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Looking for things to do at home or school? Take a look at these worksheets and activities.

Pacific Printmaking
He Waka Eke Noa
Waka Huia

Explore our set of colouring activities based on works from our collection - check them out here. 

Have a go at curating your own exhibition with the works in our collection using My Gallery 

We would love to see your work when it's done - take a photo and send it to schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz or tag us on social media!

Our lessons often book up fast but you are always welcome to bring your students on a self-guided tour of the Gallery. We have some wonderful resources for the Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania and Ralph Hotere: Ātete (to resist) exhibitions which you can use to guide your students through the spaces. Check out all of our current exhibitions here. 

Please ensure you go over the Gallery Guidelines with your students so that they are aware of expectations in the Gallery spaces.

Email schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz and let us know when to expect you. so we are able manage any clashes with events and other tours. 

Students will tour the Gallery and explore a range of Polynesian artforms including woodblock, Tivaevae and Tapa. During the tour they will make recordings of patterns and motifs used in the work they see. They will use their drawings to create their own Polynesian print. Students will be working individually and in groups during this lesson.

Students will take away an appreciation of art and consider a selection works that can cover a range of subjects, styles, media and purposes. The works viewed will be a selection from our current exhibitions. Students are expected to discuss and question what they see. Tours can be tailored to all levels.

Bookings essential.

Download our Gallery Guidelines below.

Take a self-guided tour of our exhibition Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania. Student workbooks are available to support students while they explore the spaces - download a copy below or email schools@christchurchartgallery.org.nz to organise a printed class set.

All About Te Wheke

Wheke means octopus in te reo Māori. For many cultures around Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa / the Pacific Ocean, this resourceful, resilient, adventurous creature is a symbol of early voyages of exploration and migration from the Polynesian homelands of Hawaiki. Its long tentacles stretch out across the ocean to Tonga, Kiribati, Hawaii, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and Aotearoa New Zealand. In this selection of art from the Gallery collection and beyond, Te Wheke offers a way to understand how we are connected across time and place.

In Aotearoa, conventional art history tells the stories of art that ties us to Britain and Europe. The art in Te Wheke looks in a different direction – from the Pacific outwards. Artists reach back to Polynesia and out into the world beyond, finding connections that are old and new.

Oceania is large and glorious. Like the octopus, it connects us along Pacific pathways with ideas of navigation, belonging and identity. Te Wheke opens up conversations about the journeys, tensions and connections that shape our past, present and future.

Take a guided tour of our exhibition Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania. Students will discuss a range of artists' work and explore ideas of navigation, belonging, identity and how we are connected across time and place. Students will then use a range of materials to create a pictorial map of their journey through the Gallery using collage, colour and pattern.

Take a guided tour of Ahu Timataka / Trace Elements, an exhibition of new works by Lonnie Hutchinson that explores rongoā, the customary Māori practice of plant-based healing. During the tour students will discuss the power of plants and our relationship with nature and think about how each work has been made. They will make recordings of the shapes and patterns used in the works they see and then use their drawings as inspiration to create a multi-layered artwork to keep.

Available 19 June - 31 October

Experience the monumental contemporary ngatu tā’uli (blackened tapa cloth) by local Tongan artist Kulimoe’anga Stone Maka with your class. This work tells the story of the loyal relationship between Queen Sālote Tupou III of Tonga and Queen Elizabeth II of Britain. Students will discuss the tradition of ngatu tā’uli and think about the designs and symbols used before heading to the education centre to create their own piece of art as part of a class story that they will take back to school.

Available 9 September - 17 October

Students will investigate how events can shape where we live and who we are on a guided tour of Things That Shape Us. They will think about the ways in which artists use their work to help get a message across to people and inspire action. In the classroom students will create a portrait which explores the people, places and issues that are important to them.

Available 24 July - 21 November

Celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the founding of Flying Nun Records in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Hellzapoppin’! brings together original artwork and design, film, record covers, posters and photography from some of New Zealand’s favourite bands. Students will take a guided tour of the exhibition before designing their own mixed-media poster or record cover in the classroom.

Available 21 August - 28 November

Share a moment of magic and possibility with your class under the rustling, glittering golden leaves of Reuben Paterson’s life-sized hand-sculpted tree. In Māori cosmology, it was Tāne, the forest god, who pushed apart his earth mother Papatūānuku and sky father Ranginui to create Te Ao Mārama – room and light for people. In the classroom students will sculpt their own (biodegradable) glitter masterpiece to take home.

Available 30 October - 30 January