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Visual Arts Policy
Introductory Statement
The staff in consultation with the Board of Management and parents formulated this policy during school year 2015/2016.
Vision
In our school we see that Visual Art plays an important role in children’s lives. We want the children to enjoy a rich variety of experiences in Visual Arts within the guidelines of the Primary School Visual Arts Curriculum.
Rationale
This policy was formulated to provide for creative and aesthetic experiences through exploring, investigating, inventing, designing and making in a range of media. It promotes observation and ways of seeing and helps the child to acquire sensitivity to the visual, spatial and tactile world and to aesthetic experience. We believe it channels the child’s natural curiosity for educational ends and can facilitate learning in all areas of the curriculum.
Aims
1. To develop awareness of shape, line, form, space and texture.
2. To give pleasure and enjoyment to the children.
3. To develop the children’s sense of self-
4. To develop artistic language skills and acquire artistic vocabulary.
5. To develop the children’s creative skills.
6. To develop an awareness of different forms of art through various media.
7. To develop an appreciation of different art forms.
8. To develop self-
9. To develop skills and technique for expression and invention.
10. To promote children’s understanding and response of 2D and 3D shapes.
11. To instil confidence in the children.
Broad Objectives
The Visual Arts Curriculum should enable a child to:
• Look at, enjoy and make a personal response to a range of familiar and unfamiliar objects and images in the environment, focusing on their visual attributes.
• Explore and begin to develop sensitivity to qualities of line, shape, colour and tone, texture, pattern and rhythm, spatial organisation and the three-
• Express ideas, feelings and experiences in visual form and with imagination, enjoyment and a sense of fulfilment.
• Experiment in spontaneous, imaginative and increasingly structured ways with a range of art materials, including pencils, paints, crayons, chalks, markers, inks, clay, paper mache, fabric and fibre, and construction materials.
• Explore the expressive and design possibilities of the materials within a range of two and three-
• Apply skills and techniques, demonstrating increasing sensitivity to the visual elements in his/her art work.
• Look with curiosity and openness at the work of a wide range of artists and craftspeople.
• Explore atmosphere, content and impact in the work of artists, especially when they relate to his/her own work.
• Identify a variety of visual arts media and describe some of the creative processes involved.
• Develop an ability to identify and discuss what he/she considers the most important design elements of individual pieces, especially when they relate to work in hand.
• Discuss the preferred design elements in his/her work and in the work classmates.
• Begin to appreciate the context in which great art and artefacts are created and the culture form which they grow.
• Respond to visual arts experiences in a variety of imaginative ways.
• Use appropriate language in responding to visual art experiences.
Content
The Visual Arts Curriculum is divided into six strands:
Drawing, paint and colour, print, clay, construction and fabric and fibre.
Each strand’s activities are interrelated and involve perceiving and exploring the visual world and making art and looking and responding to the visual world and works of Art.
This results in the:
1 Making Art and
2 Looking and Responding structure in each strand.
These activities are informed on by the Art Elements: line, shape, form, colour and tone, pattern and rhythm, texture and spatial organisation.
Drawing:
• Making and describing different lines.
• Making a line that changes;
Across a page
Using different drawing tools
• Looking for and collecting different lines ( e.g. using view finder)
• Using different line together
At random
To make a pattern
• Feeling different textures – using line to describe how they feel
• Charcoal – winter scene
• Viewfinder – local scene
• Chalk on sugar paper
Paint & Colour:
1. Painting using thick and thin brush
2. Moving paint around in different ways
3. Painting using other tools
4. Using and describing colour
5. Mixing colour and changing colours
6. More colour and less colour
7. Textured painting
8. Rainbow
9. Fold over paintings – butterfly
10. Sea scene/ explore sea
Print:
1. Pressing on and taking off, exploring the technique – darker and lighter
2. Random patterns
3. Repeat patterns
4. Experimenting with different surfaces and edges of junk
5. Leaf rubbings, bark rubbings, money etc.
6. Leaf rubbings – crayon
7. Sponge printing – (pack of sponges)
8. Digit printing – hand, finger or key
Construction:
1. Egg mobiles
2. Drawbridge
3. Cone figures
4. Treasure chest
5. Cardboard baskets
6. Wire construction
7. Plastic construction
8. Oasis, logs, leaves, etc. (Christmas)
9. Class project
Clay:
1. Lighthouse
2. Fruit bowl
3. Candleholder
4. Head in clay
5. Honey pot – coiling
6. Icing
7. Mountain relief
8. Free play
Fabric & Fibre:
1. Pom-
2. Fabric weaving
3. Stitching
4. Wool collage
5. Overlaying & applique
6. Tie & dye
Complementary Media
The strands outlined above may be complemented by work in other media, such as photography, film and video or computer graphics, but a balance should be maintained between activities in two and three dimensional media.
Looking and Responding:
• Ample opportunity
• Openness
• Discussion of qualities rather than judgement
The Art Elements
Line, shape, form, colour and tone, texture, pattern and rhythm and space (spatial relationships)
At each class level the development of the above concepts is expected to be incorporated into strand work.
Assessment
Visual Arts in the classroom will be assessed by
• Teacher observation
• Teacher – designed tasks
• Work samples, portfolios and projects
• Curriculum profiles
1. Teacher Observation
This informal method of assessment involves assessing
• The child’s response to art tasks
• The child’s perceptual awareness (ability to look objectively at one’s own work and the work of others)
• The level of the child’s commitment and personal involvement in a task
2. Work Samples
• pupil portfolios should be included examples of the year’s work
Display
• Each class should have access to display areas in their classroom and in the greater school area, eg. Along the corridors
• each child should have work displayed regularly
• discussion of art displays should be viewed as part of the Visual Arts programme
• children’s art work should be displayed in the greater community when opportunity allows
• displays should always be kept neat and tidy
• all notice boards should have decorative borders to enhance the display
• pictures on display should not be allowed to curl over (i.e. thumb tack in each corner)
• a section of the school web page will be dedicated to pupil art work
• During our annual open day parents will be able to view the children’s artwork.
Special Needs/ Diversity
The following need to be acknowledged:
• the variety of stages of development in a class due to the range of experience and ability found in any class
• children with special needs may function at a younger stage to their peers
• Children with co-
Seasonal Themes
Harvest Autumn Hallowe’en
Winter Christmas St. Brigid’s Day
St. Valentine’s Day Spring St. Patrick’s Day
Mother’s Day Easter Summer
May Day Father’s Day Holidays
Time Allocation
One hour each week
Approaches and Methodologies
• working from imagination
• focusing on drawing materials and tools
• working from observation and curiosity
Resources
A variety of pencils, charcoal, coloured pencils, crayons, pastels, chalks, markers, inks, paints, a selection of paper & sizes, a selection of paint colours, oil crayons, oil pastels, dyes, sponges, paint brushes, printing ink, rollers, tempera paint, pads, brushes, glass for print, wax, terracotta, clay modelling tools, rolling pins, oddments, clay cutting tool, “harp”, selection of cardboard boxes, sheets of cardboard, cardboard, plastic, polystyrene packages, sample loom, fabric & fabric wood off – cuts, glue, scissors, open weave-
Safety
• use of non-
• structured skills development in use of scissors
• supervision of use of all sharp implements
• craft knives to be only used by teachers
Planning
Each teacher will plan individually for Visual Arts. This will include a long term Visual Arts Plan and Short Term Visual Arts Plan each fortnight.
Integration
Visual Arts will be integrated with other subjects, particularly with Drama, English, Irish, Maths, History, Geography and SPHE.
Success Criteria
Success will be assessed through participation and enjoyment. Teachers will use observation to gauge success.
Roles & Responsibilities
This plan will be supported and developed by all staff. It will be implemented by all staff. The Principal will carry out overall monitoring.
Review
This plan will be reviewed during school year 2019/2020.
Ratification & Communications
This new plan will be communicated and discussed with the B.O.M. and will replace previous plans.