Arts in Years 3 to 6

Updated July 2015

Year 3

In Year 3, students are exposed to the connections between Art and other areas allowing them to appreciate cultural diversity. The curriculum also focused on building students’ competency in the various art forms as well providing them with opportunities to express their thoughts and ideas graphically. This semester, students created artworks developing subject matter, skills and techniques and organising the elements of visual arts. Students have made a weaving using colour to create their own designs. They have used alternative art mediums, such as, ink and chalk, to convey their own unique style and ideas. Students were able to create aesthetically pleasing artworks utilising natural resources. Besides that, students used Art to conceptually present scientific concepts in a visual and graphical way through their learning focus – States of Matter. In this unit of inquiry, students created posters, murals and dioramas to explain changes in state of matter, thus strengthening concepts learnt in Science in a visual way.

Year 4

The Year 4 Art programme is aimed at allowing students to express their thoughts and ideas creatively by encouraging students to respond visually to the works of contemporary artists. The programme also builds on students’ thought process, as they gradually become independent learners. They begin to recognise, appreciate and value the different ways in which others think, act and respond to artworks and consider how practices in the Arts may be enacted and sustained.

This semester, students were exposed to various techniques and ranges of media while looking at some contemporary artist’s work. Projects included aboriginal paintings, collages and many other interesting media. Students have learnt about the art of: Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. Students have also looked at the arts in relation to history and cultures; their learning focus was Explorers. They have used a variety of mediums to produce a collaborative class work developing ideas and outcomes. For their learning focus, the students worked on an inquiry unit that focused on energy. Students created a 3D smart house equipped with energy saving features such as solar panels, skylight windows, roller shutters, wall insulation and water storage tanks. They also learnt how clean energy could be generated as well as how they could do their part to promote energy conservation to the larger community.

Year 5

The Year 5 Art programme builds on students’ competency on expressing ideas and thoughts creatively through the study of contemporary artists. At this level, students begin to recognise, appreciate and value the different ways in which others think, act and respond to artworks and consider how practices in the Arts may be enacted and sustained. They also develop their understanding of the world and their relationships with others.

This semester, students are exposed to various techniques and range of media. Some of the projects included aboriginal paintings, collages and many others. Through this, students are able to work independently and collaboratively as they experimented with different materials. For their learning focus, the Grade 5 students investigated on the causes and effects of Climate Change. Students created posters, paintings and dioramas on the topic and understand how Global Warming affects the Earth today. They learnt the causes and effects of Global Warming; how it leads to unpredictable weather patterns at our planet.

Year 6

The Year 6 Art programme focuses on developing students’ thought processes by allowing them to express ideas creatively, explaining reasons for their own thinking and actions rationally as well as demonstrate good organisation of ideas. Through this, they begin to recognise, appreciate and value the different ways in which others think, act and respond to artworks and consider how practices in the Arts may be enacted and sustained.

This Semester, students worked on responses of artworks by different artistes by interpreting and presenting them from their own point of view. This is done through collages, paintings and craftwork. Besides that, students also investigated endangered animals as part of their learning focus in Term Two. They created clay animals and dioramas that depicted endangered animals in their habitat. Students also played their part by creating awareness on the plight of endangered animals through posters.