I meet my new Year 7 Art class next week for the first time. I love setting the scene in the first lesson for students to be really excited and encouraged about coming back. Two things I have learnt to expect from Year 7's: they  are enthusiastic for creating (hooray!)  AND often require a seating plan throughout the term to work productively on practical tasks (because its too exciting). So with that in mind our first drawing task will double as a seating plan. We will laminate A3 drawings and use them each lesson as placemats (aka seating plans).In my initial lessons with a juniors I would usually introduce a low-stakes drawing task. My intention is for my students to leave their first lesson experiencing success, playing with materials and completing a drawing. In this lesson we used a drawing template; this may or may not be necessary depending on your group. As I only had a 50 minute lesson to greet my new class and get these drawings done and dusted I was more interested in task completion and building confidence.For this task we are finding inspiration from the artist Laurel Burch. Her iconic 'cat' paintings will be our drawing prompt. They are excellent examples of the   art elements; colour, line and shape.A great start to introducing some subject vocabulary and who doesn't love colourful, fantastic felines! I have often come across surface design and fabrics covered in Laurel Burch style cat patterns. Another motivation in this task is to eventually scan and edited each students cat into a repeat pattern - I'll let you know if I ever get up to this! For now here are the steps to a successful first lesson in the art room.Learning Intention:

• To experience success and have fun completing their drawing
• Experiment with watercolour
• Identify line, shape and colour in artworks

What You'll Need:

• Watercolour Paints
• Brushes - flat and round brush
• Water jugs
• Paint palettes
• newspaper
• Sharpies
• A3 drawing Cat Template
• Inspiration images

Steps:1. Set up each students work station with water colour paints, water jug, brushes a sharpie, and  cat template2. Share some examples of Laurel Burch's cats. This is where you can identify examples of colour, line and shape and make some suggestions for possible ways to decorate each cats. If you have time to create some design drafts, use this template.3. Students add a tail to their cat using sharpies. No pencils and no erasing. There may be students who come up with an less than legible tail - it's ok! This becomes a perfect learning opportunity for turning a miss placed line into a deliberate pattern.4. Using inspiration imagery students fill their cats with line, shape, pattern. (using their sharpie)5. A quick demonstration of how to mix water colour paints and apply to their cat's. We start with the background in one solid flat wash then begin on each element of the pattern. I let students know the time frame expectations at this point and checked that they were on track to completing their artwork.6. Lastly each student write's their name on the coloured tag. Drawing complete!7. Before laminating each artwork (this extend the life of the seat planning place mat) I scan each image at 300/600dpi for possible future projects.8. Laminate9. Next lesson place each artwork in your arranged seating plan. My students loved walking around the classroom and finding their 'crazy cat', they didn't even look at their names.Combining each artwork into a colour fantastic feline surface design is something I will look at creating at some point - my draft sample below.