Year 3 The Rainforest: drawing and painting worksheet

“Where Artists Find Ideas” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 3 art unit “The Rainforest: drawing and painting”, 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 1 to 3 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Where Artists Find Ideas

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

Today I can name the foreground, middleground and background, and explain how artists find ideas.

A Look back3 min

A quick warm-up from earlier learning.

1.
Look at the colours. Circle the colours that cannot be made by mixing other colours.
greenredpurpleyelloworangeblue
2.
Mix red and yellow paint. The new colour is…
orangepurplegreen
3.
Look at the tone ladder. Which step is the darkest? Count from the left.

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ruby paints a forest. She places each part in a zone, so the picture looks deep.

Watch me

Big leaves at the bottom, tall trunks in the middle, and pale hills at the top.

The big leaves are closest to us. That is the foreground.

The tall trunks stand in the middle. That is the middleground.

The pale hills are far away. That is the background.

Now you

1.
Tiny birds sit far away near the sky. Which zone is that? Circle one.
foregroundmiddlegroundbackground
2.
Put each part of a new picture in its zone. A lizard is tiny in real life, but here it is painted big and low on the page. The bush is painted smaller, higher up.
a waterfall far awaya tiny lizard on a stonea flower bush
foreground middleground background

C Your turn6 min

Read where Ruby paints each part. Then circle the right answer.

1.
Ruby paints orange hills far away, purple flowers in the middle and a big green frog in front. Which colour is in the foreground? Circle one.
greenpurpleorange
2.
Ruby paints a big orange frog in front, a green tree in the middle and purple hills far away. Which colour is in the background? Circle one.
purplegreenorange
3.
Ruby paints a big green leaf in front, an orange tiger in the middle and purple hills far away. Which colour is in the middleground? Circle one.
orangepurplegreen
4.
Henri Rousseau painted jungles. He drew plants in Paris gardens and copied animals from books. Did he need to visit a rainforest to paint one? Circle one.
yesno

Say it out loud: How did you know which part was closest to us?

D Spot the mistake3 min

An easel and a stack of books in a quiet room

Lou says: “You can only paint a rainforest if you have been to one.”

1.
Is Lou right? Explain how an artist could paint a rainforest without visiting one.

E Think deeper3 min

A library book open on a wooden table beside a jug of pencils

1.
Plan a rainforest picture without leaving home. What would you put in the foreground, the middleground and the background? Say where you found each idea.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Where Artists Find Ideas · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. red, yellow, blue If they circle green or purple, they may think these are basic colours. Ask: which two colours mix to make green?

2. orange If they say green, they may be thinking of yellow and blue. Ask: which two paints are in the picture?

3. 5

B

1. background

2. background: a waterfall far away · foreground: a tiny lizard on a stone · middleground: a flower bush

C

1. green

2. purple

3. orange

4. no

D

1. Look for: Lou is wrong. An artist can learn about rainforests from books, photographs, museums or imagination, without visiting. If they agree with Lou, ask: where could a painter look to learn about trees and animals? Ask for one idea.

E

1. Look for: A sensible part for each zone, each with a place to find it, such as a book, photograph or film.

Words to use

Say“Which part of the picture is closest to us? How could the artist find out about a rainforest without going there?”

Instead of“Artists have to see a place before they can paint it.”

After the sheet

Look at Henri Rousseau's painting Surprised! together. He never visited a rainforest. He drew plants in Paris gardens and copied animals from books. Ask your child to point to the foreground, the middleground and the background.

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:

Rubbing Textures with Frottage(with a plan)
Frottage and collage leaves(with a plan)
Draw a Real Leaf(with a plan)
Light and dark greens(with a plan)
Paint Your Rainforest(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.

The full StudyDen plan adds the lessons themselves, marked as your child works, with the worksheets included. It is 7 days free, then £29.99 a month.

Get the worksheets Try the full plan free

Both start with a free account; you choose the plan when you sign up.