Year 4 Architecture: drawing and 3D design worksheet

“Looking closely at buildings” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 4 art unit “Architecture: drawing and 3D design”, for children aged 8 to 9, 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

Looking closely at buildings

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 4 · Art & design · about 20 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can look closely at a building and name the shapes that make it.

A Look back3 min

1.
Ali mixes red and blue paint. Which colour does he get?
orangepurplegreen
2.
Which shape has four equal sides?
squaretrianglepentagon
3.
Which 3D shape is a ball?
cubespherecone

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola draws her school. Look at the scene, then follow how she names the shapes she sees.

A small school with a plain front block and a tall round tower beside it

Watch me

The big front part of the school is a block.

A block with flat sides is a cuboid.

Ola names the main shape first, then adds the windows.

Now you

1.
The tower beside the school is tall and round with straight sides. Which 3D shape is it most like?
cylindercubeconesphere

C Your turn6 min

Look at each shape. Choose the building, or the part of a building, that matches it.

1.
Look at the shape. Which part of a house looks most like it from the front?
a pointed roofa front doora chimney pot
2.
Look at the 3D shape. Which building is most like it?
a block of flatsa lighthousea tent
3.
Look at the shape. Which part of a school could have this shape?
a doora domea pointed roof
4.
Look at the shape. Which part of a building could have this shape?
the clock face on a towera front doora flat roof

Say it out loud: Which shape did you find most often? Where could you spot it on a building near you?

D Spot the mistake3 min

Kit says: “Every building is made only of cuboids, so they all look the same.”

1.
Look at the school. Which part of it shows that Kit is wrong?
the round towerthe front blockthe front wall

E Think deeper5 min

Look at the two buildings. One is a plain box. The other has curves and a round roof, like buildings by the architect Zaha Hadid. Both must be safe and useful.

A plain rectangular school block next to a school with a curved roof and wide windows

1.
Design a new school building and sketch it on a sheet of paper. Then write how it is safe, useful and interesting.

How did it feel?

Which building would you like to walk into, and why? Tell your grown-up.

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Looking closely at buildings · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. purple Green comes from blue and yellow, not red and blue. Ask your child which two paints went into the pot.

2. square A triangle has three sides. Ask your child to count the sides of the picture, then check which shape has four equal ones.

3. sphere A cube has flat faces. A ball has no flat faces at all. Hold a ball and a box and feel the difference.

B

1. cylinder A sphere is a ball with no straight sides. A round tower with straight sides and a flat top is a cylinder. Ask your child to point to the straight edges.

C

1. a pointed roof A front door is a rectangle. Ask your child to trace the shape with a finger and count its three sides, then find the part with a point at the top.

2. a block of flats A lighthouse is round like a cylinder, and a tent comes to a point. Ask your child to find the building with flat sides and square corners.

3. a door A dome is curved and a pointed roof is a triangle. Ask your child to count the four straight sides, then look at a door at home.

4. the clock face on a tower A front door and a flat roof have straight edges. Ask your child which part has no corners at all.

D

1. the round tower The front block is a cuboid, so it agrees with Kit. Ask your child which part is round, then name its shape: a cylinder.

E

1. Look for: A drawing of a building, and a sentence that says how it is safe, useful and interesting at the same time.

Words to use

Say“Which shapes can you see? Which part is the main block, and which part is the round one?”

Instead of“Tell them all buildings look the same, so it does not matter how they draw them.”

After the sheet

Walk round your street with a pencil and a scrap of paper. Sketch one building in a box, add three labels, and say what it is for.

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:

Lines That Lead Away(with a plan)
Shading with a pencil(with a plan)
Working together on design(with a plan)
Build and test a model(with a plan)
Explain your model(with a plan)

Every Year 4 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.

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