Visual Arts K to 1
Materials, Technologies, and Processes

It is expected that students will:

• demonstrate an awareness that a variety of materials, tools, equipment, and processes can be used to create images
• demonstrate an awareness of safety and environmental considerations in the use of materials, tools, equipment, and processes
• use appropriate vocabulary to identify materials, tools, equipment, and processes used to create images

(Creating/Communicating)

It is expected that students will:

• use a variety of materials, tools, equipment, and processes to make images
• demonstrate a willingness to explore a range of materials, tools, equipment, and processes
• demonstrate care of the materials, tools, and equipment they use

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Materials, Technologies, and Processes in other grades click on an icon below.

• Invite students to explore clay by using pinching, poking, and pulling techniques to create simple, familiar animal shapes or small pots, adding texture with found materials. Encourage students to practise proper clean-up procedures.
• As a class, view the work of Ted Harrison or Roy Henry Vickers, paying attention to the colourful skies and simplified shapes. Have students cut or tear coloured papers and glue them on sheets of construction paper to develop backgrounds in the artist's style. Figures and shapes can then be drawn, coloured, and glued on the backgrounds to create finished pictures.
• Ask students to respond to a story by creating images to illustrate a character or part of the story. Have them choose a variety of scrap papers (smooth, rough, cellophane, colour, shiny) to work with. Crayons and felt pens could be used to add detail.
• Provide students with the primary paint colours of yellow and blue. Demonstrate the careful mixing of secondary colours (yellow-green to green to blue-green). Have students mix a range of green colours that can be used to create forest scenes. Students can mix red with green to make browns for tree trunks and branches.
• Have students explore using a computer drawing program to make simple images and to develop their proficiency in using a mouse. Images can then be printed and used to make cards or class books.
• Conduct an art tour within the school to view images in a variety of media. Ask students to identify and discuss the materials, processes, and tools used to develop the images they see. Help them focus on correct use of vocabulary.

Suggested Assessment Strategies

• As students explore and experiment with materials, note and encourage their efforts to:
  • refine or change the way they use materials as they work
  • use modelled vocabulary to talk about their work
  • speculate about the tools or processes other artists used in specific pieces of artwork
  • be responsible in their use of materials, tools, and equipment, including clean-up
  • demonstrate care in displaying and storing their own work
• Check on students' abilities to apply simple processes by presenting them with problems such as:
  • Mix yellow and blue to achieve as many greens as you can.
  • Use four different ways of sticking coloured papers to your gluing surface.
• Display a piece of artwork and challenge the class to ask as many questions as they can about how the artist created it. For example:
  • What material is it made of?
  • How did the artist make the paint so thick?
  • Did the artist use a computer to make the pattern?
  Repeat the process with student artwork. Look for evidence that students:
  • are increasingly aware of the materials, tools, equipment, and processes that artists use
  • use appropriate vocabulary
  • express interest in using some of the materials, tools, and processes in their own work
• In preparation for individual or small-group conferences, ask students to find images they have created that show something important they have learned about using tools and materials.

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