I have just taught Year 4 observational drawing, using the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EA9oSFgNtk) from Teach Your Class to Draw. Lesson 2 takes the geometric shape circle and shows pupils how to change that into a sphere and then an apple.
In lesson 1 pupils practised drawing a cube, cylinder and sphere. For lesson 2 I found objects that were similar shapes like tennis balls and apples, glue sticks and boxes. We all watched the video and then pupils picked the colouring pencils they needed, sharpened them and got their pen ready. We put some lovely relaxing music and although they were able to talk they were aware that they needed to concentrate so quiet talking was agreed.
I got pupils to write drawing no:1 and mark with a face after 15 minutes. They discussed with their partner what went well and what they would improve on for drawing no:2. This was a really useful feedback session then they wandered around the class looking at everyone else for a minute before drawing the same object and calling it no:2.
It was a great lesson because almost all pupils managed to improve the second drawing. We had a wander around the room and a class discussion about who had improved on the second drawing and in general about learning to draw.
What was good about the lesson is how much the children enjoyed making objects look 3 Dimensional. They used the shadow tip from the video and drawing a line behind the object to place it was a hit with all of them.
I highly recommend that children follow this series of videos chronologically and use the book Teach Your Class to Draw which gives lesson planning even what to write on the whiteboard.
The link to the web page is https://teachyourclasstodraw.com/product/teach-class-draw-2/
Below are pictures from the lesson which is the second lesson in Yr4. Ideally as children are developmentally ready to learn to draw in Yr4 it would be good to start from the beginning of term .
