Key Stage 2 art and design · Sketchbooks

KS2 sketchbooks: reviewing and revisiting ideas for parents

In Key Stage 2 a sketchbook is more than a record of what a child has drawn. Children go back to earlier pages, say what is working and what is not using the language of art, and try improved versions before making a final piece. Looking back and revisiting is what turns practice into progress.

Reviewing and revisiting ideas, explained

The curriculum asks children to use sketchbooks to review and revisit ideas, and its aims include being able to evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design. Reviewing means looking back at a page and asking questions about it. Revisiting means returning to an idea and trying it again, often with a change. A project typically begins with exploratory pages, moves to tests and refinements, and ends with a final piece, so the sketchbook shows the whole journey and not only the result.

Evaluating needs vocabulary. Instead of “it’s good”, children learn to say things like “the shading makes the apple look round” or “the shapes are too similar in size, so the picture feels flat”. They use words such as line, tone, texture, colour, shape, form, pattern and composition, which means how things are arranged within the picture. Many teachers use two prompts: what is working, and what could be even better. Children often apply the same questions to a professional artist’s work.

Revisiting isn’t just fixing mistakes. Ideas can change direction. A child might draw three small thumbnail layouts of the same scene and choose the strongest, test a handful of colour mixes on a scrap before committing, or discover that a texture they tried in one corner would suit the whole picture. Some schools encourage children to write responses in a different colour pen so the thinking is visible, and teachers sometimes write feedback in the book for the child to act on. Practices differ, so check with your child’s teacher.

Across Years 3 to 6 the independence grows. Children in Years 3 and 4 usually respond to teacher prompts and compare two attempts. Older children are expected to judge their own work, explain why they made choices, link ideas to artists they have studied and decide for themselves what to change. Spoken reflection counts as much as written reflection, and children who find writing hard often reveal a lot when asked to talk about their pages.

Words your child will hear

Review: Look back at work you have done and think about how it went.
Revisit: Go back to an earlier idea or page and work on it again.
Evaluate: Judge how well something works, giving reasons for your view.
Refine: Improve something by making careful changes.
Composition: The way the parts of a picture are arranged on the page.
Experiment: Try something out, without knowing in advance how it will turn out.
Process: The steps taken from a first idea to a finished piece.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 2 says:

Pupils should be taught to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas
Aim: pupils evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design.

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

Try it: revisiting a sketchbook page

A child drew a bowl of fruit last week. The shapes are right but the picture looks flat. How could they review and revisit it?

Look back with fresh eyes and say what is working first. “The apples overlap, so it looks like some are in front. I got the curved edge of the bowl right.”
Say what could be better, using art words. “All my lines are the same darkness and there is no shading, so nothing looks round. The bowl looks too small for the fruit, so the proportions are wrong.”
Choose one change to test. “I will add shading, with the light coming from the window on the left. The side of each apple facing away from the window will be darkest.”
Test it beside the original, not over it. Draw one apple again on the same page and use a soft pencil to add tone, pressing harder on the dark side and leaving a pale patch where the light hits.
Compare and annotate. “The shaded apple looks round. Next I will add a shadow under the bowl.” Decide what to carry into the final piece.

A good review ends in an annotation such as: “Shading made the apple look three-dimensional. For my final piece I will shade all the fruit and add a cast shadow under the bowl. I will also make the bowl bigger.” It names a strength, a problem, a test, a result and a next step.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking that reviewing means listing everything that is wrong

Children can be harsh on themselves, and some have only ever heard feedback as correction.

What helps: Start with one thing that is working. Ask “What are you most pleased with?” before “What would you change?” Pick one thing to improve, not ten.

Rubbing out a first attempt and redoing it over the top

A tidy page feels like the right answer, and the earlier attempt looks like evidence of failure.

What helps: Leave the first version where it is and draw the new one beside it. Having both lets your child see what changed, which is the point of a sketchbook.

Changing everything at once

Enthusiasm for a fresh start means the shape, the colours and the materials all change together.

What helps: Suggest changing one thing at a time, such as the shading or the angle. Then your child can tell which change made a difference.

Believing that once a piece is finished it is finished

Schools often end a project with a display, so children think going back is for those who got it wrong.

What helps: Artists often make many studies before a final piece. Looking again after a few days often shows things you could not see while working.

How to help at home

Flick back through together. Open an old drawing and ask two questions: “What do you like about this?” and “If you did it again, what would you change?” Listen, and don’t rush to give your own opinion.
Draw it again a week later. Choose a simple object and draw it. A week later, draw the same object on the same page or on the facing page and compare. Children are often surprised by how much they have improved.
Try three small versions. Before making a birthday card or poster, draw three tiny thumbnail layouts. Which looks best and why? Using the best parts of each is a real design skill.
Use sentence starters. Offer “The part that works best is… because…” and “Next time I could…”. Short and specific answers are better than long ones.
Date everything. Writing the date on every page makes it easy to see progress over weeks and months, and it makes a sketchbook feel like a record of the child’s thinking.