hard: heavy black marks, deep dark shadow · Pressed softly: pale feathery marks, faint grey haze your child may sort by colour, not by pressure. Ask: did the hand press firmly or gently to make this mark?

2. blurry edge your child may describe the shape, not the edge. Ask them to smudge one edge with a finger and compare it with the untouched edge.

3. 1 Draw a rough cloud shape · 2 Shade the cloud dark · 3 Smudge the shading with a finger · 4 Rub out a white line for lightning your child may have put the lightning first. Ask: if the sky is still white, what dark shading is there to rub away? The rubbing comes after the dark shading.

4. darker your child may think adding marks makes a patch lighter. Ask them to add one more layer of dark marks and check the patch again.

D

1. Ria is wrong: smudges are a technique artists choose. your child thinks a smudge is an accident. Show a smudged patch and an unsmudged patch. Ask which one has the softer, moodier look, and why an artist would keep it.

E

1. Look for: An imagined place, one named atmosphere such as mysterious or peaceful, and a reason linked to pressure, smudging or layering.

Words to use

Say“Which marks did you press hard for, and which did you smudge? What mood do they give?”

Instead of“Charcoal is messy, so use a pencil for a neat drawing.”

After the sheet

Draw a doorway with a soft pencil on scrap paper. Smudge one edge with a finger, then press hard and softly on two more shapes and compare.

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:

Telling Stories with Things(with a plan)
Sculpture You Can Walk Through(with a plan)
Clay Towers Together(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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