Year 3 Learning Journey

Year 3 Learning Journey - Art

This week, our Year 3 artists delved into the expressive world of charcoal drawing, focusing on how to capture life and motion on paper. Working in pairs, students took turns acting as "artist" and "model." To explore the concept of kinetic energy in art, our models performed repetitive, singular movements while the artists used charcoal to translate that physical rhythm into visual form.

The children experimented with a variety of sophisticated techniques to add depth and texture to their portraits:

• Varying Pressure: Learning how a light touch creates ghostly outlines while firm pressure produces bold, dramatic shadows.

• Smudging & Erasing: Using their fingers and erasers not just to fix mistakes, but as tools to create soft gradients and highlights.

• Stenciling: Incorporating sharp edges and defined shapes against the fluid, organic strokes of the charcoal.

The result was a series of energetic portraits that truly "move" off the page! We were so impressed by their focus and their willingness to embrace the dusty, tactile nature of this classic medium.