Year 5 Ceramics: cake culture worksheet

“Drawing cakes with charcoal” is free to print, with no account. It is the first sheet in the Year 5 art unit “Ceramics: cake culture”, for children aged 9 to 10, 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 27 to 32 of the year, 6 sheets in the unit.

Free sample · answers on the last page

Drawing cakes with charcoal

Name: ____________ · Date: ____________
Year 5 · Art & design · about 22 minutes
Answers are on the grown-up page

Today I can draw a cake with charcoal, using tone and blending to show light and shadow.

A Look back3 min

1.
Join each mix to the colour it makes.
red + yellowblue + yellowred + blue
greenpurpleorange
2.
This tone ladder has 4 steps. Step 1 is the palest. Write the number of the darkest step.
3.
The picture shows a cone. Does it have a flat, round base? Circle one.
yesno

B Watch me, then you4 min

Ola draws a round sponge cake in a tin. The light comes from the left.

A round sponge cake in a baking tin on a wooden table, lit from the left

Watch me

A sponge cake is a cylinder. Its side is darkest where the light does not reach.

Press hard on the shadow side. Press lightly on the top.

Rub a rubber on the top edge nearest the light to lift a bright highlight.

Now you

1.
Ola's sponge is lit from the left. Which side should she shade darkest? Circle one.
the right side, away from the lightthe top, facing the lightthe highlight on the left

C Your turn8 min

Each row changes one thing. Look at the cake and the ladder, then answer.

A round cake with glossy icing lit from the upper left, with a small bright shine on the icing

1.
Pressing very lightly makes which end of this ladder? Circle one.
the palest endthe darkest end
2.
Which mark makes the shadow on the side of a cake? Circle one.
light pressure, pale greyhard pressure, deep blackno mark at all
3.
Which tool lifts charcoal off the paper to make a bright highlight? Circle one.
a rubbera rulera dry paintbrush
4.
Stippling is shading with tiny dots. Blending rubs marks into a smooth, soft tone. Join each part of the cake to the mark that suits it best.
smooth icingcrumbs on top
stipplingblending

Say it out loud: What did you change each time to make a mark darker? What did you change to make a mark paler?

D Spot the mistake3 min

A charcoal drawing of a cake with a smudge and a rubber beside it

Kit says: “Charcoal mistakes can never be fixed, so I should not start.”

1.
Write what Kit should do instead.

E Think deeper4 min

Look at the two cakes in the picture. One has smooth icing and one has crumbs on top.

Two round cakes side by side, one smooth and one with crumbs on top

1.
Now imagine the light comes from the right. How would you change the shading and the highlight on each cake? Explain why.

How did it feel?

I can do it Nearly Not yet

For the grown-up

Drawing cakes with charcoal · 2 minutes to read

Answers, and what a wrong one tells you

A

1. red + yellow → orange; blue + yellow → green; red + blue → purple

2. 4 If they write 1, they have picked the palest step. Point to the darkest end and ask which step is there.

3. yes

B

1. the right side, away from the light If they circle the top, ask where the light hits it. The part facing the light stays pale.

C

1. the palest end If they circle the darkest end, ask how hard they pressed. Light pressure gives a soft pale grey.

2. hard pressure, deep black If they circle light pressure, ask which part of the cake is in shadow. Shadows need the darkest marks.

3. a rubber If they circle the ruler, ask what the rubber is for. Pressing it into charcoal lifts the powder away.

4. smooth icing → blending; crumbs on top → stippling If they join crumbs to blending, ask what blending does. It makes soft, gradual changes, not tiny dots. Stippling is tiny dots.

D

1. Look for: A way to fix charcoal: a rubber lifts powder, or blending or smudging softens a mark. If they repeat that mistakes cannot be fixed, point at the rubber in the picture. Ask what it could lift off the smudge.

E

1. Look for: Moves the darkest shading to the left, away from the light, and the highlight to the right, with a reason linked to where the light falls.

Words to use

Say“Which part is darkest, and how do you know? Show me where the light is coming from.”

Instead of“Your drawing looks messy, so start again on a clean sheet.”

After the sheet

Look at a real cake or muffin at teatime. Draw its outline in pencil, shade the side away from the light, then talk through where the highlight sits.

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:

Sketching a celebration cake(with a plan)
Joining clay the right way(with a plan)
Coil and pinch pots(with a plan)
Building a Clay Cake(with a plan)
Finishing your cake sculpture(with a plan)

Every Year 5 art worksheet

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