Art Curriculum
Lessons will follow the DBAE (Discipline Based Arts Education) model. DBAE includes elements of art history, aesthetics and art criticism as well as art production. The curriculum provides students with the means for self-expression while focusing on artistic literacy that enables students to interpret information conveyed by images and symbols. The curriculum considers the Virginia Fine Arts Standards of Learning as well as the interests of parents and students. Whenever possible, themes explored in the art classroom will correspond with that week's classroom theme.
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Red Room (Kindergarten)
The Red Room curriculum is designed to serve as a building block for further arts instruction. Emphasis is placed on cognitive, sensory and motor development as well as development of visual problem solving skills.
Students will:
- Create works of art that demonstrate solutions to visual problems
- Identify and use colors, textures, line, shape and patterns
- Create works of art that depict animals and plants
- Create self-portraits
- Identify spatial relationships
- Identify a sequence of steps in creating a work of art
- Manipulate three-dimensional art materials
- Demonstrate motor skills by drawing, painting, cutting, folding, gluing, tearing, printing and modeling
- Identify those who make art as artists
- Identify purposes for creating art
- Discuss the concept that all cultures create art
- Look at, describe and respond to works of art
- Discuss and explain ideas and expressions in their artwork
- Explain reasons for selecting a preferred work of art
Orange Room (1st Grade)
The Orange Room Curriculum emphasizes visual communication through the elements of art.
Students will:
- Understand that there are multiple solutions to a single visual problem.
- Use the senses as inspiration for works of art
- Identify and use primary colors, secondary colors, line, texture, shape, three-dimensional forms and patterns
- Create works of art inspired by literature
- Use proportion in their artwork
- Describe how art communicates feelings, ideas and information
- Discuss why viewers have different responses to works of art
- Categorize art by subject matter
- View works of art and describe similarities and differences
- Recognize that art is a part of all cultures
- Discuss different responses to works of art
- Describe ideas and emotions communicated in works of art
Yellow Room (2nd Grade)
The Yellow Room curriculum builds on ideas previously introduced and allows students to use an increasing variety of materials, skills, and techniques.
Students will:
- Identify and use secondary, warm, and cool colors
- Identify geometric and organic shapes as well as three-dimensional forms
- Depict environemental and historical themes
- Depict objects in proportion in a work of art
- Use a variety of sources for art ideas including nature and people
- Create 3-dimensional works of art
- Express opinions and supporting ideas
- Describe meanings and feelings evoked by works of art
- Describe personal reasons for valuing a work of art
- Compare art and artifacts of other cultures
- Discuss the ways that the art of a culture reflects people's attitudes and beliefs
Green Room (3rd Grade)
Green Roomers will become further acquainted with the artistic process through idea generation, problem solving, and assessment through critique.
Students will:
- Identify solutions used by artists to solve visual problems
- Identify and use intermediate, warm, and cool colors
- Identify and use positive and negative space, balance and pattern
- Compare and contrast geometric and organic shapes
- Create the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface
- Identify and use foreground, middle ground and background in two-dimensional works of art
- Discuss how history, culture and the visual arts influence each other
- Discuss different ways to interpret art
- Use appropriate art vocabulary when describing art processes
- Develop and describe personal reasons for valuing works of art
- Discuss form and function of artifacts from another culture
Blue Room (4th and 5th Grades)
The Blue Room curriculum continues to focus on the elements of art and visual communication. A variety of media and techniques will be explored. Students will also investigate the role of art within particular cultures.
Students will:
- Use thumbnail sketches to document thought processes
- Use the characteristics of color including hue, shade, tint, and intensity
- Understand and use ceramic techniques
- Demonstrate an understanding of symbolic meaning by incorporating symbols in a work of art
- Use art materials experimentally
- Discuss how history, culture and the visual arts influence each other
- Identify common attributes in works of art produced by artists within a culture
- Distinguish between abstract, representational and nonrepresentational works of art
- Discuss how personal beliefs influence responses to works of art
Purple Room (6th, 7th, and 8th Grades)
The Purple Room Curriculum continues to emphasize the language of art and the development of inquiry skills. The curriculum also allows for the synthesis and application of previously learned concepts.
Students will:
- Document their creative process by keeping a journal
- Apply the elements of art and principles of design to two and three- dimensional works of art
- Develop ideas for works of art by conducting research, making preliminary sketches or constructing models
- Demonstrate understanding of symbolic meanings by incorporating symbols in a work of art
- Describe the changes that occur in clay during the ceramic process
- Solve design problems using color relationships
Pinhole Photography Unit
