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Important

This page is based on the draft Year 4 content for the Arts, which is currently open for feedback. Schools are not required to implement changes until the consultation process is confirmed.

Have your say:

Consultation for Year 0 to 10 draft curriculum content

In Years 4 to 6, students build confidence as they make thoughtful artistic choices and apply creative techniques across drama, dance, music, and design. They explore how cultural and historical influences shape different art forms.

In this phase, arts teaching is structured around 3 strands that focus on key areas of learning. These include:

  • Performing Arts: making and creating, observing and responding
  • Music: elements of music, listening and responding, performing, including singing, playing instruments, and creating and composing
  • Visual Arts: making and creating, observing and responding.

Performing Arts#

Ideas to help at home

With your child, you could:

  • retell or act out parts of known stories and take turns being different characters
  • learn to recite a piece of writing you both enjoy, for example, a poem, whakataukī or short passage from a story
  • view a live performance and talk about your reactions to different parts, asking each other questions like:
    • What was your favourite part?
    • Was there a part that made you feel particularly excited? What was it?
    • Which performer and/or character did you feel connected to? Why?
    • What did you think of the costumes? Do you think they helped tell the story?
  • explore and talk about pūrakāu that link to your place
  • talk about and/or share a dance they have learned at school or in a group, like kapa haka.

What the teacher will focus on#

The teacher will focus on helping your child express and interpret meaning through movement and performance, while exploring dance and drama from both local and global contexts.

For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:

  • recognise that all performances have a structure, but they don’t all tell a story, for example, the focus might be on an idea or mood
  • know that choreographic devices and conventions are established procedures for developing dance and drama
  • use dramatic conventions to develop characters and ideas for short scenes, for example:
    • hot seating: group members question someone who is acting in a role, for example, as a character from a play or a person from history
    • thought tapping: the action freezes midway through a scene, and a leader moves around the performers, tapping their shoulders so they can say out loud their thoughts, in role as their character
    • role on the wall: drawing an outline of a character on a large piece of paper and writing inside what the character thinks about themselves, and outside what others think about that character
  • create a short dance sequence, showing awareness of space and formation, where performers are positioned
  • use choreographic devices to develop a moment or phrase, for example, repeating a movement, changing its speed, or performing it backwards
  • explore Māori movement and performance practices, like tī rākau and mau rākau, to understand their meanings, tukanga | processes, and how they connect to specific pūrākau |stories or whakapapa | genealogy
  • watch or take part in a performance and talk about the use of choreographic devices or dramatic conventions and how they help the audience understand and feel the performance.

Music#

Ideas to help at home

With your child, you could:

  • sing songs or waiata that are special to your whānau, or are new, or join in with the National Anthem when it is sung at performances and sports games
  • learn New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) songs together, you can find examples on the Sing and dance in NZSL webpage, or on the Music Education Association of New Zealand Hook-Line-and-sing-a-long page
  • explore different genres by making a playlist with various styles of music, like classical, jazz, folk, and R&B
  • play each other your favourite pieces of music and talk about why you love them
  • listen to music and discuss its features, asking each other questions like:
    • How does the music make you feel?
    • What type of song is it?
    • What instruments can you hear?
    • Is there a repeated section, like a chorus?

Sing and dance in NZSL – NZSL

Hook line and sing-along collection – Menza

What the teacher will focus on#

The teacher will focus on helping your child express and interpret meaning through movement and performance, while exploring music from both local and global contexts.

For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:

  • recognise the difference between a tune (melody) and its accompaniment
  • understand that harmony is created by playing or singing 2 or more notes at the same time with three or more notes making a chord
  • understand that articulation refers to how notes are played or sung, for example:
    • legato: smooth and connected
    • staccato: spiky and detached
  • hear how a major chord sometimes sounds happy and bright, while a minor chord sometimes sounds sad
  • understand that the structure of a piece of music is made up of its parts, such as the chorus and the verse
  • compare the melody, structure and tempo of different pieces of music
  • explain what they think a piece of music is about and how it reflects a community or culture
  • discuss how composers and musicians influence and develop musical styles
  • sing or play with others, keeping the correct pulse (beat) and pitch, starting and stopping together, and listening for balance between each other
  • create and perform simple pieces, thinking about pitch, tempo, dynamics (volume), melody and structure.

Visual Arts#

Ideas to help at home

With your child, you could:

  • visit your local library and borrow some books about artists, art styles, or techniques to read together at home
  • talk about artworks at home:
    • Are any of them particularly special to our family?
    • What pūrākau or stories connect to these artworks?
    • What memories do they hold?
  • visit a museum, gallery or library, or other places a community might gather, to explore cultural art-making practices and the stories connected to them, looking at examples like tīvaevae, tukutuku, and tatau
  • go for a walk in nature with a notebook, piece of paper, or camera, and collect images of shapes, patterns, and textures you come across (these could be used as inspiration for a piece of visual art about your adventure).

What the teacher will focus on#

The teacher will focus on helping your child express and interpret meaning through movement and performance, while exploring visual art from both local and global contexts.

For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:

  • use visual elements and principles to create artworks that express an idea, feeling or story
  • apply the principles of:
    • repetition: re-using visual elements like colour or shape to create rhythm, unity or emphasis
    • contrast: using opposite elements to create interest or draw attention, for example, light and dark, rough and smooth
    • pattern: the repetition of shapes or designs
    • composition: how visual elements are arranged to create meaning, mood or focus
  • use tools, materials, and processes to create different effects, for example, to explore texture and layering
  • follow a visual arts process that includes developing ideas, making choices and planning, creating and adapting, and reflecting
  • observe, describe, and share their own and others’ artworks, thinking about the artist’s intention, the cultural context, and how different audiences might respond
  • recognise that cultural symbols, motifs, and patterns (like kōwhaiwhai and tatau) tell stories and reflect identity, and include some in a design of their own, such as a family crest.