The Creative Arts in the Early Childhood Classroom

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The Creative Arts in the Early Childhood
Classroom

• CDEC 1358
• Nita Thomason, Ed.D.

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Identify someone whomyou would call creative.

• What is it about this person
• that earns the title
• of creative?

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Think about yourself.

• What is it about you that
• that makes you unique,
• different, special?
• What do you do
• creatively?

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Creativity is a thinking and responding process
that involves connecting with our previous
experience, responding to stimuli, and
generating at least one unique combination.
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Traits of Creative People

• Awareness of creativity
• Originality
• Independence
• Risk-taking
• Problem redefining
• Energy
• Curiosity
• Attraction to complexity

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Traits of Creative People

• Artistic
• Open-mindedness
• Need time alone
• Perceptiveness
• Concentration
• Humor and ability to regress
• Childlike qualities

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• Except you become as a little child

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Modes of Thinking

• Convergent - leads to one and only one acceptable
  answer

• Divergent - searches for many different ways of
  defining or interpreting a problem

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Stages of the Creative Process

• Preparation/brainstorming
• Incubation
• Illumination
• Verification/communication

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Schools that NurtureCreativity

• Personnel strive to reduce stress.
• Process is valued over product.
• Time limits are flexible.
• Free, open atmosphere encouraging
  self-expression.
• Ideas are shared.
• Competition/external rewards minimized.
• Creativity, imagination, and fantasy are valued.

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Characteristics of Play

• Play is voluntary and intrinsically motivated.
• Play is symbolic, meaningful, and
  transformational.
• Play actively involves the players.
• Play is rule-bound.
• Play pleasurable.

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Why is play important?

• Enables children to make sense of their world
• Develops social and cultural understandings
• Allows children to express their thoughts and
  feelings
• Fosters flexible and divergent thinking
• Provides opportunities to meet and solve real
  problems
• Develops language and literacy skills and
  concepts

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Teachers Roles in Childrens Play

• Observers
• Collaborators
• Planners
• responders
• Models
• Mediators
• Monitors of Childrens Safety

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What is art?

• Are the childrens responses predetermined?
• Will one childs work look nearly identical to
  anothers?
• Who is the activity for?
• Will the childs efforts lead to the creation of
  a new form that is satisfying to the child at his
  or her level of development?

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Common Errors in Teaching Art

• Advocating formulas and requiring conformity in
  copying
• Mistaking lack of guidance for freedom
• Unduly emphasizing copying and neatness

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How Children LearnThrough Art

• To observe carefully and record observations
• To organize ideas and express their feelings
• To work with purpose and maintain a focus
• To solve problems through trial and error
• To respect themselves and their achievements
• To communicate feelings and ideas with others
• To discover own point of view
• To appreciate others points of views
• To appreciate different cultural groups
• To create change using wide range of media
• To make aesthetic discoveries and evaluations

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Responding to Childrens Art

• Treat child artists their work with respect
• Discuss artistic elements
• Follow childs lead Tell me about...
• Ask child appropriate questions
• What is it made of?
• What does it represent?
• For whom was it made?
• What is the most interesting thing to you?
• Where did your idea for this art come from?

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Displaying Childrens Art

• Place at childrens eye level
• Rotate art regularly
• Utilize a variety of spaces
• Add finishing touches such as frames
• Recognize every childs effort
• Children should be able to take home

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Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE)

• Art Production the making of art
• Art History acquiring knowledge about the
  contributions artists and art make to culture and
  society
• Art Criticism responding to and making
  judgments about the properties and qualities that
  exist in works of art
• Aesthetics the philosophy of art - discovering
  and understanding the varieties of meanings and
  values of art

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Texas Essential Knowledgeand Skills for Fine Arts

• Perception
• Creative expression/performance
• Historical/cultural heritage
• Response/evaluation

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Assumptions about ChildrensArt - True or False?

• Artistic ability unfolds naturally and children
  are best left to follow their own inclinations.
• Producing art is an emotional process rather than
  a cognitive one.
• Art is valued primarily because it allows
  children to act out their feelings.
• Any sensory experience is an art experience.
• Artworks need to be produced in a solitary
  fashion, otherwise children will copy the work
  of their peers.
• The primary purpose of art projects in school is
  and should be to make gifts or holiday ornaments.

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Figure 8.2 The Twenty Basic Scribbles (Really)
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Figure 8.3 Four Stages in Childrens Drawings
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Establishing Rules Limitsin ECE Art Programs

• Decide on a few important general rules
• Limit the number of children at art center
• Wear protective clothing
• Teach children how to use and care for art tools
• Model the importance of conserving materials
• Teach children to share supplies and respect
  others
• Demonstrate how to clean up after each art
  activity

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Develop a Childs Vocabularyof Art

• Encourage children to discuss the artwork
  first in ordinary language.
• Introduce the vocabulary in contest.
• Use accurate, appropriate vocabulary.

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Art Materials Should

• Extend childrens experience.
• Be plentiful.
• Be accessible.
• Be age-appropriate.
• Be of high quality.

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Cross-curricular Connections

• Media Technology
• Mathematics Science
• Language Literacy
• Social Studies, Health Nutrition

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Cultural Ethnic Diversityin the Arts Helps
Children Understand

• the relevance and significance of art in human
  experience
• the perspectives posed by people of various
  backgrounds
• the commonality and diversity of humankind
• the childs personal power as a creator of and
  responder to art

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Basic Features of a Creative Environment

• Climate - feeling emanating from classroom
• Space - degree which room contributes to active,
  creative thinking
• Time - influence of classroom schedule

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Music/Movement Framework

• All children have potential
• Each child brings unique interests/abilities
• Children have critical thinking skills
• Children have diverse experiences
• Children should experience exemplary musical
  sounds, activities, and materials
• Dont pressure to perform on stage
• Activities should be enjoyable
• Safe, pleasant environment
• Diverse learning opportunities essential
• Children need effective, enthusiastic models

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Uses of Music and Movement

• Begin the day/greet one another
• Create warm, positive atmosphere
• Establish particular mood
• Ease activity transitions
• Link arts with other subject areas
• Focus childrens attention
• Make special events more special
• Celebrate diversity
• Social development
• Relaxation
• Sharpen thinking skills
• Promote creative expression
• Bring day or event to satisfying conclusion

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Educational Value of Music and Movement

• Cognitive skills
• Social skills
• Perceptual skills
• Psychomotor skills
• Affective skills
• Cultural skills
• Aesthetic skills

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How Music and Movement Develop

• Enactive Stage
• Iconic Stage
• Symbolic Stage

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Principles of Music Program

• Base program on four elements
• Balance of groupings
• Invite children to respond in own ways
• Build self-confidence
• Use personalized encouragement
• Build music/movement vocabularies
• Encourage spontaneity
• Join with your students in music experiences
• Be inclusive of all children

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Teaching Strategies

• Use your voice
• Use recorded music
• Use simple instruments

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The First Amendment Religious Clauses
Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof

• Establishment Clause
• Free Exercise Clause

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How should I teach about religion?

• The schools approach to religion is academic,
  not devotional.
• The school strives for student awareness of
  religions, but does not press for student
  acceptance of any religion.
• The school sponsors study about religion, not the
  practice of religion.
• The school may expose students to a diversity of
  religious views, but may not impose any
  particular view.
• The school educates about all religions it does
  not promote or denigrate religion.
• Informs students about beliefs does not seek to
  conform students to any particular belief.

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Divergent Materials for Creative Expression
lead to multiple uses and invite a variety of
creative responses

• Enable children to use their imaginations
• Offer children latitude for creating
• Encourage cooperation
• Have no right or wrong uses, build esteem
• Process-oriented

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Types of Materials

• Skill/Concept Materials
• Gross Motor Materials
• Manipulative Materials
• Construction Materials
• Self-Expression Materials
• Natural and Everyday Objects

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Games and Young Children

• Infants and Toddlers - social interaction games
• Preschoolers - running/chasing games, simple
  spinning games of chance, simple sorting,
  guessing and matching games, simple board games
• Kindergarten, Primary Students - games with rules

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What is a game?

• Agreed-upon set of rules
• Pre-determined outcome
• Players assigned specific roles
• Sanctions for violations
• Competition and winning

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The Value of Games

• Develop cooperative behaviors and strategic
  thinking
• Practice autonomy
• Engage in problem solving
• Supervise and correct each other

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Competition versusCooperation

• Some early childhood educators think competitive
  games are developmentally inappropriate for young
  children
• Others believe that games can be appropriate and
  beneficial with proper guidelines

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The EC Teachers Role in Games

• Plan and introduce games
• Allow children to modify rules
• Support the childrens initiatives as they invent
  their own games

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What is Creative Drama (Enactment)?

• Emerges from the spontaneous play of young
  children
• Uses art of theater to enhance awareness of self,
  others, world
• Children act as if their imaginary world were
  the actual world
• Dramatizations represent feelings, thoughts, and
  actions

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Enactment allows children to

• Assume roles, create dialogue, feel emotions, use
  their bodies and make decisions
• Use their past and present experiences to talk
  about and solve problems
• Develop knowledge of appropriate roles, actions,
  and behaviors
• See others points of view
• Try out new and emerging skills
• Explore the forms and function of language

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Forms of Enactment

• Informal drama
• Story or interpretive drama
• Formal or scripted drama

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Importance of Creative Drama in EC Classroom

• Values and respects childrens individuality and
  creative expressiveness
• Offers means for cooperative learning and
  teamwork
• Enables children to make abstract situations
  meaningful and personalize real-life situations
• Provides opportunities to be spectators and
  actors
• Develops literacy skills
• Develops thinking skills
• Strengthens self-concept

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Prop Boxes

• Promote experiences related to a theme
• Extend and sustain theme play
• Increase opportunities for family involvement
• Provide opportunities to enact familiar roles
• Develop career awareness

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Pantomime

• Children use gestures and movement to communicate
  ideas, feelings, and actions
• Children use no words, only actions

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Why use puppets?

• Add life to classroom
• Natural vehicle for creativity, imagination, and
  self-expression
• Help children convey feelings, emotions, values,
  and ideas
• Encourages self-expression, storytelling,
  improvisation, and enactment
• Enhances risk taking and building confidence in
  speaking abilities

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Story Drama - type of interpretive drama based on
familiar stories, poems, fables, or original
stories

• Supports understanding of story structure
• Offers natural and authentic form of literacy
• Improves reading comprehension
• Promotes speaking, listening, critical, and
  creative reading skills by interpreting familiar
  material
• Heightens students interest in reading
• Enables children to experience the feelings and
  behaviors of others.

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Outdoor Playgrounds

• Space Requirements
• 75 Square Feet per child
• Play zones (tricycle riding separated from
  climbing)
• Variety of Surfaces
• grass
• hardtop
• mulch, pea gravel or cushioned fall areas
• sand
• water
• hills/mounds and flat areas
• shade

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Types of Outdoor Play

• Exercise
• Constructive
• Dramatic
• Games with Rules

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Playground Space

• Spaces for individuals and small groups
• Spaces for children of different ages
• toddlers
• preschoolers
• elementary-aged children
• Spaces for walking, running, skipping
• Storage area
• Easy access to toilets and drinking fountains
• Accessibility for special needs children

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Spaces for Childrenof Different Agesat the
Plano TrainPlayground

• Children under 5
• Children from6 - 12 Years of Age

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Celebration Park

• Water Play
• Ramps for special needs/strollers
• Dramatic Play

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Storage at Northaven Coop

• Riding Toys
• Balls,
• Sand Water Toys
• Hoops
• Moveable Materials

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Childs Play at Bachman Lake

• Rotary Project
• Geared to Children with Special Needs

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Materials

• Complexity - number of possibilities the
  material offers children
• Diversity - number of ways material can be
  used, regardless of complexity
• Loose Parts - movable pieces that can be
  manipulated and used to improvise providing
  flexibility, diversity, novelty, and challenge
• boards, ramps, tires, tools, nails
• balls

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Materials

• Offers opportunities for physical, cognitive,
  and social development
• Equipment for active and quiet play
• Materials for dramatic play
• Materials for gross motor development
• Sand area with cover

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Rainbow ConnectionPlayground

• Funds raised with Silent Auction
• Designed by architect in church
• Built by parents and church members

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Outdoor Waterplayin Guatemala
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Safety

• Equipment is in good repair, free of sharp
  edges and in good working order
• Fences at least 5 feet high with lockable gates
• 8 - 10 inches of sand, mulch, pea gravel, or
  natural fiber
• Litter free

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Religion and the Public Schools

• A Teachers Guide

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Knowledge about religions is not only
characteristic of an educated person, but is also
absolutely necessary for understanding and living
in a world of diversity. National Council for
the Social Studies
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How should I teach about religion in the public
school setting?

• The schools approach to religion is academic,
  not devotional.
• The school strives for student awareness of
  religions, but does not press for student
  acceptance of any religion.
• The school informs students about various
  beliefs it does not seek to conform students to
  any particular belief.

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How should I teach about religion in the public
school setting?

• The school sponsors study about religion, not the
  practice of religion.
• The school may expose students to a diversity of
  religious views, but may not impose any
  particular view.
• The school educates about all religions it does
  not promote or denigrate religion.

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