The Picture

This is a pre-designing stage. The child sees drawing as a way of recording their ideas but unrelated to the future activity of making an object. Such drawings frequently include features of narrative or representational drawing instead of characteristics of the genre of design drawing, e.g. a house with a door and windows (with curtains), tree and flowers in the garden and birds and clouds in the sky. Alternatively, they may decorate the design sheet, having not seen this as a separate preparatory activity. The drawing does not inform the making of a product.

Although most characteristic of our youngest children in school, the understanding of planning by drawing may not dawn until quite a late age, as the two examples here show. They are worth comparing to the expanded diagram at the end of the Lesson Plans Page. All three children are in the same class and did the lesson with me at the same time.

Year 2: This girl has drawn a picture of a favourite theme, despite the other children at her table attempting to correct her. The product on pink card is an unrelated collage, which features the figure of Flat Stanley.

Year 2: In the same lesson (Flat Stan), this boy has made several attempts at the Stan figure on his design sheet, before turning it into a picture. The circles at the top are snow. He has continued this snow theme into the decorated picture of figures in a snowstorm.