PS S4.3 Handle With Care PROGRAM

Handle with Care – A Contemporary Stage 4 Visual Arts Unit

Inspire reflection, empathy, and creativity in your Stage 4 Visual Arts classroom with Handle with Care, a thoughtfully designed unit that aligns with the Stage 4 NSW Visual Arts Syllabus. This engaging program invites students to explore personal and social identity through the lens of contemporary artmaking. Students consider how people present different versions of themselves in public and private spaces, and how art can be used to express and protect one’s inner world.

Through mixed-media sculpture, students create symbolic “letterbox” artworks that represent the tension between what is shared and what is kept hidden.

Key Features for Teachers

This comprehensive resource supports teachers with structure, depth, and creative flexibility. Key features include:

• Structured Lesson Sequences: Built around the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model (I Do, We Do, You Do), ensuring clear progression from concept exploration to artmaking.

• Do Now Activities: Creative warm-ups that build understanding of materials, symbolism, and the Contemporary Viewpoint.

• Learning Intentions and Success Criteria: Clearly embedded to guide reflection and goal setting.

• Artist Studies: Investigation of contemporary artists such as Gillian Wearing, who explores themes of truth, identity, and self-representation.

8 Ways of Aboriginal Pedagogy

This unit embraces culturally responsive teaching through:

• Symbols and Images: Using visual and symbolic forms to explain concepts and ideas.

• Non-verbal Learning: Visual demonstrations of mixed-media and assemblage techniques.

• Deconstruct/Reconstruct: Breaking down ideas of identity and rebuilding them through personal symbolism.

• Community Links: Encouraging shared reflection on identity, belonging, and respect for diversity.

How It Meets Syllabus Demands

Aligned with the Stage 4 NSW Visual Arts Syllabus, this unit addresses both artmaking and critical and historical studies by exploring:

• Artmaking: Students create a mixed-media sculpture symbolising identity and self-expression, developing conceptual and technical skills.

• Critical and Historical Study: Analysis of artists and artworks through the Contemporary Viewpoint and the Artworld Concepts.

• Literacy Development: Reflective writing, artist statements, and visual arts vocabulary practice.

• Cross-Curricular Connections: Links to English (personal voice and descriptive writing), PDHPE (identity and wellbeing), and Mathematics (measurement, spatial awareness, and 3D form).

• Differentiation: Scaffolds and extensions to support diverse learners.

What’s Included

• 10 weeks of structured, syllabus-aligned lesson plans (plus extension activities for longer terms)

• “Do Now” activities to build conceptual and creative skills

• Material lists for easy classroom setup

• Colour-coded indicators for curriculum content, adjustments, and assessment opportunities

Why Choose the Handle with Care Unit?

Handle with Care nurtures empathy, reflection, and creativity through artmaking. It encourages students to think deeply about who they are, how they are seen, and how art can express and protect personal truth. Through sculpture, writing, and reflection, students explore the power of artistic expression as a means of understanding themselves and others.

Transform your classroom with Handle with Care, where creativity meets compassion, and students learn that their identity and their art are both worthy of care and thoughtful expression.