Cashmere Primary School

Year 7

Aspects of Cashmere

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Context

This unit is based on Rock Pools and the Sea, a work by Kaye George, which featured in the Ministry of Education resource, Exploring the Visual Arts Years 1–6. Fibre and Fabric.

The unit focused especially on the CI and DI strands. The students recorded their in-depth investigation of Kaye George's work, and then had the opportunity to develop ideas about their local environment.

Learning sequence

Using TKI poster resources and the Internet, students closely observed a picture by Kaye George – Rock Pools and the Sea. Discussion and questions targeted specific aspects and students recorded observations in their visual diaries.

Students were then given a photocopied picture of Kaye's work and considered whether different aspects were arranged randomly or purposely.

Students then discussed what the Cashmere community meant to them. They recorded their ideas in their visual diaries and chose five to ten ideas to transform into stylised drawings.

They then had to decide where they would place their Cashmere "aspects" on an A4 piece of paper – randomly or with a purpose (for example, creating a story).

Students next observed Kaye's use of patterns and borders and practised drawing different borders, considering what patterns would be appropriate to include. The patterning and bordering acted as a means of separating one piece of work into many smaller aspects. The borders and patterns were then placed into their draft A4 work.

Students then began their final pieces on A3 paper, using white chalk for outlines and then paint, which had to be mixed colours. The focus was on layering paint for depth and richness of colour, and thinking of means of applying the paint other than by brush.

Due to time constraints, students were permitted to use pastels for the bordering and patterning.

After the task was completed all of the children had a conference with the teacher to discuss the process that they had undertaken. This conferencing process was the assessment for the unit. This was a time consuming, yet highly worthwhile process.

Curriculum strands and objectives

For curriculum strand relationships and student learning objectives go to Curriculum strands and objectives.