WIXLIB

ShapePattern and rhythmShape is created by merging, touchingand intersecting lines. It can also bedefined by colour and tone and bytexture. Everything has a silhouetteshape as well as other internal shapes.The shapes that emerge between shapesare called negative shapes. Shapes canbe regular or irregular, closed or open.Pattern is the constant repetition, withvariation, found in everything from thepattern of sea shells to the forms of hillsand clouds. The teacher draws attentionto pattern and rhythm in nature, in artand in the children’s work as it arises.Children can use pattern and rhythmas a design element in two or threedimensional compositions to achieveunity, variety, movement and directionalforce.The content of the visual arts curriculumFormForm is the name given to threedimensional shape. It is solid. Formcan be modelled in clay, Plasticine orpapier mâché. Ways of suggestingthree-dimensional form on a flat plane(surface) are explored through drawingand painting.Colour and toneSection 2Colour in art is referred to in termsof hue, tone, intensity and temperature.The basic characteristic of pure colouris called hue, for example yellow, red,blue. Tone is the lightness or darknessof a hue. Intensity refers to the relativestrength or weakness of a hue. Temperature in art terms (but not in precisescientific terms) refers to the warmand cool halves of the colour spectrum.Developing awareness of colour andits impact on everyday life is vital todeveloping children’s visual awarenessand awareness of the effects they cancreate with colour in their own work.10TextureTexture is the roughness or smoothnessof a surface. Everything has texture.Surfaces may be silky, shiny, hairy orbumpy, for example. Texture is animportant aspect of the visual and notjust the tactile world. Children needopportunities to work on variouslytextured surfaces and to discover theirown ways of suggesting textures seenin nature.Spatial organisationSpatial organisation in two-dimensionalwork is concerned with creating anillusion of space and depth on a flatsurface and also with organising theflat picture plane. Three-dimensionalwork (construction, for example)involves finding ways of working withvarious closed or open spaces orcompartments to create structures: thisapplies to non-representational as wellas to representational or imaginativestructures.

The visual elements in contextThe emphases in this curriculum are: understanding the creative processchildren go through in making art understanding the stages ofdevelopment in children’s art andtheir relevance for drawing inparticularThe emphases in the curriculumLearning in art is activity-based anddevelopmental and it builds on children’sprevious experience in different media.Children develop awareness of the visualelements and their interplay throughmaking art and through looking at andresponding to art works. While they haverelevance for all six strands, attentionshould be drawn to them informally, incontext and without undue emphasis atprimary level. Children learn to use line,shape, colour and tone, pattern andrhythm and texture expressively and fordesign purposes through opportunitiesto look closely at the visual environmentand to draw and paint themes that havepersonal meaning for them. Simpleprint-making and creative work infabric and fibre help to further thisdevelopment. Children acquire a veryimmediate sense of form through workingwith clay. How people, objects or abstractelements relate to each other in space isa primary concern in the art of childrenas well as in that of artists. Young childrenstruggle very creatively with this andinvent their own ways of suggestingspace. Older children, who generallywant things to look ‘right’, will beinterested in seeing how artists solvespatial problems in non-representationalas well as in representational work.Careful planning ensures thatopportunities for developing visualawareness are built in to every art lesson.The emphases in thecurriculum the provision of a broad, six-strandcurriculum to which drawing iscentral and which incorporatesart, craft and design activities ina balance of two- and threedimensional media balancing opportunities to make artwith opportunities to look at andmake a personal response to art.The creative processIn making art, the process of makingis as valuable as the final product.The emphasis is on exploring andexperimenting with the expressivepossibilities of different materials, toolsand media and with the choices theyoffer for different tasks. Talking abouttheir work and, when appropriate, asthey work is central to this process.The atmosphere during the art classmust always be challenging, motivatingand supportive and must allow thechildren to express understanding oftheir world in a personal way. The teachermust constantly be alert to their needsVisual Arts Teacher Guidelines11

and successes to ensure that they areinvolved in a creative rather than in apassive or imitative way.Section 2The content of the visual arts curriculumTo focus concentration and encourageeffort as children work, the teacher movesamong them, discussing, questioningand, where necessary, directingobservation and helping to rekindleinterest that has waned or courage thathas failed. The teacher should be sensitiveto when such intervention would behelpful and when not. When childrenare disappointed by their efforts, theirdifficulties are discussed to help thempinpoint the problem area. Positiveaspects should also be discussed,for example how well they saw andinterpreted a particular curve, shape,colour or mood. Questions should bedesigned to elicit a visual and at timeskinaesthetic response and to stimulatethe children to further concentrationand involvement: I like that colour: how did you makeit? Was that your favouritejumper/dress? Did it have a designon it? Do you remember how your legswent when you were running? Can you show me the way the dog’smouth went when he snarled at you? Can you make a big movement withyour hand to show me the way thattwig curves/the flow of your friend’slong hair/water going down thesink?12The task of the teacher is not to teachclever techniques or to demonstrateways of producing images and formshe/she finds acceptable but to buildon interests and strengths by drawingthe children out and making suggestionsas appropriate. Children should not betaught to follow instructions unquestioningly, as this is likely to hinder creativityand spontaneity. They should be helpedto appreciate the value of workingindependently and on their own initiative,and experimentation and interpretationshould be encouraged equally in twoand three-dimensional work. In an artlesson, the children should remain thedesigners: this role should not be takenfrom them.Extra care should be given to consideringthe creative process when integratingwith other curricular areas: it is possibleto combine different sets of objectiveswithout losing the integrity of any.

The stages of development inchildren’s artChildren should be encouragedto use drawing to plan their artactivities.The curriculum provides opportunitiesfor activities that incorporate art, craftand design in two- and threedimensional media, both in makingactivities and in responding to works ofart, craft and design. The twodimensional media are drawing,painting and print, and they includecollage. The three-dimensional mediaare clay, construction and work in fabricand fibre, some of which havetraditionally been referred to as craftactivities and are now further developedas a creative process. It is important tomaintain a balance between activitiesin two- and three-dimensional media togive children a real sense of the threedimensional nature of the world theylive in as well as an imaginative capacityfor expressing it on a flat surface.The emphases in the curriculumIt is important to maintain abalance between activities intwo- and three-dimensionalmedia.Patterns of development are discerniblein children’s art up to the end of primaryschooling. They are most evident inchildren’s imagery and they provide abroad outline of typical progress. Theybegin with mark-making and so-called‘scribble pictures’ and may develop towhere realistic representation is themain concern. A personal set of symbols(their own visual interpretations) willtypically evolve for familiar objects andfigures, such as a person, a tree or ahouse. The development of a ‘scheme’(schema) for expressing ideas may resultand may be used in their story-telling.As they progress, it is important to helpthem develop beyond symbols which areused with little variation. They shouldalso be encouraged to use drawing toplan their art activities, for example ifthe theme is to be carried out inanother medium. An understanding ofthe stages or patterns of development inchildren’s art is crucial to the objectiveassessment of children’s visualexpression, and to planning.The six-strand curriculumDrawing has primary importance inthis curriculum. It is through drawingthat children’s development in art ismost evident. Because it is somethingmost young children do naturally, it isparticularly important in promotingvisual awareness and the ability torecord what is seen, felt or imagined.Drawing activities also help to develop aconfident and expressive use ofmaterials and tools.Visual Arts Teacher Guidelines13

Making art and respondingto artSection 2The content of the visual arts curriculumThe curriculum places much emphasison attentive looking, both in making artand in responding to art. Art activitiesare structured to help children developsensitivity to their visual surroundingsand to art works and to make connectionsbetween what they observe and theirown work. Children’s developing abilityto observe closely and to interpretwhat they see is the basis for expressionand design. They need opportunitiesfor close observation of the naturaland living environments as well asopportunities to see how artists,craftspeople and designers interpretthem. They should have access to avariety of art styles from different timesand cultures as stimulus for their ownart activities, as a way of makingcomparisons between differentinterpretations of an idea or theme,or simply for the pleasure they give.The emphasis should always be on artas inspiration, and not as somethingto copy.Children are constantly bombardedwith aggressive advertising imageswhich are designed to deliver theirmessage in the shortest possible time.The deeper, subtler and more meaningfulvalues that can be appreciated in art,however, take more time. The teacher’stask is to help them to look at art worksfor a longer period and with a moreopen attitude than they might otherwisehave done. Openness to art enables14children to evaluate art works in acritical and personally meaningful way.Their attention span and powers ofconcentration expand and deepen withcontinued exposure to a wide variety ofart works.Preparation could include deciding on how much information to give onthe artist’s life and methods at what point in the class to give thisinformation compiling a list of questions basedon the art work and designed tostimulate the children’s visualfaculties whether to follow up with a practicalactivity.It is important that children are enabledto make connections between the workof artists and their own work. They shouldbe encouraged to discover and talkabout variety in visual expression fromdifferent times and cultures, its role inthose cultures and how it differsperhaps from today’s. As they progressthey should also have opportunities toanalyse and discuss the visual imagesthat have such a strong influence ontheir ways of seeing the world, forexample images projected by television,posters, advertising, magazines andstreet fashion. This would be helpfulin developing a feeling for graphicsand design.

CraftDesignDesign has a very important role to playin the primary curriculum, and can bedefined as active planning, inventing,making and relating parts to a whole ineither two- or three-dimensional media.It is not an isolated discipline butunderlies every art and craft activity,whether the end in view is expressivecommunication or the creation of auseful object.Close observation of the world aroundthem enriches children’s visual awarenessand the vocabulary on which to drawfor expression and design. Drawingattention to well-designed objectsand buildings helps them to developsensitivity to good design and theability to form and design their world.Many types of design activities provideChildren make design-related decisionswhen, for example, they make decisions about the layout oftheir workThe emphases in the curriculumIt is important that children areintroduced to a wide range of craftprocesses to help develop sensitivityto and appreciation of beauty, goodtaste and good workmanship. As wellas being intensely enjoyable, experiencesin looking at and handling well-designedcraft objects help to develop discrimination and a critical faculty. Childrenshould also become familiar withtraditional Irish crafts, especially withliving local crafts: visits to local orregional craft workshops could well beamong their most memorable learningexperiences. Experimental ways ofworking with craft materials shouldbe explored.valuable experiences at all stages ofprimary schooling when they promoteobservation, invention, expression andcreativity. enrich a surface with pattern anddetail change a piece of fabric purposefullyby removing from or adding to it,even in infant classes choose scraps of cloth or paper for acollage and make decisions aboutwhere to position them rework a sketch for use as a designin another medium, for examplemaking changes to a drawing fromnature for use as a print plan to make something to their owndesign: trying to visualise it; makingsketches and plans for it; thinkingabout the materials they might useand how they might use them, forexample a costume for use in drama,or a working three-dimensional model plan to make a functional object inclay, for example, and make decisionsabout how its functional demandsmight be met.It is in these contexts that designawareness has an important part toplay in primary school art.Visual Arts Teacher Guidelines15

Varieties of paper, card andfabric are suitable surfacesfor print-making

Section 3Schoolplanning forthe visual arts

School planning for thevisual artsThe successful implementation of thecurriculum will depend on carefulplanning. It should be planned for asan independent, balanced and cohesiveprogramme within a broad arts educationcurriculum and as a vital component ofthe overall school plan. Planning for thevisual arts is a consultative and collaborative process involving the principaland teachers and, where appropriate,parents and the board of management.School planning for the visual artsPlanning should be twofold: curriculum planning organisational planning.Curriculum planningThe issues that may need to be discussedas part of the school’s planning for thevisual arts include the following:Section 3The importance of visual artseducation in the schoolcurriculumTheme-based activities thatincorporate a number of mediawould, where appropriate, bedesigned to achieve theobjectives of a number ofstrands.18Curriculum planning begins withacknowledging the central role of visualarts education in the child’s holisticdevelopment. The creative processchildren go through in making art, thestages or patterns of development intheir art and the importance of visualarts education as a way of knowing thatcomplements other areas of learningshould be among the topics discussed.The emphasis on the creativeprocessThe creative process children gothrough in making art is emphasisedbecause a significant part of learningin art occurs in their approaches to thetask in hand, and this may not beevident in the finished product.A broad and balancedcurriculumPlanning should ensure that all childrenhave a broad developmental programmein drawing, paint and colour and in athree-dimensional medium such as clay,as well as in print-making, constructionand work in fabric and fibre. The latterthree may in part be replaced by workin other appropriate media, which couldinclude photography, film studies orcomputer graphics, for example.Theme-based activities that incorporatea number of media (for example drawing,paint and colour, construction) would,where appropriate, be designed toachieve the objectives of a number ofstrands in the same activity, and theschool plan would ensure that thenecessary balance between work in twoand three-dimensional forms ismaintained. School planning shouldalso provide for opportunities to see, toreflect on and to appreciate art formsfrom our own and other cultures,whether at first hand or in reproduction.A broad and balanced curriculum ensuresthat children have the experiencesneeded to develop the concepts andskills that underlie visual expression.

Children with differing needsThe curriculum providesopportunities for children withspecial educational needs toshow capabilities andindependent achievement.All children should have equal accessto visual arts education. The schoolplan should guarantee opportunitiesto participate in purposeful activitiesthat draw on their creative and aestheticpotential. When planning for equalopportunity, which would includeequal access for boys and girls, staffmembers might discuss attitudes toart and the values it holds for them.The curriculum provides opportunitiesfor children with special educationalneeds to show capabilities andindependent achievement. Their stage ofdevelopment in art must beacknowledged, regardless of age: theirvisual imagery is a way of expressingtheir understanding of the world andthey must be allowed to developthrough it. Activities and guidelinesshould therefore be adapted to suitindividual needs and should beappropriate to the child’s ability andage. Where relevant, activities shouldbe planned in manageable, sequentialunits, and children should be allowedsufficient time to complete each unit.Brief, one-session art activities may bemore suitable for children with a shortattention span, and kinaesthetic, multisensory activities may sometimes beappropriate. With support, interestand praise for their efforts, childrenwill respond enthusiastically.Curriculum planningThe circumstances and environment ofthe school, the local traditions in thevisual arts and the range of interestsand aptitudes of the children willinfluence the selection of activitiesand topics. Staff members’ interestsand levels of expertise in the visualarts would also be important factorsin implementing the programme andshould be recognised.In any class, children may be working toobjectives within a range of levels. Somechildren with learning difficulties ma

the wider curriculum. Learning in and through art can contribute positively to children's sense of personal and cultural identity and to their whole development. The visual arts in a child-centred curriculum Each child possesses a range of intelligences and he/she needs a variety of learning experiences in order to develop them fully. Visual .