Australia · ACARA Content Descriptions
Year 2 The Arts
A comprehensive foundation in the five arts disciplines where students explore personal expression and cultural storytelling. This course focuses on developing technical skills through play and experimental practice while building a vocabulary for critical appreciation.
Visual Worlds: Color and Shape
Students investigate how visual elements like line, shape, and color communicate feelings and ideas in two-dimensional artworks.
Exploring primary and secondary colors and how they influence the mood of a painting.
Identifying and recreating natural patterns and textures using mixed media and rubbings.
Creating self-portraits that use symbols to tell a story about the artist's life and interests.
Rhythm and Soundscapes
An introduction to musical concepts including beat, tempo, and pitch through singing and percussion.
Distinguishing between a steady beat and a changing rhythm in different musical styles.
Exploring pitch and melody by using voices and tuned percussion instruments.
Creating soundscapes that mimic the sounds of the Australian bush or a busy city.
Stories on Stage
Developing character and narrative through voice, movement, and role play in dramatic settings.
Using costumes and voice changes to adopt different character roles and perspectives.
Exploring how simple objects can be transformed through imagination to support a story.
Understanding how the place where a story happens affects the action of the characters.
Moving Bodies
Using the body to express ideas and emotions through structured and improvisational dance.
Learning to use levels and body shapes to create visual interest in movement.
Exploring different qualities of movement such as heavy, light, fast, and slow.
Creating short movement sequences that represent a narrative or a cycle in nature.
Digital Art and Media
An introduction to creating art using digital tools and understanding how images tell stories in media.
Learning how to compose a digital photograph to highlight a specific subject.
Discovering the basics of animation through flipbooks and simple stop-motion techniques.
Identifying how colors and icons are used in advertisements and signs to give information.
Art Across Time and Culture
Exploring the history of art and how different cultures, including First Nations Australians, share their stories.
Learning about the symbols and stories used in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks.
Comparing how people from long ago made art compared to how we make art today.
Understanding the role of galleries and museums in preserving and showing art to the public.