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This page is based on the draft Year 7 content for the Arts, which is currently open for feedback. Schools are not required to implement changes until the consultation process is confirmed.
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In Years 7 and 8, students deepen their artistic skills through practice and reflection, creating expressive works that explore mood, character, and personal identity. They engage with diverse art forms and art traditions from New Zealand, the Pacific and around the world.
In this phase, arts teaching is structured around 3 strands that focus on key areas of learning. These include:
- Performing Arts: making and creating, observing and responding
- Music: elements of music, listening and responding, performing, including singing, playing instruments, and creating and composing
- Visual Arts: making and creating, observing and responding.
Performing Arts#
With your child, you could:
- design a costume for a familiar character, and talk through their ideas and decisions as they work
- talk about the idea of symbolism as when something represents more than itself, for example, the colour red could also symbolise danger and a white dove could also symbolise peace, ask what other examples of symbolism they see in everyday life
- watch a live or screened performance, and:
- identify the different ways dancers or actors transition between scenes or movement sequences
- discuss how features like props, costumes, lighting, and sound effects were used to support the performance and how important this was to your understanding and enjoyment
- talk about the ideas, feelings, or stories explored in the performance.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher helps students grow their creativity by exploring, practising, revising, and reflecting. They guide students to create more detailed performances that use symbolism and abstract ideas to express who they are.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- use specific movements, gestures, props, or costumes to symbolise feelings and abstract ideas, for example, a stomping foot to represent anger, a clock to represent passing time
- explore ideas and characters in drama, for example, using thought tapping to imagine characters’ thoughts on an issue or question
- think about how to tailor performances so the audience understands its meaning and feels engaged
- think about how to transition smoothly between scenes or movement sequences so that their performances flow
- use performance technologies, like lighting and sound, to help convey meaning
- practice whanaungatanga and manaakitanga when creating a performance
- identify the stylistic features of different genres, for example:
- siva Sāmoa: dancers may invite audience participation
- political theatre: actors may directly address the audience
- interpret symbols and abstract ideas in a performance
- identify the themes and ideas explored in a performance and critique how successful it is.
Music#
With your child, you could:
- sing songs that are important to your whānau, and learn songs from your heritage and other musical traditions
- sing in harmony, with and without musical accompaniment
- make a playlist of music that connects your whānau and helps you remember special people and places
- listen to music by composers from different musical traditions, for example, Hirini Melbourne, Te Vaka, Mozart, and Bach
- start a family band, thinking about:
- what you need to do to play or sing as a whānau group
- the music you would play
- how to get started if you want to learn a new instrument
- how you could contribute if you already play an instrument
- how music technology could help.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher helps students grow their creativity by exploring, practising, revising, and reflecting. They guide students to create more detailed works that use symbolism and abstract ideas to express who they are.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- understand that tonality in music refers to its overall sound, and that this is affected by its key
- recognise the elements of music in a piece of music, dynamics, tempo, pitch, articulation, harmony, metre, rhythm, and tone, and discuss their effect on the listener
- explore the elements and features of music across different genres, styles, and cultural traditions, for example, the use of stomping and clapping in haka waiata
- listen to music by composers from different traditions and discuss the effect of stylistic features they use, for example, Hirini Melbourne’s use of taonga pūoro
- analyse the use of technology to shape sounds in different genres
- sing in harmony in a range of musical traditions, focusing on phrasing, tuning, and the sensitive use of dynamics
- play a melody along with a bass line, using both written music and their aural skills
- use a pedal or drone to underpin the harmony in a composition.
Visual Arts#
With your child, you could:
- look at work by different artists, in different genres and styles, and make connections to other artworks and the cultural context in which they were made
- work on an artwork over an extended time to allow for reflection, feedback, and to make changes
- explore scale by creating a drawing and then redrawing it larger/bigger or redrawing it smaller
- explore unfamiliar art-making techniques or materials, like raranga, collagraph printing, salt printing or wire sculptures
- set up an art box with materials like scissors, pencils, a ruler, different papers and recycled items or found objects
- design artworks using the first letter of your names and include meaningful motifs and symbols, using Michael Tuffrey’s font prints as inspiration.
What the teacher will focus on#
The teacher will focus on helping students improve their creativity through exploration, practice, revision, and reflection. They help students create more complex, layered works that include symbolism and abstract ideas and say something about who they are.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- combine what they have learned about visual arts elements, principles, and conventions to communicate meaningful ideas and stories
- be purposeful in their selection of processes, materials, techniques, symbols, and patterns to achieve their intention
- arrange compositions based on visual arts principles, like:
- hierarchy: organising elements to show importance or guide the viewer’s attention
- emphasis: creating a focal point to highlight the most important area or idea
- understand that making art involves taking risks, experimenting, and exploring as part of a process of refining and reflecting on ideas
- treat culturally important symbols, motifs, materials, and practices with respect
- create an artwork that tells a personal story, expresses their identity, and is informed by cultural practices
- explore artworks from different times and places to compare materials, styles, and the questions and ideas they address
- use the language of art to interpret art and describe its meaning, intent, and context.
