Concepts

Same as for Infant Classes

Strands

Same as for Infant Classes

Concepts and skills development

An awareness of line

• Recognise that lines have various properties and can create shapes, textures, patterns and movements
• Look closely at the linear qualities of objects in the surroundings
• Develop personal symbols to represent familiar figures and objects visually

An awareness of shape

• Become sensitive to shape in the environment
• Become aware of outline shape, silhouette and shadow shapes
• Invent and experiment with shape in compositions – collage, print, drawing and painting

An awareness of form

• Become aware of the 3D nature of form in the visual environment
• Explore the relationships between parts and the whole – balance
• Express understanding of form in clay

An awareness of colour and tone

• Develop sensitivity to colour in the local environment
• Begin to analyse colours and mix them purposefully
• Distinguish between colour and pure colour (hue)
• Use colour and tone to create unity and emphasis in composition – use tones of one colour to create effects

An awareness of texture

• Express the relationship between how things feel and how they look
• Create variety in surface textures using a range of materials and tools
• An awareness of pattern and rhythm
• Recognise pattern in the environment – clouds, leaves, flowers, railings, fields, lichen
• Become aware of repetition and variation in own work and in the work of others – in line, shape, colour, form

An awareness of space

• Develop awareness of how people and objects take up space
• Begin to show relationship between objects and figures in drawings and show some sense of scale
• Begin to develop a practical understanding of structure through construction activities

Strand unit: Drawing

The child should be enabled to

• Experiment with marks, lines, shapes, textures, patterns and tones that can be made with different drawing instruments on a range of surfaces – crayons, soft pencils, charcoals, chalks, textured papers, computer art program
• Make drawings based on personal and /or imaginative life – friends playing ball, school bag, book
• Explore shape as seen in nature and manufactured objects and become aware of the shape of shadows – silhouette drawings, shapes of objects and their shadows
• Draw from observation – variety of natural and manufactured objects – tree, leaf, flower, fruit, vegetable, classmate

Looking and responding

• Look and talk about own work, the work of other children and  the work of artists

Strand Unit: Paint and colour

• Explore colour with a variety of materials and media – paint, crayons, felt-tipped pens, print, collage, using computer program to create images and experiment with colour
• Use colour expressively to interpret themes based on personal or imaginative life – poems, stories, songs, music, what might happen next in a story
• Paints objects chosen for their colour possibilities – flowers and other objects from the nature table
• Discover colour in the visual environment and become sensitive to tonal variations between light and dark and to variations in pure colour – discover colour and tone through themes chosen for their colour possibilities (a sunny or stormy sky)
• Discover harmony and contrast in natural and manufactured objects and through themes chosen for their colour possibilities – features that blend with environment and those that stand out
• Discover colour, pattern and rhythm in natural and manufactured objects – using repeated complementary colours
• Explore the relationship between how things feel and how they look – rough, smooth, bumpy, fluffy, prickly

Strand Unit: Looking and responding

• Look and talk about own work, the work of other children and the work of artists – describe what is happening in the painting, the colours and tones chosen, the lines, shapes, textures and  patterns created, how they are arranged, how colour was used, what the artist was trying to express, what he likes best about the painting

Strand Unit: Print

• Experiment with the effects that can be achieved with simple print-making – with oddments that have interesting textures or shapes, making rubbings from tree bark, using a limited colour range to focus on texture, shape, pattern, discovering how simple prints can be developed further by overprinting with contrasting colours
• Use a variety of print-making techniques to make theme-based prints – relief prints, composing a relief block print using one or more colour, creating a design for a print by drawing thick and thin lines into a slab of clay; printing with mask-outs; making stencils; making wax-resist pictures, making wax crayon transfer prints; doing a number of  exploded designs using a computer art program

Strand Unit: Looking and responding

• Look at, handle, and talk about familiar objects for experience of shape, texture and pattern
• Look at and talk about his work, the work of other children and art prints – describe print, line, shape, colour and tone, texture, pattern; how materials and  tools were used to create effects; what he likes about the print; looking at some prints to investigate print-making techniques
• Look at examples of print design in everyday life

Strand Unit: Clay

• Explore and discover the possibilities of clay as a medium for imaginative expression
• Changing the form of a small ball of clay using the medium expressively – making animals or birds, making figures based on stories
• Make simple pottery – designing and making a pinch-pot, varnish when dry
• Experiment with and develop line, shape, texture and pattern in clay

Strand Unit: Looking and responding

• Look at, handle and talk about natural and manufactured objects for experience of 3D form – pebbles, shells, simple potter
• Look at, talk about own work, the work of other children and figures by famous sculptors – form, what artist was trying to express, what hw likes best about the work

Strand Unit: Construction

• Explore and experiment with the properties and characteristics of materials in making structures – grouping, balancing and building with small components and with construction toys; how spaces and outlines are created; how the different parts are related to the whole; how some materials can add colour, pattern, texture and interest
• Make imaginative structures – design a large complex with a variety of spaces (castle); design a structure with some complexity in the division of space (theatre set); design an imaginative plaything (robot)

Strand Unit: Looking and responding

• Look at collections and photographs of natural and built structures and investigate spatial arrangements, balance and outline
• Look at and talk about his own work and the work of other children – describe the structure, the materials and tools chosen, how the spaces were arranged, how the balance was achieved
• Look and talk about a local building, at a famous building and visually stimulating artefacts (or slides or prints) -  Fingal County Hall, St Colmcille’s Church, photographs in local history pack, Pavillions Shopping Centre

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