Nature Through Time

Overview

In this first lesson of the five-part unit Nature Through Time, students investigate how environments can change over time and how artists communicate ideas about place. They analyse visual examples of past, present and imagined future landscapes, then use line, shape and texture to create quick thumbnail sketches before choosing a focus in groups of three.

Learning intentions

• WALT explore how environments may change from the past to the future.
• WALT identify how artists use line, shape and texture to communicate ideas.
• WALT create quick visual ideas using thumbnail sketches.
• WALT discuss and select a shared direction for our group’s artwork.

Success criteria

• I can describe visible differences between past, present and future environments.
• I can explain how line, shape or texture helps communicate an idea.
• I can create three different thumbnail sketches.
• I can contribute an idea and explain why my group selected its focus.

Curriculum links

• Visual Arts — Developing Practical Knowledge: exploring and applying art-making elements, including line, shape and texture.
• Visual Arts — Developing Ideas: generating and refining visual ideas in response to a theme.
• Visual Arts — Communicating and Presenting: discussing and sharing interpretations and intentions.
• Visual Arts — Understanding the Arts in Context: considering how artworks reflect people, places, time and environmental change.

Lesson structure (45 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Visual hook. Teacher opens with the opening landscape comparison showing a natural landscape, a contemporary built environment and an imaginative future environment; students silently notice, wonder and share one change they can see. Prompt: “What might this place have looked like 100 years ago? What might it look like in 100 years?”

2. 5–12 min · Analyse visual examples. Teacher uses the past, present and future examples to model looking closely at subject matter, viewpoint, line, shape and texture, recording student observations in three columns on the board. Students discuss in pairs and identify evidence rather than simply saying whether an image is “good” or “bad”. Ask: “What has humans’ activity changed?” and “What visual choices make the future image feel hopeful, crowded, damaged or sustainable?”

3. 12–17 min · Demonstrate thumbnail sketching. Teacher demonstrates the thumbnail sketch instructions: three small boxes, a simple horizon or viewpoint, quick marks, and no rubbing out. Model one past, one present and one future idea, thinking aloud about using texture for vegetation, geometric shapes for buildings and contrasting lines for natural and human-made features. Students watch, then choose a local or familiar environment such as a beach, awa, park, wetland, ngahere or town edge.

4. 17–29 min · Individual sketch exploration. Teacher distributes the Nature Through Time thumbnail sheet and circulates, prompting students to make three clearly different possibilities rather than detailed drawings. Students create one thumbnail for a predominantly natural past, one for a present-day environment, and one imagined future. They label at least one visual choice on each sketch, such as “repeating lines show buildings” or “rough marks show rocks”.

5. 29–38 min · Groups of three: select and discuss. Teacher forms groups of three and returns to the group discussion prompts. Each student briefly presents their three sketches; the group chooses one focus—past, present or future—and gives two reasons for its choice. Students complete the group decision section on the worksheet, agreeing on the environment, mood and two visual features they may develop in the next lesson.

6. 38–45 min · Gallery share and exit reflection. Teacher invites groups to hold up or display their chosen thumbnail and uses the plenary prompts to structure a quick share. Students complete the success criteria exit ticket slips, naming one change they noticed, one art element they used and one question their group still has. Close by explaining that the next lesson will develop the selected ideas into a more intentional composition.

Resources

• Teacher computer and projector
• the Nature Through Time visual analysis deck
• the Nature Through Time thumbnail sheet
• HB pencils and erasers
• Fine black pens or coloured pencils
• A3 paper or sketchbooks for displaying group ideas
• Whiteboard and markers
• the success criteria exit ticket slips

Assessment

• During analysis, listen for students using evidence from images and relevant art language such as line, shape, texture, natural and human-made.
• During sketching, check that students produce three distinct ideas and intentionally use visual elements to communicate time, mood or environmental change.
• Review each group’s selected focus and reasons, then use the exit ticket to identify students needing further support with art vocabulary or developing ideas.

Differentiation

• Provide a visual word bank on the board with examples of line, shape and texture; offer sentence starters such as “I notice…”, “This environment has changed because…” and “The texture suggests…”.
• Students who need support may work from a choice of familiar environments and use three teacher-provided horizon lines or simple landscape frames on the worksheet.
• Encourage confident artists to show a more complex relationship between nature and human impact, such as restoration, climate adaptation, renewable energy or loss of habitat.
• For EAL learners, pair spoken discussion with gestures, photographs and labelled examples. Allow students to explain ideas orally, point to visual evidence or use bilingual vocabulary where helpful.
• Ensure students with fine-motor or visual needs can use larger paper, thicker drawing tools, digital drawing tools or a peer scribe without reducing the creative decision-making.