OVERVIEW
Unit 1: Line
Learning Targets
Students will use lines to show movement, direction, and emotion in their artwork.
Students will combine different kinds of lines to make interesting designs or drawings.
Students will explain how artists use line to create shapes, textures, and ideas.
Essential Questions
How can different kinds of lines change the way artwork feels?
How do lines help us show movement, energy, or emotion?
What happens when I combine many types of lines in one artwork?
Questions to ask at Home
How did you make your lines show movement or feeling?
What is your favorite type of line to draw, and why?
How do you think lines help artists create pictures?
Unit 2: Shape
Learning Targets
Students will use shapes to build more detailed drawings and designs.
Students will combine shapes to create new images, characters, or objects.
Students will explain how artists use shape to organize artwork or show ideas.
Essential Questions
How do artists use shapes to make artwork?
How can combining shapes help me create more interesting drawings?
How do shapes help communicate ideas in art?
Questions to ask at Home
How did shapes help you build or plan your picture?
Can you find interesting shapes around your home or outside?
How did using shapes help you show an idea or tell a story in your art?
Unit 3: Color
Learning Targets
Students will identify primary, secondary, and intermediate (tertiary) colors.
Students will mix colors to create new ones using paint or other materials.
Students will explore warm and cool colors and describe how they can change the mood of artwork.
Essential Questions
How do artists use color to express ideas or feelings?
How can mixing colors help me create the colors I want?
Why do warm and cool colors feel different?
Questions to ask at Home
Did you mix any new colors? What did you discover?
How did you decide which colors to use in your artwork?
Do you think your colors made your art feel warm, cool, calm, or exciting? Why?
Unit 4: Form
Learning Targets
Students will describe the difference between a shape (flat) and a form (3D).
Students will identify forms such as cubes, spheres, cones, cylinders, and pyramids in art and the real world.
Students will create artwork that shows form using drawing, shading, building, or sculpting.
Essential Questions
How do artists make something look three-dimensional?
Where do we see forms in everyday life?
How can adding form make my artwork look more realistic or expressive?
Questions to ask at Home
What forms did you learn about or create today in art?
Can you find objects at home that are cubes, spheres, cones, or cylinders?
How did you make your drawing or sculpture look three-dimensional?
Unit 5: Pattern
Learning Targets
Students will create patterns using lines, shapes, colors, and textures.
Students will repeat elements to make patterns that are organized and intentional.
Students will design patterns that show rhythm or movement.
Essential Questions
What makes something a pattern?
How do artists use pattern to make their artwork more exciting or organized?
How does repeating shapes, colors, or lines create rhythm?
Questions to ask at Home
What did you repeat to make your pattern—shapes, lines, or colors?
Did your pattern feel calm, busy, or rhythmic? Why?
Can you find patterns at home, on clothing, or outside?
Unit 6: Texture
Learning Targets
Students will identify real (actual) textures they can touch in materials and objects.
Students will identify visual (implied) textures that artists create in drawings and paintings.
Students will create different textures using lines, shapes, patterns, and art materials.
Essential Questions
How do artists make texture in drawings or paintings?
Why is texture important in artwork?
How does texture change the way an artwork looks or feels?
Questions to ask at Home
Did you use real (touchable) texture, visual texture, or both?
How did you make a texture look rough, smooth, bumpy, or soft?
Can you find interesting textures around your home or outside?
Unit 7: Rhythm and Repetition
Learning Targets
Students will explain how repetition creates rhythm or movement in art.
Students will use repetition to create artwork that feels organized or energetic.
Students will experiment with different kinds of rhythm (regular, alternating, flowing, or random).
Essential Questions
Why does repeating shapes, colors, or lines make art more interesting?
How can rhythm make an artwork feel calm, busy, or full of movement?
What choices can I make to create rhythm in my own art?
Questions to ask at Home
How did repeating elements make your artwork move or flow?
What kind of rhythm did your artwork show—regular, flowing, or alternating?
Can you find rhythm or repetition around your home or outside?
Unit 8: Reflection, Revision, and Review
Learning Targets
Students will look closely at their artwork and describe what they like and what they want to improve.
Students will use feedback from the teacher or classmates to make their artwork better.
Students will revise their artwork by adding details, fixing areas, or trying new ideas.
Essential Questions
Why do artists take time to look back at their work?
How can reflection help me become a better artist?
What does it mean to revise artwork, and why is it important?
Questions to ask at Home
Did you make any changes or revisions? What did you fix or improve?
What feedback did you get, and how did it help you?
How do you feel your art has grown this year?
The Third Grade Visual and Performing Arts curriculum is designed to show students growth as creators as they explore more complex art techniques, materials, and ideas. They build on what they already know, learning to combine the elements of art in creative ways, experiment with new processes, and make artwork that shows personal meaning, imagination, and developing artistic skill.