Key Stage 1 art and design · Making and materials

KS1 art: exploring materials, a guide for parents

In Years 1 and 2, art lessons begin with play. Children are taught to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products, and the overall aim of the curriculum is that they produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences. Before a child can make something on purpose, they need to find out what paint, clay, paper, fabric and found objects can do when they are squashed, torn, wrapped, stuck, printed and layered.

Exploring art materials, explained

The curriculum names no particular materials, so schools choose. In a typical Key Stage 1 classroom you will see paint and brushes, wax crayons, chalks and pastels, pencils, felt-tips, modelling clay or dough, different kinds of paper and card, fabric scraps, wool, tissue, and “found” materials such as leaves, cardboard tubes and clean packaging. Over the two years children are expected to use a range of materials rather than the same two or three every time, so that they build up a feel for what each one can do.

Exploring means trying things out without a finished picture in mind. A teacher might put out tissue paper, glue and scissors and ask, “What happens if you tear it instead of cutting it? What if you overlap two colours?” Children discover that torn paper has a soft, uneven edge, that some coloured tissue bleeds its colour when it gets wet, and that card holds a shape that thin paper cannot. These are real discoveries, and they are what later allows a child to choose a material for a reason.

Creative use comes next. Once children know what a material does, they are asked to use it to make something: a collage of an animal using scrunched paper for fur, a printed pattern made with a sponge, a clay tile pressed with leaves. The skills are small but real, such as tearing along a line, rolling clay into a long snake, squeezing glue sparingly, washing a brush between colours and working over a protected table. Teachers also talk with children about what they did and what surprised them, and many keep a sketchbook or a folder of experiments as a record of their ideas and experiences.

Neatness and likeness are not the point at this age. What teachers look for is curiosity, willingness to try, careful handling of tools and the beginnings of the language of art, such as rough, smooth, thick, thin, light and dark. Making a mess is part of it, which is why art days often mean old shirts. A child who can say, “I used the sponge because it made a bumpy mark,” is already learning to choose and explain, which becomes more important in Key Stage 2.

Words your child will hear

Material: What something is made from or made with, such as paint, clay, paper or fabric.
Collage: A picture made by sticking different materials, such as paper, fabric or leaves, onto a surface.
Found materials: Everyday things such as cardboard tubes, leaves or bottle tops that are reused in art.
Texture: How a surface feels or looks like it feels, such as rough, bumpy or silky.
Overlap: To lay one piece partly on top of another so the layers show through.
Print: To press something covered in paint onto paper to leave its mark.
Experiment: To try something out to find what happens, without needing to get it right first time.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 1 says:

Pupils should be taught to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
Aim: pupils produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: exploring what tissue paper can do

Your child has a pile of coloured tissue paper, glue and a sheet of white paper. How might a teacher help them explore it?

Start with the senses. Look at the tissue and ask, “What is it like? Is it thick or thin? Can you see through it?” Hold it up to the window and feel how it crinkles.
Try different actions. Tear a piece, cut a piece, scrunch one into a ball and twist another into a rope. Ask, “Which one looks the most like something? What could it be?”
Test how it behaves with glue. Stick one piece flat and one scrunched, then overlap a blue piece and a yellow piece. Notice that the colours show through each other and a greenish colour appears where they cross.
Make something with the best discoveries. Perhaps scrunched balls become flower heads, torn strips become stalks and an overlapped green patch becomes a bush.
Talk about it. “What did you do? What worked? What would you try next time?” A child might say, “The scrunched bits make the flowers look fluffy.”

There is no single correct picture. A good result is a child who has tried at least three different ways of using the material, can describe how each one looked or felt, and has used the best of them on purpose in the finished piece.

Common mistakes and how to help

“I can’t do art because I can’t draw things that look real”

Children often compare their work with photographs or with older children’s drawings, and decide that art means copying exactly. Materials work, such as printing and collage, does not depend on drawing skill at all.

What helps: Praise decisions rather than likeness: “I like how you chose that rough paper for the tree trunk.” Offer materials where there is no wrong answer, such as printing, tearing and clay.

Using too much of a material, such as a puddle of glue or paint that covers the whole page

Young children are still learning how much control they have over a tool, and more feels like better. Too much paint or glue makes paper soggy and hides the exploration.

What helps: Show a pea-sized amount of glue or a small blob of paint and let them add more if they need it. Spreading glue with a finger or a spatula works well.

Thinking an experiment that “went wrong” is a failure

At this age many children want to be right first time. If the colour runs or the clay cracks, they may want to stop and start again.

What helps: Treat it as information: “Interesting, the paper went soft when it got wet. What could you use if you wanted it to stay stiff?” Keep the surprising ones in the sketchbook.

Believing only “proper” art materials count

Children see paint and paper as art equipment and everything else as rubbish or junk.

What helps: Explain that artists use lots of ordinary things. Cardboard, leaves, string, buttons and bubble wrap are all good materials. Keep a clean “art box” and let your child choose from it.

How to help at home

A box of interesting things. Keep a shoebox of clean scraps: cardboard tubes, wool, foil, corks, scraps of fabric, bottle tops and bubble wrap. Tip it out on a table and ask what each could be used for.
One material, many ways. Give your child a single material, such as a sheet of paper, and challenge them to find ten different things to do with it: fold, tear, scrunch, weave, roll, fringe, stick, print on it. Count them together.
Natural collage. Collect fallen leaves, petals and twigs on a walk, wash your hands afterwards, and stick them onto card. Talk about which feel rough or smooth and which are lightest or darkest.
Protect the table and relax. A wipeable cloth, an old shirt and a bowl of water for washing brushes remove most of the worry. A child who isn’t afraid of making a mess explores much more freely.
Keep a scrapbook of experiments. Stick small samples of what your child tries onto pages and write a label or two together, such as “wet chalk” or “torn tissue”. It is a lovely record of their ideas and experiences.