The Arts
The arts have the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students, exciting the imagination and encouraging them to reach their creative and expressive potential. The five arts subjects in the Australian Curriculum provide opportunities for students to learn how to create, design, represent, communicate and share their imagined and conceptual ideas, emotions, observations and experiences.
Rich in tradition, the arts play a major role in the development and expression of cultures and communities, locally, nationally and globally. Students communicate ideas in current, traditional and emerging forms and use arts knowledge and understanding to make sense of their world. The Australian Curriculum: The Arts values, respects and explores the significant contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to Australia’s arts heritage and contemporary arts practices through their distinctive ways of representing and communicating knowledge, traditions and experience. In The Arts, students learn as artists and audience through the intellectual, emotional and sensory experiences of the arts. They acquire knowledge, skills and understanding specific to The Arts subjects and develop critical understanding that informs decision-making and aesthetic choices. Through The Arts, students learn to express their ideas, thoughts and opinions as they discover and interpret the world. They learn that designing, producing and resolving their work is as essential to learning in the arts as is creating a finished artwork. Students develop their arts knowledge and aesthetic understanding through a growing comprehension of the distinct and related languages, symbols, techniques, processes and skills of the arts subjects. Arts learning provides students with opportunities to engage with creative industries and arts professionals.
The arts entertain, challenge, provoke responses and enrich our knowledge of self, communities, world cultures and histories. The Arts contribute to the development of confident and creative individuals, nurturing and challenging active and informed citizens. Learning in The Arts is based on cognitive, affective and sensory/kinaesthetic response to arts practices as students revisit increasingly complex content, skills and processes with developing confidence and sophistication across their years of learning.
This rationale is extended and complemented by the specific rationale for each arts subject.
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Readers' Theatre - Teaching Resource Pack
A comprehensive pack of 33 readers' theatre scripts, catering to a range of age groups and ability levels.
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Visual Arts Elements Resource Pack - Upper Years
A comprehensive pack of resources to use with the upper years when studying the elements of Visual Art.
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Visual Arts Elements Resource Pack - Middle Years
A comprehensive pack of resources to use with the middle years when studying the elements of Visual Art.
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Visual Arts Elements Resource Pack - Lower Years
A comprehensive pack of resources to use with the lower years when studying the elements of Visual Art.
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Aboriginal Dot Painting
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand the history and traditional techniques of Aboriginal dot painting.
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Visual Art Elements Unit - Middle Years
This Visual Arts unit investigates the Elements of Visual Art. Demonstrations and artistic techniques are explored, with particular attention given to line, shape, form, colour and texture.
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An Introduction to Aboriginal Art
A 60 minute lesson in which students will identify the different types of Aboriginal art in Australia.
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Aboriginal Bark Paintings
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand the history and traditional techniques of Aboriginal bark paintings.
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Aboriginal Rock Art
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand the history and traditional techniques of Aboriginal rock art.
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Aboriginal Wandjina Artworks
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand the history and traditional techniques of Aboriginal Wandjina artworks.
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Assessment – Patterns, Lines and Feelings
An assessment task in which students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the use of line in visual arts.
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What Is Line?
A 60-minute lesson in which students are introduced to the use of line in visual arts.
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Visual Art Elements Unit – Upper Years
This Visual Arts unit investigates the Elements of Visual Art. Demonstrations and artistic techniques are explored, with particular attention given to line, shape, form, colour, texture and space.
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Applying Aboriginal Art Techniques - Assessment Task
An assessment task in which students will demonstrate their understanding of Aboriginal art techniques.
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Aboriginal Cross-Hatching
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand the history and traditional techniques of Aboriginal cross-hatching.
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Aboriginal X-Ray Art
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand the history and traditional techniques of Aboriginal x-ray art.
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Aboriginal Body Painting
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand the history and traditional techniques of Aboriginal body painting.
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Aboriginal Sand Drawings
A 60 minute lesson in which students will understand the history and traditional techniques of Aboriginal sand drawings.
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The Element of Space
A 60-minute lesson in which students will investigate how space can be used to create the illusion of depth.
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Assessment – My Garden Grows
An assessment task in which students demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the use of organic shapes in visual arts.
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Geometric and Organic Shapes
A 60-minute lesson in which students investigate geometric and organic shapes and how they can be used effectively to convey meaning in visual arts.
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Working with Space – Balancing Act
A 60-minute lesson in which students will create an artwork that explores the interplay between positive and negative space.
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Working with Texture – Impressive Imprints
A 60-minute lesson in which students will create a three-dimensional textured tile artwork using impressions.
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The Element of Texture
A 60-minute lesson in which students will investigate how texture can be achieved in visual arts.
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Working with Colour – Mix It Up
A 90-minute lesson in which students will create an artwork using complementary, harmonious and monochromatic colour schemes.
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The Element of Colour
A 60-minute lesson in which students will investigate how colour is used to express feeling and evoke a response in visual arts.
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Working with Form – Plumping It Up
A 60-minute lesson in which students will create the illusion of three-dimensional form on a two-dimensional drawing.
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The Element of Form
A 60-minute lesson in which students will investigate how form can be achieved in visual arts.
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Applying Shape – Masked in Mystery
A 90-minute lesson in which students will create an African-inspired face mask by experimenting with shape.
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The Element of Shape
A 60-minute lesson in which students will investigate how geometric and organic shapes are used in visual arts.
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Applying Line – Moving Lines
A 60-minute lesson in which students will create an artwork by experimenting with various types of lines.
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The Element of Line
A 60-minute lesson in which students will investigate how lines are used to define objects, add detail and express emotion in visual arts.