Digital @ The Arts Unit Creative Classes

Chicken challenge

Use shapes to create your own artwork

Student visual arts resource developed by The Arts Unit

Kindergarten to Year 2 visual arts

Cartoon of white mother hen with 6 yellow baby chicks following behind

What will I learn?

You will:

  • identify two-dimensional shapes

  • explore two-dimensional shapes in art

  • create your own artworks using two-dimensional shapes.

Before you begin

You'll need:

  • paper to draw on

  • scrap paper with different colours and textures

  • pencils, textas, crayons or paints

  • glue stick

  • materials to add detail to your artwork: feathers, leaves, or ribbon – be creative!

Photograph of arts supplies including paintbrushes, pencils and scissors.

  1. Identify

Watch The Shapes Song and sing along to the words as you get to know them.

The Shapes Song

Duration: 01:50

Look around the room you are in.

How many shapes can you find?

Shapes: arrow, circle, heart, star, square, triangle, diamond and rectangle

Shapes: arrow, circle, heart, star, square, triangle, diamond and rectangle

2. Explore

Explore how shapes are used in art

Look at this 2019 Operation Art artwork by Kindergarten student, Oliver Rossington, titled 'Chicken'.


What shapes do you see?

Chicken

Oliver RossingtonOperation Art 2019
Painting of a yellow chicken on pink paper, standing on green grass with tinsel and a blue collage sky

Look at the chicken below.

Can you find 3 different shapes?



Yellow cartoon chicken

3. Create

Create your own chicken artwork

  • Using simple shapes like circles, triangles, rectangles, ovals, squares and diamonds, create your own chicken drawing.

  • Colour in your drawing. You might like to use coloured pencils, crayons, textas or paint.

  • You could also use leaves, feathers, ribbon or other craft supplies you have to add texture to your artwork.

Here are some examples to get you started.

Student drawing of a blue chicken with a tree and chicken feed. Drawn using geometric shapes including circles and rectangles..
Student drawing of a chicken using geometric shapes including circles and ovals.
Student drawing of a blue chicken with a tree and chicken feed. Drawn using geometric shapes. Feathers added on chicken and leaves on tree to create dimension.
Student drawing of a chicken with chicken feed. Drawn using geometric shapes. Feathers added on chicken and leaves on ground to create dimension.

4. Practise

Practise your skills by drawing other animals using shapes.

Here are some examples to get you started.

Student drawing of a fish, mouse face, cheese block and a cat. All drawn using geometric shapes.
Student drawing of a mouse using geometric shapes including circles and triangles and coloured in blue
Student drawing of a dog using geometric shapes including triangles and rectangles and coloured in brown

Extension activity

Watch the videos below to learn to draw a cat, pig and elephant using shapes.

Simple shape sketches: how to draw a cat

Duration: 01:33

Simple shape sketches: how to draw a pig

Duration: 01:34

Simple shape sketches: how to draw an elephant

Duration: 01:33

5. Fun finish

For a bit of fun before we finish this class, stand up, find some space and sing and dance along to this great action song!

Perhaps you can get others around you to join you in this dancing fun!


A baby chicken with wings stretched out, one leg in the air, with speech bubble saying 'Let's dance!'. osed and mou

Action song

Duration: 03:38

Amazing work!

You have completed this Digital @ The Arts Unit Creative Class!

We hope you had fun learning how to create drawings out of shapes!

You might like to explore more of our Digital @The Arts Unit Creative Classes:







The Dot - Preschool and Kindergarten visual arts
Be a friend - K-2 dance, drama and visual arts

Third-party content attributions

  • Chicken, © Oliver Rossington, 2019, reproduced and communicated with permission.