Towards the end of Term 3, the Year 5/6 team started inquiring into art. We began our learning journey by getting our hands and feet into paint to explore the definition of art.

Some learning spaces used buckets of homemade paint (which consisted of flour, water and salt) to dip our hands and feet in. Others used art resources we found in our classrooms and around the school.

Then, working in teams, we all got messy getting the paint onto some old white sheets! This process resulted in some truly unique creations. We followed this experience with some very impressive persuasive writing in our books to answer the question - is it art?

We had many debates about what art actually is, which lead us to the term ‘Unconventional Art’. We discussed what this term might mean, and who the artists would be who fall into the ‘unconventional art’ category. We looked at different genre of art from cooking, baking, gaming, painting, makeup art, dancing, music making, acting, and so much more! Our students then had to choose a genre of unconventional art, or artist, to delve deeper into.

We researched and found examples of our chosen genre/artist, we wrote explanations, and had more debates! Then we had the really exciting job of creating/re-creating a piece of art. Many days were spent on this process - even our holidays! In Week 3 of Term 4, we hosted an ‘Unconventional Art Exhibition’ in our learning spaces, where our masterpieces were displayed. Our parents were invited to our exhibition, along with the Year 4 team.

The depth of learning was evident across all three Year 5/6 learning spaces. Each student was able to talk about what they created and how it is considered to be art. A few adults were even persuaded to believe that some of the creations were art as well! Our students then had to think about the learning journey they went on - what they thought art was when we first splattered paint onto the sheets, to what they believe art is now after learning about different artists/genre.

We are really proud of the rich learning that our students got out of this inquiry ,and are excited to share this learning beyond Hobsonville School.