Art and design Year 3 Prehistoric art

This topic is ideal for any class studying the Stone Age, or if you’re looking to explore a different style of art or techniques. Experimenting with charcoal, berries, leaves, homemade paints and more, children get a sense of what it was like to create art thousands of years ago and why these pieces were created

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Art and design > Lower key stage 2 > Prehistoric art

Please note

This unit has now been replaced by the Year 3 unit Prehistoric painting. Kapow no longer updates these lessons, and they may not reflect the national curriculum or current guidance. They remain a permanent part of your subscription and will continue to be available for reference and use. We recommend that you explore the new versions of the lessons.

Choose your lesson

Lesson 1: Exploring prehistoric art (Original scheme)

Children are introduced to cave art and reflect upon the purpose of the drawings before working on developing their sense of proportion in drawing.

Lesson 2: Charcoal animals (Original scheme)

Children scale up their drawings from the previous lesson and use a different medium, charcoal, to create tones and textures.

Lesson 3: Prehistoric palette (Original scheme)

After experimenting with the colours and effects that can be created using natural materials, pupils make their own paints using spices and objects found on a nature walk.

Lesson 4: Painting on the cave wall (Original scheme)

Applying their painting skills, working on a textured surface with a range of tools to re-create their prehistoric animal picture from earlier in the unit.

Learning Objective

To select and apply a range of painting techniques

Lesson 5: Hands on a cave wall (Original scheme)

Children work on a collaborative class piece of prehistoric inspired art, creating hand prints onto a textured background.

Learning Objective

To apply painting skills when creating a collaborative artwork

Assess your pupils

Assessment resources for use at the start of the unit to assess where pupils are in their learning and at the end of the unit to assess progress. Go to assessment resources