Year 4 Visual Arts – Term 4 (WA Curriculum): Exploring Art Across Times and Cultures

What this unit covers

In Term 4, Year 4 Visual Arts in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Exploring Art Across Times and Cultures”.

Students explore and respond to artwork from different historical periods and cultures, developing visual art vocabulary to express meaning and understanding.

Lesson sequence (8 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. Discovering Ancient Egyptian Art and Symbols
2. Exploring Aboriginal Dreamtime Stories in Art
3. Investigating Medieval Castle Art and Illuminated Manuscripts
4. Responding to Japanese Traditional Art Forms
5. Analyzing Renaissance Masters and Their Techniques
6. Understanding African Masks and Cultural Meanings
7. Comparing Modern Art Movements Across Different Countries
8. Creating Our Own Art Gallery Response Exhibition

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 4

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 4 runs from Monday 12 October to Thursday 17 December — 10 weeks for WA public schools. With 8 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.