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Creative Arts and Sports (Junior School, Grades 7 to 9)

Creative Arts and Sports is one of the nine learning areas of Junior School under Kenya's Competency Based Curriculum. It was formed in the 2024 rationalisation of the curriculum, when the separate learning areas of Visual Arts, Performing Arts, and Physical Education and Sports were merged into a single integrated learning area. It is examined in the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment at the end of Grade 9 and it feeds directly into the Arts and Sports Science senior school pathway. These notes cover how the learning area is organised into strands, the visual arts content including the elements and principles of art and Kenyan indigenous craft, the performing arts content in music, dance and theatre, the physical education and sports content including athletics, ball games, swimming and indigenous games, and the appreciation and safety topics that run through all of them. A 20-question practice set follows.

How the Learning Area Is Organised

Before 2024 a junior school learner in Kenya studied fourteen learning areas. The rationalisation exercise reduced these to nine: English, Kiswahili or Kenyan Sign Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Pre-Technical Studies, Social Studies, Religious Education, Agriculture and Nutrition, and Creative Arts and Sports. Creative Arts and Sports is therefore not a new subject but a merger of three older ones, and the curriculum designs from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development are written so that art, music, dance, theatre and sport are taught as one connected field rather than as separate timetable slots.

The general purpose stated in the curriculum design is that by the end of Junior School the learner should be able to explore individual abilities in creative arts and sports in order to nurture talent for self-expression and personal development. The suggested learning experiences are learner-centred, experiential and inquiry based, which is why the assessment rewards practical projects and performance rather than recall alone.

  • The three merged components are Visual Arts, Performing Arts (music, dance and theatre), and Physical Education and Sports.
  • The learning area is organised into four strands: Foundations of Creative Arts and Sports; Creating and Performing in Creative Arts and Sports; an Optional Activity; and Appreciation in Creative Arts and Sports.
  • The Optional Activity strand lets a school choose between Swimming and Kenyan Indigenous Games or Craft Games, depending on the facilities it has.
  • Each strand is broken into sub-strands, and each sub-strand carries specific learning outcomes, suggested learning experiences, key inquiry questions and a set of assessment rubrics at four levels: below expectation, approaching expectation, meeting expectation and exceeding expectation.
  • Creative Arts and Sports is one of the larger allocations on the rationalised junior school timetable, commonly five lessons a week, because it carries practical work.
  • It is one of the nine learning areas assessed in the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment, known as KJSEA, taken at the end of Grade 9.

Visual Arts: Elements, Principles and Kenyan Craft

Visual arts work in junior school is built on a shared vocabulary. The elements of art are the raw materials an artist works with, and the principles of art are the rules by which those materials are arranged. Learners are expected to name them, identify them in a picture or an artefact, and use them deliberately in their own work.

  • The elements of art are line, shape, form, colour, texture, space and value or tone.
  • The principles of art are balance, rhythm, contrast, emphasis, proportion, harmony, variety, movement and unity.
  • Colour theory: the primary colours are red, yellow and blue; mixing two primaries gives the secondary colours orange, green and violet; mixing a primary with a neighbouring secondary gives a tertiary colour. Colours opposite each other on the colour wheel are complementary and give the strongest contrast.
  • Drawing techniques covered include still life, nature drawing, imaginative composition, shading, hatching, cross-hatching and stippling.
  • Graphic design work covers lettering, poster and label design, logos and the arrangement of text and image for a clear message.
  • Indigenous Kenyan craft covers basketry such as the kiondo, pottery, beadwork, weaving and mat making, wood carving, leatherwork and tie and dye. Learners study the materials, the tools, the making process and the cultural meaning of the artefact.
  • Three-dimensional work includes modelling with clay, carving, construction and assemblage using recycled and locally available materials.

Performing Arts: Music, Dance and Theatre

The performing arts strand asks learners both to perform and to read and write what they perform. Music is taught through the elements of music, through practical singing and playing, and through both staff notation and tonic sol-fa. Kenyan folk music and folk dance are treated as living material to be performed, not only described.

  • The elements of music are melody, rhythm, harmony, pitch, tempo, dynamics, timbre or tone colour, texture and form.
  • Kenyan musical instruments are classified in four families: idiophones, which vibrate as a whole body, such as rattles and the wooden xylophone; membranophones, which have a stretched skin, such as drums; chordophones, which have strings, such as the nyatiti and the orutu; and aerophones, which use a vibrating column of air, such as flutes and horns.
  • Notation: in staff notation the treble clef fixes the note G on the second line, the lines of the treble staff read E G B D F and the spaces spell F A C E. In tonic sol-fa the syllables are doh, ray, me, fah, soh, lah, te, doh.
  • Note values: a semibreve lasts four beats, a minim two beats, a crotchet one beat, a quaver half a beat and a semiquaver a quarter of a beat. A dot after a note adds half of that note's value.
  • Kenyan folk dances studied include Isukuti of the Luhya, Mwomboko of the Kikuyu, Chakacha of the coastal communities and the warrior dances of the Maasai. Learners look at the occasion for the dance, the costume, the formation and the accompanying instruments.
  • Contemporary dance work covers space, levels, direction, formation, dynamics and the safe execution of movement.
  • Theatre and drama covers the elements of plot, character, dialogue, theme and spectacle, and practical work in improvisation, mime, oral narrative performance, choral verse, costume, props, make-up and simple stage management.

Physical Education and Sports

The sports content is practical and is assessed on technique, application in a game situation, and safety. Learners are expected to warm up before activity and cool down after it, to know the basic rules and officials of the games they play, and to give simple first aid for common sports injuries.

  • Athletics covers track events such as sprints, middle distance and relays, and field events such as long jump, high jump, shot put and discus. In a 4 by 100 metres relay the baton must be exchanged inside a 20 metre takeover zone.
  • Basketball is played by two teams of five players on court. Core skills are dribbling, the chest pass, the bounce pass, the overhead pass, the lay-up and the set shot. A basket from open play inside the arc scores two points, one from beyond the arc scores three, and a free throw scores one.
  • Other ball games covered include football, volleyball, handball and netball, each with its own basic skills, court or field markings and rules.
  • Gymnastics covers balances, rolls, jumps and simple sequences, with strong emphasis on progression and on spotting for safety.
  • Swimming, where it is offered as the optional activity, covers water safety and entry, floating, the front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke and elementary rescue.
  • Where swimming is not offered, the school takes Kenyan indigenous games instead, which include board and counting games such as ajua, and running and throwing games such as kati and rope skipping games. Learners study the rules, the equipment made from local materials and the social value of the game.
  • Safety and first aid: the RICE procedure for a soft tissue injury is Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Warm-up raises the heart rate and prepares the muscles; cooling down returns the body gradually to its resting state and reduces stiffness.

Appreciation, Assessment and Pathways

The fourth strand, Appreciation in Creative Arts and Sports, asks the learner to analyse and comment on work rather than only to make it. This includes describing an artwork or a performance, judging it against agreed criteria, respecting the cultural context it comes from, and recognising the career opportunities in the field.

At the end of Grade 9 learners sit the Kenya Junior School Education Assessment. The first cohort sat it from late October into early November 2025 and the results were released in December 2025. Placement into senior school considers performance, the pathway a learner chooses, gender balance and sub-county representation, and every candidate is placed, giving a full transition from junior to senior school.

  • The nine learning areas assessed at KJSEA are English, Kiswahili or Kenyan Sign Language, Mathematics, Integrated Science, Pre-Technical Studies, Social Studies, Religious Education, Agriculture and Nutrition, and Creative Arts and Sports.
  • There are three senior school pathways: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; Social Sciences; and Arts and Sports Science.
  • Creative Arts and Sports is the junior school foundation for the Arts and Sports Science pathway, which branches further into sports science and into the performing and visual arts.
  • A four-step method for appreciating a work: describe what you can see or hear, analyse how the elements and principles have been used, interpret the meaning or intention, and then judge the work against the criteria set for the task.
  • Careers linked to the learning area include graphic designer, fashion and textile designer, potter or ceramist, music producer, choreographer, theatre director, physical education teacher, coach, referee, physiotherapist and sports administrator.

Key Terms

Learning area
The name used in Kenya's Competency Based Curriculum for what an older syllabus would call a subject. Junior School has nine learning areas after the 2024 rationalisation, and Creative Arts and Sports is one of them.
Strand and sub-strand
A strand is a major division of the content in a curriculum design, and a sub-strand is a specific topic inside it. Creative Arts and Sports has four strands: Foundations, Creating and Performing, an Optional Activity, and Appreciation.
KJSEA
The Kenya Junior School Education Assessment, the national assessment taken at the end of Grade 9 across nine learning areas. It was administered for the first time in late 2025 and is used together with pathway choice to place learners in senior school.
Idiophone
A musical instrument that produces sound by the vibration of its own body, without strings, a stretched membrane or a column of air. Rattles, bells and the wooden xylophone are Kenyan examples.

Practice Quiz — 20 Questions

correct out of 20

  1. Creative Arts and Sports was formed by merging which three former learning areas?

    • A.Visual Arts, Performing Arts, and Physical Education and Sports
    • B.Art and Craft, Home Science, and Music
    • C.Music, Life Skills, and Physical Education
    • D.Visual Arts, Pre-Technical Studies, and Sports
    A. Visual Arts, Performing Arts, and Physical Education and Sports — The 2024 rationalisation merged Visual Arts, Performing Arts and Physical Education and Sports into the single learning area called Creative Arts and Sports.

  2. How many learning areas are studied in Junior School after the 2024 rationalisation?

    • A.Seven
    • B.Nine
    • C.Twelve
    • D.Fourteen
    B. Nine — The rationalisation reduced the junior school learning areas from fourteen to nine.

  3. Which of the following is NOT one of the elements of art?

    • A.Line
    • B.Texture
    • C.Balance
    • D.Colour
    C. Balance — Balance is a principle of art, that is a way of arranging the elements. Line, texture and colour are elements.

  4. Mixing the primary colours red and yellow produces which secondary colour?

    • A.Green
    • B.Violet
    • C.Orange
    • D.Brown
    C. Orange — Red and yellow give orange. Blue and yellow give green, and red and blue give violet.

  5. A nyatiti and an orutu belong to which family of instruments?

    • A.Idiophones
    • B.Membranophones
    • C.Chordophones
    • D.Aerophones
    C. Chordophones — Both produce sound from vibrating strings, which makes them chordophones.

  6. In tonic sol-fa, which syllable comes immediately after soh?

    • A.Fah
    • B.Lah
    • C.Me
    • D.Te
    B. Lah — The ascending order is doh, ray, me, fah, soh, lah, te, doh, so lah follows soh.

  7. How many beats does a minim last in simple time where a crotchet is one beat?

    • A.Half a beat
    • B.One beat
    • C.Two beats
    • D.Four beats
    C. Two beats — A semibreve is four beats, a minim two, a crotchet one and a quaver half a beat.

  8. The spaces of the treble staff, read upwards, spell which word?

    • A.FACE
    • B.EGBD
    • C.DACE
    • D.GBDF
    A. FACE — The spaces spell F A C E while the lines are E, G, B, D and F.

  9. Isukuti is a folk dance associated with which Kenyan community?

    • A.The Maasai
    • B.The Luhya
    • C.The Kikuyu
    • D.The Turkana
    B. The Luhya — Isukuti is a celebratory drum dance of the Luhya of western Kenya.

  10. A kiondo is an example of which indigenous Kenyan craft?

    • A.Pottery
    • B.Basketry
    • C.Wood carving
    • D.Leatherwork
    B. Basketry — The kiondo is a woven bag, so it is a product of basketry.

  11. How many players from each team are on court at one time in basketball?

    • A.Four
    • B.Five
    • C.Six
    • D.Seven
    B. Five — Basketball is played five against five, with substitutes on the bench.

  12. A successful free throw in basketball is worth how many points?

    • A.One
    • B.Two
    • C.Three
    • D.Four
    A. One — A free throw scores one point, a field goal inside the arc two points and a shot from beyond the arc three points.

  13. In a 4 by 100 metres relay, the baton must be exchanged within a takeover zone of what length?

    • A.10 metres
    • B.15 metres
    • C.20 metres
    • D.30 metres
    C. 20 metres — The changeover must be completed inside the 20 metre takeover zone or the team is disqualified.

  14. In first aid for a sprained ankle, the letters RICE stand for:

    • A.Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation
    • B.Run, Ice, Care, Exercise
    • C.Rest, Injury, Cold, Examination
    • D.Recover, Immobilise, Cool, Elevate
    A. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation — RICE is Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation, the standard immediate care for a soft tissue injury.

  15. Which of these is an optional activity a school may choose in the Creative Arts and Sports curriculum design?

    • A.Swimming
    • B.Athletics
    • C.Basketball
    • D.Graphic design
    A. Swimming — The optional strand allows a school to offer either Swimming or Kenyan indigenous games and craft games. Athletics, basketball and graphic design sit in the core strands.

  16. Ajua is best described as:

    • A.A Kenyan indigenous board and counting game
    • B.A coastal folk dance
    • C.A type of clay pot
    • D.A stringed instrument
    A. A Kenyan indigenous board and counting game — Ajua, also known widely as bao, is a traditional board game played by moving seeds between pits, and it is studied under indigenous games.

  17. The main purpose of a warm-up before physical activity is to:

    • A.Reduce the heart rate before exercise
    • B.Gradually raise body temperature and prepare the muscles and joints
    • C.Replace the need for skill practice
    • D.Cool the body after competition
    B. Gradually raise body temperature and prepare the muscles and joints — A warm-up raises the heart rate and body temperature and mobilises the muscles and joints, which reduces the risk of injury.

  18. How many senior school pathways are learners placed into after Grade 9?

    • A.Two
    • B.Three
    • C.Four
    • D.Five
    B. Three — The three pathways are Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; Social Sciences; and Arts and Sports Science.

  19. Creative Arts and Sports at junior school is the direct foundation for which senior school pathway?

    • A.Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
    • B.Social Sciences
    • C.Arts and Sports Science
    • D.Pre-Technical Studies
    C. Arts and Sports Science — The learning area feeds into the Arts and Sports Science pathway, which covers sports science and the performing and visual arts.

  20. In the four-strand structure of the learning area, the strand that asks learners to describe, analyse and judge a work rather than make it is:

    • A.Foundations of Creative Arts and Sports
    • B.Creating and Performing in Creative Arts and Sports
    • C.The Optional Activity
    • D.Appreciation in Creative Arts and Sports
    D. Appreciation in Creative Arts and Sports — Appreciation in Creative Arts and Sports covers analysis, criticism, cultural context and career awareness.

References