Subject
Unit Title:
Achievement
Standard
DANCE
DRAMA
MEDIA
Prep
Animal Adventures
Yr 1
MUSIC
Yr 2
Yr 3
VISUAL ARTS
Yr 4
Yr 5
Yr 6
By the end of year 3
 Students will describe artworks they make and view and where and why artworks are made and presented.
 Students will make artworks in different forms to express their ideas, observations and imagination, using different techniques and
processes.
Learning Intention

To expose students to ways that artist see the world and how this influence their work
Success Criteria

Create a standing mobile based Alexander Calder’s work
Core Content
Selecting and
Combining
Learning
Framework
Cross Curricular
Priorities
Elements
Line
Shape
Colour
Texture
Form
Principles
Balance
Emphasis
Movement
Pattern
Repetition
Proportion
Rhythm
Variety
Unity
Community Contributor
Leader and Collaborator
Catholic Ethos
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Histories and Cultures
Medium
Drawing
Painting
Fibre
Sculpture
Photography
Collage
Ceramics
Printmaking
Design
Skills
Assemblage
Active Investigator
Effective Communicator
Social Emotional Learning
Asia and Australia’s Engagement with
Asia
Techniques
As per artist
Designer and Creator
Quality Producer
Inclusive Education
Sustainability Education
Processes
Personal
Audience
General
Capabilities
Literacy
Critical and Creative Thinking
Numeracy
Ethical Behaviour
Information and Communication
Technology
Personal and Social Competence
Exploring ideas and improvising with ways to represent
ideas
2.1Explore ideas, experiences, observations and imagination to
create visual artworks and design ACAVAM106
The learners will consider viewpoints – forms and elements: For example
What colours were used? What is it made of? How is the colour used, and
why is it used in this way?
Making:
Developing understanding of practice
2.2 Use and experiment with different materials, techniques,
technologies and processes to make artworks ACAVAM107
The learners will use techniques to demonstrate various sculptural effects
Responding:
Sharing artworks through performance, presentation or
display
2.3 Create and display artworks to communicate ideas to an
audience ACAVAM108
The learners will make decisions about how to display their artwork to
share their ideas
Responding:
Responding to and interpreting artworks
2.4 Respond to visual artworks and consider where and why
people make visual artworks (ACAVAR109)
The learners will describe and interpret representations in a selection of
artworks, for example, how the artworks make them think and feel
Making:
1&2
Focus-Knowledge and Skills
Learning and Teaching Activities
Teacher Notes
Art Talk: Discuss the difference between being still
and movement. Engage learners in being physically
expressive by demonstrating their understanding.
Play still images and freeze frame game. Emphasis
to students that they are living sculptures.
Key Ideas of Alexander
Calders’ Style
Very influenced by shapes that
occur in nature.
Organic-softly rounded or
curved irregular forms.
Geometric-circles and ovals
Contour line the outline or
outer edge of an object, drawn
using a single line
Sandy’s Circus
Alexander Calder is one of
America's most important 20th
century artists. In addition to
his amazing mobiles and
stabiles, which can be seen in
public places all over the
world, Sandy as he was called,
created his first animal as a gift
for his parents when he was
eight years old. He later
created a wonderful, whimsical
circus out of found materials
such as wire, cork, and paper.
This is the story of that circus
and how he set the art world
on fire with his performances.
Ask students to imagine they animals. Call out
large, small, light, heavy to describe the kind of
animal choices. Discuss the choices they make. Eg
elephant line of the trunk, movement etc
Alexander Calder - Animobles
Read ‘Sandy’s Circus’ by Tanya Lee Stone with the
class
Discuss the story and write a brief synopsis of the
information about the artist the audience can
recall.
Display Animobile images and explain that Calder is
famous for his sculptures that either suggest
movement (implied) Stabiles or Mobiles which do
move. He turned flat materials into 3D objects with
his Animobiles.
Calder was the first artist to
use wire to create 3D line
drawings of people, animals
and objects. These linear
sculptures introduced line into
sculpture as an element.
Calder used materials cut into simple geometric
shapes. The flat material looks different when
viewed from different angles (sculpture concept-in
the round), parts of the
animobiles seems to shift and
He later created abstract forms turn.
in motion by making the first
mobiles. Composed of pivoting
lengths of wire
Calder liked to draw with a single
non-stop line or contour drawing,
Resources
Vocabulary
Assessment
Formative
•
Abstract
Circus
Geometric
Organic
Motion
Primary Colours
Two-Dimensional
ThreeDimensional
Coloured paper
cut into shapes
~head
~body
~neck
~face
~legs
~arms
~spiral tail
• Glue
• Scissors
Contour Animal
counterbalanced with thin
metal fins randomly arranged
and rearranged in space by air
moving through the individual
parts.
instead of many smaller lines. He drew in space
with wire in the same way. If you were going to add
colour Calder’s elephant what would you choose
and why?
Think about an animal by standing in a freeze
frame pose. What movement is the animal
conveying. Eg dancing horse A partner will take
your photo for reference using an ipad.
Make sketches of your animal without lifting your
pencil from the paper.
Go out at Midday when the strongest shadows can
be seen and create a silhouette pose of your
animal. Draw around it in chalk.
3-4
Focus-Knowledge and Skills
Learning and Teaching Activities
Resources
Show a picture of Calder’s Crinkly Crocodile and
ask students what colours they see. Record in a list
and explain that colour is an important element in
Calder’s work.
http://www.artnet.c
om/artists/alexand
er-calder/crinklycrocodile-AVG5VNlmcjRJ1xYv_J7
kQ2
Ask students how they feel when they look at this
piece of work? Do you think Calder’s use of colour
has any influence on the way you feel? Record in a
list eg. Scared, happy, playful.
How do you think Calder made this piece balance?
Ask students to balance on one leg and then look at
Students can be
the piece of sculpture again. Record in a list their
give a choice of
ideas. Calder’s piece is composed of triangular
colour schemes
lengths.
Give students a strip of double
sided colour paper and ask
them to fold into half then
quarters. In the middle
sections a diagonal fold will
provide stabilising points for
the strip to rest upright.
Vocabulary
Assessment
Formative
Crinkled
Crocodile
Cut the last section to imitate a tail and the front
section to imitate a crocodile.
The variety of shapes
could be extended
through additional paper
length of height of the
strip
Final paper sculptures should be photograph for
display
5-6
Focus-Knowledge and Skills
Learning and Teaching Activities
Calder often created maquettes, which were small
planned sculptures for larger pieces. In 1973 he
had been commissioned to create a major sculpture
for a public space in Chicago
The subject of the stabile was a
flamingo. Calder loved exotic
birds.
Tell students that they are going
to imagine they have been
commissioned to create a piece for the Cairns City
Esplanade to celebrate the unique bird life that can
be found there.
The brief for the standing mobile requires them it
to start with a semi-circle construction, wire and
additional paper materials.
The standing mobile should include moving parts
and look different from all directions
Sculptures should be displayed for a school
Resources
Vocabulary
Assessment
Maquette
Standing Mobile
Balance
Summative
Kinetic Bird
sculpture
community audience.
Animal Adventures - Tasks
Task
1
2
3
Students Name:
Type of Task:
☐Drawing
Task Conditions
☐
☐Sculpture
☐ Self Evaluation
☐ Exhibition
☐ In Class
Task Descriptions
Date:
Contour Drawing
Above
Criteria
1
Below
Crinkly Crocodile
Above
Date:
Criteria
2
Below
Above
Date:
Criteria
Below
Think about an animal by standing in a freeze frame pose
What movement is the animal conveying
A partner will take your photo for reference using an ipad.
Make sketches of your animal without lifting your pencil from the paper.
Simplify your lines so you have a strong silhouette
3
Using a strip of double sided colour paper, fold the length into a crinkled crocodile.
Cut to make a tail and head
The design must be able to stand by itself
A photo will be taken for reference using an ipad.
Kinetic Bird
Create a standing bird mobile using a circular base
Your sculpture must be balanced and able to stand on its own permanently
Your will use only primary colour in the design
Your finished work must have a title which reflects something about it and a sentence about your favourite part of
the creative process, to be displayed with it on exhibition
Your standing mobile is a maquette-a small model of a planned sculpture. Your will need to work out the size of the
final work when built.
Name:
Art Work
EXCEEDS
CRITERIA
MEETS
CRITERIA
TOWARDS
CRITERIA
Imagining and creating
new works
Using skills,
techniques and
processes
Presenting with
purpose
Kinetic Bird
Kinetic Bird
Kinetic Bird
Crinkly Crocodile
Crinkly Crocodile
Crinkly Crocodile
Contour Drawing
Contour Drawing
Contour Drawing
▲
▲
▲
☐ experiments with and
☐ selects and applies a
☐ organises and
explores the use of shape,
line, movement and space
range of assemblage
techniques
displays a finished
titled sculpture
☐ explains the
favourite part of the
creative process
▼
▼
Evaluation
▼
Planning for Differently Abled Students
Student/s
Different Ability
Australian Curriculum
addressed
Learning and Teaching Strategies
Assessment Strategies
Reflection on Unit
Identify what worked well during, and at the conclusion of the unit,
including:
●
●
●
●
●
Learning activities that worked well and why
Learning activities that could be improved and how
For, Of and As assessment that was effective and why
For, Of and As assessment that could be improved and how
Common student misconceptions that need, or needed, to be
clarified.