Activities related to working with the Gallery's collection, in preparation for an excursion or following up back in the classroom.

The Gallery's Collection Education Kits:

• Adventures in Asia: an education kit for the Asian Collection. (sample pages)
• Aspects of Australian Art: an education for the Australian Collection. (sample pages)
• Encounters with Contemporary Art: an education kit for the Contemporary Collection. (sample pages)
• Focus on Photography: an education kit for the Photography Collection. (sample pages)
• Art Speaks: Japanese: a Japanese language and art education kit. (sample pages)
• Art Speaks: Italian L'Arte Parla Italiano: an Italian language and art education kit. (sample pages)

... are the best resource to prepare for an education visit.

They feature 16 colour images from the collection with background information and looking and making activities. These Collection Education Kits are available for purchase at the Gallery Shop.
Buy online >
 

Years K-6 pre-visit activities for Asian art

Animals and Nature

• Research the animals of the Chinese Zodiac and discover which one of the twelve animals represents your birth year.
• Write a story about the life and adventures of a Dragon in mythical China. Draw an image to represent a scene from this story.
• Look carefully at a tree in the playground. Paint it from memory using black ink.
• Pick an animal or plant that is native to Asia. Describe and illustrate in a project.

Faiths and Festivals

• Find out about the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha. Make gifts, such as paper flowers or paper chains to offer to Ganesha on your Gallery visit.
• Research the faiths of Asia. Collect information and images about different religious deities and create a class visual diary.
• List important festivals or holidays in Australia and in Asian countries. Add information on when and how they are celebrated.

Stories and Writing

• Buy newspapers written in different languages and scripts such as Chinese, Arabic and English. Compare the writing systems.
• Discuss the art of calligraphy, or 'beautiful writing'. Write a story or poem and use calligraphy to present it as an artwork. Consider writing your script vertically and from right to left in the Chinese style.
• Read folktales from China, Japan or India. Create a panorama by asking each student to paint a different scene.

Daily Life

• Bring an artwork or object from home that comes from Asia, or shows an Asian influence. This might be a ceramic bowl, chopsticks, wind chimes, a doll or piece of clothing. What country does your object come from? Identify its materials and patterns.
• Arrange a classroom display of objects. Bring a precious object and an everyday object to class. Present these objects to the class and discuss the importance of each. Display the precious and everyday objects together. Compare the class display to the display you will see at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.