What is Drawing Club?

Drawing Club is an approach designed by Greg Bottrill that immerses children into a world full of imagination. We have embraced drawing club and can see the joy it brings to the children. It is through drawing club that we open up the magic world of tales and story to children whilst at the same time enriching their language skills, developing their fine motor and share a really special time with them. Drawing Club is a fantastic place to start a child’s experience of school ‘Literacy’.  

How do we teach it?

Each week we follow a similar pattern which is shown below;

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Vocab	Vocab	Vocab	Vocab	Vocab
Character	Setting	Adventure Time: I Wonder...	Adventure Time: I Wonder...	Adventure Time: I Wonder...

Drawing Club is based upon the 3M principle. These are making conversation, mark making and mathematics. We use a book, traditional tale or an animation as a portal for the week.

Every day we have vocabulary time where we learn new words associated with our story of the week which stretches their vocabulary beyond the story. We then read our story twice, on Monday and Tuesday so that the children become familiar with the story if they haven`t heard it before. The next part of the session includes the drawing where we take an element of the book and draw something based on the days focus.

For example, Monday is a character based session so we look at the character in the story and draw our own version of that character. One of the most exciting parts of Drawing Club is adding secret symbols and passwords to our drawings. We always draw a secret symbol that can make anything happen! Sometimes we press them and aliens or unicorns become 3 times bigger, pencils turn into chocolate or hair turns multi-coloured! We then add a password to make the secret symbol work. This can be a mark, letter, digraph (2 letters that make one sound), a word or a sentence. As children make progress and become more confident with their phonics, their passwords develop and move towards phrases and sentences.  

The Adventure Time: I wonder... sessions towards the end of the week are where we imagine what might happen if we got to choose an element of the story. An example of these questions and how we discuss the story during Adventure Time is shown below using the text - The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

 

 

Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
What foods could we give the troll so he doesn`t want to eat the goats?	We need to set a trap for the troll, what could we create?	The goats need to find another way across the river. What could you design to help them get across without disturbing the troll?

How does Drawing Club link to writing?

Each time the children draw they have to add a 'magic button'. To make the magic work, they have to add a secret code. This could be the sound they are learning that day, a word, a caption or full sentences - whatever we feel they need to reinforce.  The secret code could also be a number or a maths fact.

What about non-fiction texts?

Alongside the fictional element of drawing club, we also make sure the children are exposed to quality information books that link to our topics.

They will be taught how to write lists, captions and simple pieces of factual information.  This could be done through Drawing Club if appropriate.

Why have we chosen Drawing Club?

Drawing Club is all about doing what is right for our children, to meet their needs and develop their interests. It is not a scheme. It is meant to be fun and exciting and give children the opportunity to explore a world of adventure so that they are fuelled ready to develop their writing skills as they move up through school.

The great thing about Drawing Club is that anything can happen. The more the children hear different ideas, think of their own and talk about stories in a 'What if...' way, the more their imagination will ignite and they will become amazing little storytellers.