Our Many Hands

Overview

Students collaboratively design and create a large mixed-media artwork representing the tamariki of their school. Using handprints as a shared visual language, they explore how colour, shape, pattern, scale and placement can communicate belonging and identity, then make collective decisions about how the finished work will be displayed.

Learning intentions

• WALT use visual arts elements and principles to communicate ideas about our school community.
• WALT develop and refine ideas through planning, making and responding.
• WALT collaborate respectfully and make shared decisions about an artwork’s presentation.
• WALT explain how our choices help represent the tamariki of our school.

Success criteria

• I can create a handprint design that communicates something positive about belonging or identity.
• I can use colour, pattern, shape, scale or arrangement purposefully.
• I can contribute ideas, listen to others and help make a fair group decision.
• I can describe how the completed artwork represents our school community.

Curriculum links

• Visual Arts: developing practical knowledge of visual arts elements, processes, materials and techniques.
• Visual Arts: developing ideas in response to a theme and exploring how artists communicate meaning.
• Visual Arts: communicating and interpreting through presenting, discussing and responding to artworks.
• The refreshed New Zealand Curriculum emphasis on belonging, manaakitanga, collaboration, creativity and contributing to a diverse community.

Lesson structure (120 minutes)

1. 0–10 min · Hook and purpose. Teacher displays examples of collaborative artworks and asks, “How can one artwork show many different people belonging together?” using the hook and artwork examples. Students first think independently, then share what they notice about colour, pattern, shape, size and arrangement.

2. 10–25 min · Explore and discuss. Teacher introduces the project parameters: every student contributes at least one handprint; the work must be respectful, inclusive and suitable for public display; the class will decide the final arrangement together. Teacher models how repeated hand shapes can become a pattern, tree, koru-inspired curve, people, flowers or a connected visual pathway, while avoiding copying designs that have specific cultural significance. Students discuss possible meanings and respond to prompts from the Visual Arts Critique Cards in pairs, focusing on “Look”, “Describe”, “Interpret” and “Question”.

3. 25–40 min · Plan individual contribution. Teacher distributes the collaborative artwork planning worksheet and models three quick thumbnail ideas. Students plan a handprint including a colour choice, one pattern or texture, and a word or symbol that represents belonging, connection, hope or their contribution to the school. Students may choose a traced hand, stamped hand or hand-shaped stencil instead of placing their hand directly in paint.

4. 40–50 min · Demonstration and group roles. Teacher demonstrates safe paint use, testing colour, even coverage, printing, cleaning hands, adding details when dry, and protecting the work surface. Teacher forms six groups of five and assigns rotating roles: material manager, printer, detail artist, quality checker and clean-up organiser. Students rehearse the process with a scrap sheet and agree on two or three shared colour or pattern features to help the artwork feel unified.

5. 50–85 min · Create the handprints. Teacher sets up six workstations and refers to the process and studio-safety slides while circulating to coach technique and ask, “What do you want the viewer to understand?” Students create their handprint contribution, add planned details, write their first name or class identifier on the reverse or an agreed recording sheet, and support group members. Students who do not wish to use their own handprint create a hand-shaped stencil, print a partner’s hand with consent, or contribute a repeated pattern or connecting background element.

6. 85–105 min · Curate and decide. Teacher places the drying artwork where all students can see it and gives each group several possible layout options: circle, wave, cluster, tree, pathway or a student-designed arrangement. Groups make a quick paper or floor mock-up, considering visibility, balance, connections between handprints and accessibility for viewers. Each group presents its proposal; the class uses agreed criteria—represents many tamariki, looks balanced, communicates belonging and can be displayed safely—to reach a consensus or fair majority decision.

7. 105–120 min · Reflect and respond. Teacher facilitates a gallery walk and uses the reflection and closing slides to prompt discussion. Students complete the final section of the collaborative artwork planning worksheet: one artistic choice they made, one way they collaborated, and one sentence explaining how the display represents the tamariki of the school. Invite several students to share, then photograph and label the work if appropriate.

Resources

• Washable, non-toxic poster paint or tempera in a considered colour range
• Large paper, fabric or pre-prepared display panels
• Scrap paper, pencils, markers, paintbrushes and sponges
• Trays, water containers, aprons, table covers and cleaning cloths
• Hand-shaped stencils or tracing templates
• the collaborative handprint artwork slide deck
• the collaborative artwork planning worksheet
• the Visual Arts Critique Cards

Assessment

• During planning, check that students can name a visual element and explain the intended meaning of their design.
• During making and curation, observe technique, respectful collaboration, consent, role participation and use of the agreed criteria.
• Review the worksheet reflection for evidence that students can connect artistic choices and display decisions with representing the school’s tamariki.

Differentiation

• Provide traced hand outlines, pre-cut stencils, visual process cards, limited colour choices and sentence starters such as “My handprint represents…” and “Our arrangement shows…”.
• Offer pencil planning, sponge printing, partner support, adaptive tools or a non-contact handprint option for students with sensory, physical or personal needs.
• Pair students strategically and give clear, rotating roles; allow oral recording, scribing or voice recording for students who find extended writing difficult.
• Extend confident students by asking them to develop a repeated motif, connect separate handprints through pattern or justify how scale, negative space and colour guide the viewer’s eye.
• Reinforce that participation is voluntary and that cultural symbols, names and identities must be used with permission and represented respectfully.