Course guides › Grade 7 › Creative Arts
Creative Arts in the Senior Phase covers four art forms: Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts. Schools choose which of them they teach. Learners build skills, create their own work, perform or exhibit it, and learn to talk about the arts.
Creative Arts is a practical subject, so an online course can support the theory, vocabulary and planning, while the making and performing happens at school or at home.
Course status: coming soon. We are still building the Grade 7 Creative Arts (CAPS) course, so it can’t be bought yet. This guide explains what the CAPS curriculum covers this year, so you can use it now. The planned price is R100 per subject per year.
What’s covered: the four CAPS art forms
The DBE’s Annual Teaching Plan sets the detailed topics and their order term by term, and your child’s school follows it. This guide gives the broad picture of each part of the subject.
Dance
Moving safely and with control, and creating and performing dance.
Drama
Using voice and body, creating characters and scenes, and performing them.
Music
Listening, singing and playing, reading music, and creating music.
Visual Arts
Drawing, painting, design and 3D work, and looking at and talking about art.
Key ideas, with worked examples
Elements of music
Rhythm is the pattern of long and short sounds; pitch is how high or low; dynamics is how loud or soft; tempo is how fast.
Worked example. A lullaby is usually soft (piano) and slow (adagio).
Principles of design
Artists use balance, contrast, emphasis and rhythm to organise a picture.
Worked example. A bright red bird on a grey background uses contrast and emphasis.
Common mistakes (and how to fix them)
- Not learning the vocabulary; written tests ask for terms like dynamics and contrast.
- Skipping warm-ups in Dance and Drama.
- Copying instead of creating.
Tips for parents
- Agree a routine, then step back. Senior Phase learners like to work on their own; check in on the week’s work rather than every page.
- Go to local performances, exhibitions or church and community concerts.
- Let your child rehearse at home and be the audience.
- Keep a sketchbook going all year.
Frequently asked questions
How much will the Grade 7 Creative Arts course cost?
R100 per subject per year once it opens. Like our live courses, it will be one course for the whole year with Terms 1 to 4 inside it, so there’s nothing extra to pay per term.
When will the course be ready?
We’re building it now. The Grade 7 Creative Arts card on our home page shows “Coming soon” until the course is ready, and then it changes to “Open course”.
Will it work on a phone, and will it use a lot of data?
Yes, it will work on a phone. Like our live Maths courses, it will open in a phone’s web browser or in the free Coursebox app for Android and iPhone. Lessons are pictures and short text with quizzes and no videos, so it uses little data.
Is the course in English or Afrikaans?
The Grade 7 course will be in English.
Get ready for Grade 7 Creative Arts
The Grade 7 Creative Arts (CAPS) course is coming soon at R100 per subject per year. Bookmark this guide and use the overview above to follow what your child is doing at school. While you wait, our Grade 7 Mathematics course is available through Coursebox.
Back to the Grade 7 course cards · All Grade 7 guides
Sources and review
This guide follows the broad structure of the DBE’s CAPS Creative Arts curriculum for the Senior Phase (Grades 7–9). Detailed topics and their order are set by the DBE’s Annual Teaching Plan, which your child’s school follows. Last reviewed: 31 October 2026. AI Buddies is an independent project and is not endorsed by the Department of Basic Education.