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Year 1 art

Year 1 art runs to 40 lessons across a 36 week year, for children aged 5 to 6 in Key Stage 1. Every lesson is listed below in teaching order.

The vocabulary a child meets this year includes drawing tool, mark-making, media, drawing, artist, emotions, ink, natural, dilute, texture, charcoal, frottage.

These lessons are written by Oak National Academy, the government-funded curriculum body, and are free to anyone. StudyDen sequences them, marks the answers and keeps the record.

Every Year 1 art lesson

In the order they are taught. 40 lessons.

Mark-making: using drawing tools and techniques

  1. How Artists Make Marks
  2. Expressive Mark-Making
  3. Mark-making with ink and water
  4. Textured Marks with Charcoal
  5. Mark-Making and Patterns
  6. Building Drawing Machines

Reflections on water: introducing painting

  1. What Colour Is Water? How Artists Paint Water
  2. Sketchbook Experimentation: Water-Like Marks
  3. Depicting Water with Watercolour and Collage
  4. Painting Water with Wax Resist
  5. Watercolour Water Collaboration
  6. Make a Collaborative Mixed Media Collage

Watery weavings: introducing textiles

  1. The Qualities of Different Textiles
  2. Exploring Weaving Techniques
  3. Circular Weaving
  4. Design an Underwater Weaving
  5. Weaving Using Everyday Objects as a Frame
  6. Embellish and Evaluate Your Weaving

The seasons: painting and colour mixing

  1. Mixing Spring Greens
  2. Mixing Secondary Colours: Autumn Oranges
  3. Mixing Secondary Colours: Summer Purples
  4. Hot and Cold Colours
  5. Paint the Seasons: Plan a Colourful Work
  6. Painting the Seasons

Create a flower garden: introducing the 7 elements of art

  1. Drawing Flowers: Shape and Line
  2. Make Flower Sculptures: Texture
  3. Tonal Flowers
  4. Colour Mixing for the Garden
  5. Print and Pattern with Vegetables
  6. Combine Elements and Create a Flower Garden

Moon and space: drawing and mixed media

  1. Draw the Moon
  2. Create a Chalk Planet
  3. Chalk Prints
  4. Make Decorative Paper Using Marbling Techniques
  5. Planets and Stars from Collage Papers
  6. Create a Space Inspired Composition

My world: art and nature

  1. Paint a Walking Line
  2. Make a Clay Picture
  3. Art with Music and Colour
  4. Print a Sea Pattern on Cloth – Stories in Indigo

Each of the 7 units has a free printable Year 1 art worksheet, with the answers on a separate page.

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Common questions

What does Year 1 art cover?
Year 1 art runs to 40 lessons across a 36 week year, covering drawing tool, mark-making, media, drawing, artist, emotions and more.
How many art lessons are in Year 1?
40 lessons, sequenced in teaching order across the school year.
How old is a child in Year 1?
Children in Year 1 are 5 to 6 years old during the school year in England and Wales.