Layering Land Memory

Overview

Lesson 2 of 4 in Mapping Petone Through Time. Students use their research to explore how contour lines, symbols, scale, texture and elevation can communicate Petone’s environmental and historical changes through experimental topographic material studies.

Learning intentions

• WALT investigate how maps communicate place, change and memory.
• WALT experiment with line, shape, texture, layering and materials.
• WALT make deliberate artistic choices to represent a researched Petone location.
• WALT explain how visual and material choices communicate meaning.

Success criteria

• I can use contour lines, symbols, scale or texture in an experimental design.
• I can combine at least three materials to suggest elevation, land use or historical change.
• I can show a clear connection between my research and my design choices.
• I can explain how my study communicates an environmental or historical idea.

Curriculum links

• Visual arts: developing practical knowledge of elements and principles, including line, shape, texture, form, space and colour.
• Visual arts: developing ideas in response to research, place and personal or community experience.
• Visual arts: communicating and responding to meaning in artworks.
• Social sciences connection: understanding how people interact with and change places over time; using evidence from local history and geography.
• Key competencies: thinking; managing self; participating and contributing; relating to others.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 minutes – Reconnect and hook Display the opening images and question in the introduction and hook slides: “What could a map remember that a photograph cannot?” Students briefly revisit their Petone research from Lesson 1 and share one location, event or change with a partner. Invite two or three responses, recording useful words such as shoreline, industry, flood, settlement and recreation.

2. 7–17 minutes – Read maps as visual language Use the map language teaching slides to model contour lines, a map symbol, scale, texture and elevation. Clarify that closely spaced contour lines suggest a steep slope and widely spaced lines suggest gentler land. Show how the same place could be represented as a factual map, a memory map or an artwork. Students handle the Map Skills Reference Mat in pairs, locating the contour-line and scale information while discussing which features could be made with materials.

3. 17–22 minutes – Demonstrate material translation Demonstrate on a small piece of card: draw contour lines, build height with layered cardboard, suggest water with blue paper, indicate a road or railway with a repeated symbol, and add torn map paper for historical traces. Model changing scale or texture to show importance, age or movement. Emphasise that this is an experimental study, not a finished model, and that safe, economical use of materials matters.

4. 22–27 minutes – Plan the study Distribute the topographic material study planner. Students select one researched Petone location or change and complete a quick plan: “What is here?”, “What changed?”, “What should the viewer notice?”, and “Which materials and visual language will communicate this?” They sketch a simple design and identify at least three materials. Confer with students who are unsure how to turn research into visual choices.

5. 27–49 minutes – Create experimental studies Students work in groups of three at nine prepared tables, while each makes an individual study on a small card base. They layer cardboard, recycled packaging, paper maps, drawing media and modelling materials to represent elevation, land use, water, transport or memories of place. Encourage them to test, adjust and annotate choices on the worksheet. Circulate with prompts: “Where is the highest or lowest point?”, “What does this texture suggest?”, and “How could your symbols show change over time?” Use the making-process and discussion slides to keep the steps visible.

6. 49–56 minutes – Table gallery and peer response Place studies on tables for a quiet gallery walk. Each student leaves one verbal or written response for a peer using the prompts: “I notice…”, “This material suggests…”, and “I wonder…” Students then explain one decision to a partner, referring to their research rather than only describing appearance.

7. 56–60 minutes – Plenary and next step Return to the hook question using the plenary slides. Students complete the reflection section of the topographic material study planner: identify their strongest visual choice and one change they will make in Lesson 3. Collect studies and worksheets together, keeping them labelled for the next lesson.

Resources

• the complete lesson slide deck
• the topographic material study planner
• the Map Skills Reference Mat
• Small pieces of corrugated cardboard or card bases
• Recycled packaging, textured papers and photocopied or spare map sections
• Modelling media such as air-dry clay, plasticine or paper pulp
• Pencils, fine black pens, coloured pencils, scissors and glue sticks
• Shared trays, table labels, aprons and wipes
• Students’ Petone research from Lesson 1

Assessment

• Observe whether students accurately apply map ideas such as contour, symbol, scale, texture or elevation.
• Use the worksheet and finished study to assess the connection between research, material choices and intended meaning.
• Listen to gallery responses and plenary explanations for students’ ability to use art vocabulary and describe environmental or historical change.

Differentiation

• Provide a choice of three focus ideas—shoreline change, transport/industry, or recreation—and offer a pre-drawn base map or simple contour pattern for students needing support.
• Give sentence starters: “I used ___ because…”, “The raised area shows…”, and “This texture reminds me of…”
• Support EAL learners with visual demonstrations, gesture, paired talk and a small word bank: contour, elevation, symbol, scale, texture, layer and change.
• Extend confident students by combining two time periods, using a deliberate change of scale, or creating a visual key that explains their invented symbols.