The Big Draw 2023: New Ways To Get Creative In School
Written by Suzanne Booth
Published on 25th September 2023
Last Updated: 25th September 2023
Kapow Primary is delighted to be a sponsor partner for The Big Draw again this year.
With our help, you can embark on your own journey of creativity with The Big Draw 2023!
Explore a variety of engaging activity ideas that celebrate the art of drawing. Find activities suitable for each year group, sparking imaginations and encouraging self-expression. Read more to uncover and nurture creativity today!
What is The Big Draw?
Established in 2000, The Big Draw is a leading visual literacy organisation that champions drawing as a powerful medium for wellbeing, imagination and community involvement. Passionate about promoting the value of drawing, this charity delivers an array of initiatives and campaigns, including The Big Draw Festival – the world’s largest drawing celebration.
The Big Draw Festival
The festival takes place over October, bringing the focus onto the organisation’s primary aim of encouraging and inspiring creativity through drawing.
The festival is not limited to any particular style or skill level; instead, it celebrates drawing as a fundamental means of communication and expression that anyone can engage in. The event includes a wide range of drawing activities, workshops, exhibitions, and community-based initiatives that anyone can get involved with.
Why should schools take part?
Being a part of The Big Draw allows primary school teachers to showcase and celebrate the artistic talents of their children on a global platform. This can significantly raise the profile of Art and design in the school community and enhance cultural capital, drawing attention to the importance of creative expression and visual literacy in education.
As you share and celebrate children’s artwork, it can foster a sense of pride and achievement, reinforcing the value of art as a vital part of the curriculum.
Example work from Year 6 pupils at Scargill CofE Primary who created colourful drawings.
How can your school or class join in?
As a sponsor-partner for The Big Draw, we’ve put together a range of resources and lesson ideas to help you run your own Big Draw event in school.
You can find out about more events taking place throughout the country, details of which are on The Big Draw website.
This year’s theme: Drawing with senses
‘Drawing with Senses’ prompts us to explore beyond sight, immersing ourselves in the multisensory aspect of our surroundings. It encourages us to break from convention and to consider how we individually interpret the world through our senses.
Join us live!
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Our Art and design specialist, Suzanne Booth, will share exciting ideas to help you with this year’s theme in our Big Draw webinar. Expect live demos you can join in with, and leave inspired to start your own Big Draw adventure! |
Creative ways to take part
There are many ways to join this year’s festival. You could dedicate an entire day or week to celebrating The Big Draw or integrate simple and quick drawing activities into a normal school day. However you choose to join in, we have you covered with some great resources coming very soon!
Quick and easy activities
If you’re looking for a quick, fun and easy way to get involved with little or no prep, our ‘Month Of Art Activities’ is exactly what you need.
Our calendar features a new drawing activity for each school day over four weeks. Each activity is inspired by a sense, providing an engaging way to start your day or enjoy a creative break.
Take a closer look
Dive into The Big Draw theme with our simple but engaging activities for each year group. And the exciting part – our Art and design scheme boasts a collection of units to complement these activities, offering you even more support and creative inspiration along the way.
Year 1: Drawing movement
Explore the sense of movement by encouraging children to paint or draw while moving to music, expressing how the rhythm makes them feel.
Our Year 1 Drawing unit explores lines in creative ways. Use music to encourage children to draw and make marks in response to what they hear – a perfect way to explore the sense of hearing.
Year 2: Textured nature walk
Ask the children to collect objects such as leaves, bark or stones, and encourage them to create rubbings or mouldings, capturing the varied textures and relaying their tactile experiences.
Children go on a texture hunt in our Year 2 Painting unit to explore the sense of touch and learn about using art to express how something feels.
Year 3: Taste exploration portraits
Children can experiment with edible art supplies such as coloured icing or fruit slices to craft a foody representation of themselves.
Go back in time to learn about Prehistoric art in our Year 3 Painting unit. Look at making natural paints, a perfect opportunity to try making paints with spices and herbs and to explore scent at the same time.
Year 4: Make soundscapes
Ask children to listen to different natural sounds – chirping birds or rustling leaves, maybe distant waves if you’re near the sea – and translate these auditory experiences into abstract art, using shapes, colours and patterns.
Our Year 4 Craft and design unit is inspired by the sights and sounds of tropical rainforests. This is a wonderful unit to draw a soundscape using lush colours and captivating sounds that will engage your senses.
Year 5: Scented painting
Create scented paintings by infusing paints with natural fragrances such as lavender, mint or citrus, allowing pupils to paint ‘scented scenes’ inspired by their memories or imaginations.
Explore our Year 5 Drawing unit focused on space themes. Children delve into Teis Albers’ art, crafting collagraph prints with collected textures. Adapt this lesson by incorporating infused paints or scented textures into your print creations.
Year 6: Exploring textures
Consider how sculptural art pieces can be appreciated through touch and sight by using different textures. Create small abstract sculptures using clay, then explore texturing tools, for example, combs, forks, toothpicks, fabric, bubble wrap or buttons, by pressing, scraping and manipulating the clay to create different sensations.
For a multisensory experience, use our Year 6 Sculpture and 3D unit to experiment with sculptural pieces that explore touch. Children also consider how viewers experience the pieces created, looking at using vision and sound at the same time.
Even more free ideas!
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the theme by integrating it into your art curriculum, we have a free collection of activity ideas coming soon as a printable PDF document created especially for The Big Draw.
The activities are grouped by sense, focusing on famous and contemporary artists and how they’ve used a particular sense to guide their artwork and encourage pupils to create unique art pieces.
