**Note: This page is for educational inspiration and is not officially affiliated with The Big Draw Festival. The Big Draw Festival is run by The Big Draw, a registered charity. For official information, to register an event, or to find out more, please visit their website (www.thebigdraw.org/about-us/the-big-draw-festival).
Understanding The Big Draw Festival in EYFS & KS1
Let's get drawing! 🎨 The Big Draw Festival is the world's biggest drawing festival and takes place annually throughout October. Run by The Big Draw, a registered charity, its aim is to promote visual literacy and the universal language of drawing as a tool for learning, expression, and invention. The festival encourages everyone, regardless of age or ability, to discover the power of drawing. Each year has a different theme, making it fresh and exciting!
For early years settings, nurseries, preschools, childminders, and Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms, this festival provides an incredibly creative and accessible theme for exploring art, expression, mark-making, and visual communication. It's about empowering children to express themselves through lines, shapes, and colours, fostering imagination, and developing fine motor skills. This festival offers fantastic planning ideas and inspiration for engaging activities that truly resonate with young minds, making learning about creativity and self-expression both joyful and enriching.
Why Is Teaching About Drawing & Visual Literacy Important for Young Children?
Integrating themes around drawing and visual literacy into your practice with young children (aged 0-7) helps develop their creativity, fine motor skills, and ability to communicate non-verbally. Drawing is a fundamental form of expression before children master writing.
Self-Expression: Drawing provides a powerful outlet for children to express ideas, feelings, and experiences that they may not yet be able to verbalize.
Fine Motor Development: Holding drawing tools, controlling lines, and making precise movements strengthens hand-eye coordination and prepares children for writing.
Cognitive Development: Drawing helps children observe details, understand spatial relationships, and develop their imagination and problem-solving skills.
Visual Literacy: It teaches children to "read" and "make" images, an essential skill in our visually-driven world.
Communication: Drawing is a universal language that allows children to communicate across linguistic barriers.
Creative Thinking: Exploring different drawing techniques and materials encourages innovation and divergent thinking.
Engaging Drawing Activities for The Big Draw Festival (0-7 Year Olds)
Make The Big Draw Festival a truly artistic and expressive experience with these planning ideas and activities perfect for EYFS and KS1 children. The focus is on encouraging experimentation, joy, and the endless possibilities of drawing! Many of these early years and year 1 activities can be supported by the extensive range of printable resources we have available.
Here's some inspiration for unleashing creativity in your setting: (Please use your own discretion and knowledge of your children to ensure appropriateness of each activity and safety concerning any materials given and activity undertaken.)
Exploration of Mark-Making: Provide a wide variety of materials for mark-making – not just pencils and paper! Think chalks, charcoal, pastels, paint, mud, sand, sticks in dirt, water on pavement. Encourage big, expressive movements. Our ‘Outdoor Area: Mark Making EYFS & KS1 Activities’ page has great ideas.
Drawing Challenges: Introduce simple drawing challenges based on the festival's annual theme (if applicable) or general prompts like "Draw what you hear," "Draw your favourite food," "Draw a monster," or "Draw your dream house."
Blind Contour Drawing: Have children draw an object without looking at their paper, focusing only on the lines of the object. This is great for observation and letting go of perfection.
Drawing to Music: Play different types of music and encourage children to draw how the music makes them feel or what they "see" in the music through lines and colours.
Story Drawing: Instead of writing a story, have children draw a sequence of pictures to tell a story (beginning, middle, end). This supports narrative skills.
Drawing from Observation: Provide real objects (e.g., fruit, leaves, a toy car) for children to observe closely and draw. This helps develop visual perception.
"Design Your Own..." Activities: Use our Design you own EYFS & KS1 activities resources to inspire children to design their own flags, clothes, vehicles, or fantastical creatures through drawing.
Colour Exploration in Drawing: Provide a variety of colouring tools and papers. Discuss how different colours make them feel and how colours can be mixed. Our Colours page offers support.
Collaborative Drawing: Lay out a large sheet of paper on the floor or wall and invite children to draw together, creating a shared artwork. This promotes teamwork.
Recording with Drawing (Maths): Use drawing as a way to record mathematical thinking. For example, draw tally marks, draw groups of objects to represent numbers, or illustrate simple sums (linking to Recording: Maths Mark Making EYFS& KS1 activities).
Displaying Artworks: Create a vibrant display of the children's drawings. Celebrate their effort and creativity, focusing on the process rather than just the finished product.
These activities offer great inspiration for making The Big Draw Festival a memorable and impactful experience in your early years and Key Stage One setting, fostering creativity, self-expression, fine motor skills, and a lifelong love for drawing.
To explore ideas surrounding additional early years events, please visit our 'Special Dates Calendar' page.
Printable resources to support teaching & learning surrounding: ‘The Big Draw Festival’
Additional Pages you may like to explore which cover relevant &/or Connected themes
Outdoor Area: Mark Making EYFS & KS1 Activities
Art & Craft EYFS & KS1 Activities
Mark Making, Drawing & EYFS & KS1 Activities
Design You Own EYFS & KS1 Activities
Recording: Maths Mark Making EYFS & KS1 Activities
More Early Years Event Pages for October
Explore special dates (including awareness dates, festivals, celebrations & events) relevant to your EYFS & KS1 children
Browse our ‘Special Dates Calendar’ page using the link below. You’ll find calendars for every month of the year to aid your planning!
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Disclaimer:
This page is for educational purposes only and is intended to support early years and primary practitioners with ideas and resources related to 'The Big Draw Festival'. We are not officially affiliated with or endorsed by The Big Draw, the registered charity that runs the festival. We do not claim any rights to specific trademarks or official materials associated with this event. For official information, to register an event, or to find out more, please visit their website at www.thebigdraw.org.
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