ARTS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD ASSIGNMENT 1Hannah Horsnell

WHY ARTS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD?

As wright (2012) states, people of all ages make meaning through the arts as they use formless ideas that express awareness of themselves and the world around them. Before children are able to communicate properly, they can hold a pencil, they can move their bodies and they can babble. For young children the Arts can be a way for them to express their thoughts and feelings through dance and especially drawings/ painting. The arts can assist in your child’s personal development, which includes verbal, sensory and literacy skills as well as interpersonal and emotional skills. Through the arts your children can work on their creativity and self expression (Deirdre, 2009). According to Berk (2012), drawing in the arts is one aspect in which helps children’s fine-motor development. As your children develop in the ability to mentally represent their world, their drawings begin to make more meaning.

MUSIC

CORE PRACTICES

• Listening• Moving• Singing• Playing• Creating

• Haines and Gerber (2000)

ELEMENTS• Rhythm

• Melody and harmony/pitch• Timbre• Texture

• Dynamics and expression/ mood• Form/ structure• Haines and Gerber (2000)

IMPORTANCE OF MUSICLearning and experiencing music in Early Childhood can have a major influence in the development of your children. In the beginning of foundation year children are still grasping reading and writing. Through providing a range of opportunities for musical activities, your children will be assisted in literacy development while increasing interest in words, pattern and print. Music will also allow your children new opportunities for the development of thinking (Isbell and Raines, 2013).

MUSIC

LINKS TO EYLF• Through this music experience children

are working within outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners.

LINKS TO ACARA• Through music children will

learn to become aware of the elements which include rhythm, pitch, dynamics and expression, form and structure and timbre and texture as they make and explore music.

• This learning experience coincides with the ACARA content for music of ‘sing and play instruments to improvise, practise a repertoire of chants, songs and rhymes including songs used by cultural groups in the community.

LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN MY CLASSROOM

The music curriculum in my classroom will consist of making instruments and using these instruments to accompany their group singing. Your children will be provided with materials to make their own instrument, once the children have finished this activity a selected song will be chosen and the children will use their instruments as well as body percussion to make the beat of the song while also singing. This will help children with learning the elements of music, especially rhythm, melody and harmony. Below is an example of children playing and investigating with homemade instruments. This video is quite long, the first minute is enough to give you an idea of the types of homemade instruments children can make.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0GEsZ6JnY

DANCEELEMENTS • Body • Space

• Dynamics• Relationships

Wright (2012, p.97

IMPORTANCE OF DANCEChildren use dance to express their ideas and feelings about the world around them. Often children will be seen doing the most unusual dance moves. This is because they copy the movements of things they see around them (Schiller and Meiners, 2012). Through dance your children develop a wide range of gross motor skills as they become aware of their bodies. Your children learn about the body bases, parts and zones used in dance. As your children make their own dances they become aware of space and time while discovering locomotor and non-locomotor movements (Schiller and Meiners, 2012).

CORE PRACTICES

• Creating• Performing• Appreciating

Wright (2012)

DANCELEARNING EXPERIENCES IN MY

CLASSROOMIn my dance curriculum in the classroom children will be given time to dance freely to selected music that has a certain theme. This will enable your children to move their bodies and make their own dance moves according to how they have viewed the things around them. The video below shows a child dancing freely by her own choice. She is using her body to make dance. Please watch between 55 seconds and 1 minute 40 seconds.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGeeK49tTwk As well as free dance your children will look at all different dances, from multiple cultures around the world, to gain understanding of the different types and styles of dance.

LINKS TO EYLF• Outcome 1: children have a

strong sense of identity.

• Through my dance experience children have the opportunity to express themselves through free dance. Children use the world around them as inspirations for movements to certain themes of music.

LINKS TO ACARA• Children explore,

improvise and organise ideas to make dance sequences using the elements of dance.

• As children respond to dance, they explore meaning and interpretation, elements and forms of social and cultural contexts.

DRAMAELEMENTS

• Voice

• Body/ gesture

• Props/costumes

• Text/ Script

IMPORTANCE OF DRAMAThrough dramatic play children can learn a lot about the world around them, themselves and the reasons for the way other people behave in the ways they do. Throughout the primary years, drama is used particularly for models of behaviour and action that can be performed safely (O’Toole and Dunn, 2002).

CORE PRACTICES• Dramatic role play• Drama corner• Text/ storytelling

• Professional theatre

DRAMALEARNING EXPERIENCES IN MY CLASSROOMOne of the learning experiences in my drama curriculum will be the children completing exercises based on the voices of different characters. Your children will take on the role of their favourite character and enact to each other in small groups how they think that character would act.Another learning experience for the drama curriculum I will be using will be to get your children to write creative dramatic narratives using the correct structure and then share with the class or small groups.

LINKS TO EYLF• Through these learning

experience children are working within each of the learning outcomes of the EYLF.

• Through these learning experiences the children will be able to identify a sense of identity not only for themselves but the characters they play.

• The children will gain the ability to follow narratives, stay in character while performing movements and also persevere at a task which may initially be difficult for them.

• Children will develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity

LINKS TO ACARA• Through the drama curriculum

children will use voice, facial expressions, movement and space to imagine and establish a role and situation.

VISUAL ART

CORE PRACTICES• Painting• Drawing • Sculpture

• Constructing• Modeling

IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL ARTWhen children are working within the arts, whether that be drawing, painting or constructing, they are using all of their senses. This means the arts can used as a powerful tool for your children’s learning. When your child is working within art they are not just making things, they learn about themselves and therefore feel a sense of belonging. Using drawing as an example from the visual art’s core practices children are able to quickly explain things as they make their thinking visible. This enables them to make plans and tell stories.(McArdle, 2012).

ELEMENTS• Line• Tone• Colour • Texture• Shape• Form• Space• Pattern

(Deirdre, 2009)

Helen Nieuwendijk, Spike, oil on canvas

VISUAL ARTLEARNING EXPERRIENCES IN MY CLASSROOMThrough my visual art curriculum as well as having intentional teaching, I believe it is important for your children to have the time to draw freely to enable them to make their thinking, ideas and stories visible through their art. Below is an example of children freely finger painting, through their speech it is evident the thinking that happens when they are undertaking an activity like this. Please watch between 1 mintute and 2 minutes, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTEovndcFa0 The intentional teaching lesson I plan to implement will be to teach your children about the main elements of visual art. In this lesson your children will collect 5 things from the outside environment to use as inspiration for their drawings. The children will use the colours, textures and shapes from these objects to create a drawing.

LINKS TO EYLF• Through enabling your children to freely draw in my arts curriculum

they are working within outcome 1: children have a strong sense of identity and also outcome 4: children are confident and involved learners. Children are able to express their ideas and make meaning through this strategy.

• Through the intentional teaching lesson your children are working within outcome 2: children are connected and contribute to their world.

LINKS TO ACARA• Through the arts curriculum the

children will explore ideas, experiences, observation and imagination to create visual artworks and design.

• Through my arts curriculum your children will also learn about how to make visual representations of their ideas, experiences, observations and imagination.

MEDIA ARTS

CORE PRACTICES• Still photography

• Sound• Animation• Puppetry• Print

IMPORTANCE OF MEDIAIn contemporary society children are born into a world that is surrounded by technology and media. It is important for your children to be involved in a media arts curriculum in the early years to prepare them to engage in our technologically advanced world throughout their lives (Prowse, 2012). Digital filming and editing equipment provides important skills, knowledge and understanding for your children that will most likely be important for employment and leisure opportunities later in their lives (Marsh, 2005) ELEMENTS

• Storyboarding• Recording• Editing

• Publishing• Special effects

• Writing• shooting

MEDIA ARTS

LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN MY CLASSROOMThrough my media arts curriculum your children will be writing stories and then using moviemaker to create a movie/ video for their story. Your children will have access to digital cameras, voice recorders, scanners and computers. The children will be introduced to this software where they will learn to use it competently.

LINKS TO EYLF• Through this activity children will be working within outcome 4 and 5 of

the early years learning framework.• Children are confident and involved learners - Children resource their own

learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.

• Children are effective communicators -Children use information and communication technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking.

LINKS TO ACARAThrough my media arts curriculum the aspects of the ACARA document that your children will cover are:• Use media media

technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose.

• Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text.

REFERENCE LIST Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2014, The arts,

viewed 10 April 2014, <http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/TheArts/Curriculum/F-10?u=da&u=dr&u=ma&u=mu&u=va&y=F-2&layout=1#page=da>.

Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations 2009, The early years learning framework, barton ACT.

Berk, LE 2012, Infants, children, and adolescents, 7th edn, Allyn and Bacon, Suite, Boston.

Deirdre, RB 2009, chapter 1, ‘The state of the arts’, MMADD about the arts: an introduction to primary arts education, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest, NSW.

Haines, B, Joan, E and Gerber, Linda L 2000, ‘Children and music’, Leading young children to music, 6th edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ, pp. 3- 16.

Isbell, RT and Raines, SC 2013, ‘Creativity and the arts with young children, Music, music, music, 3rd edn, Wadsworth Cengage Learning,, Australia, pp. 185- 222.

McArdle, F 2012, Chapter 2 ‘The visual arts: Ways of seeing in Children’, in S. Wright (ed.) ,Literacy moves on :popular culture, new technologies and critical literacy in the elementary classroom, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.

Marsh, J 2005, Chapter 2 ‘Moving stories: digital editing in the nursery’, in J. Evans (ed.), Children meaning-making and the arts, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest NSW.

REFERENCE LIST CONTINUED National Quality Standard: professional learning program 2012, Discovering music

making, video, Youtube, 10 July, Viewed 15 April 2014,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0GEsZ6JnY>

National Quality Standard: professional learning program 2012, Doing your own thing- child's agency, video, Youtube, 19 September, Viewed 9 April 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGeeK49tTwk>.

National Standard Quality: professional learning program 2012, Finger painting, video, Youtube, 7 August, viewed 17 April 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTEovndcFa0>.

Nieuwendijk H 2007, A Creative Investigation into the “child-made” artefact, self published.

Orchard, J 2014, ‘Drama for early years’ EDUC 2023, University of South Australia, Adelaide, April.

O’Toole, J and Dunn, J 2002, ‘Pretending to learn: helping children learn through drama’, The basics of drama teaching, Longman/ Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.

Prowse, S 2012, Chapter 6 ‘How do media production and ICT fit into the early childhood context’, in S. Wright (ed.), Children meaning-making and the arts, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest NSW.

Schiller, w and Meiners, J 2012, Chapter 4 ‘Dance: moving beyond steps to ideas’, in S. Wright (ed.), Children meaning-making and the arts, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest NSW.

Wright, S 2012, Children, meaning making and the arts, 2nd edn, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest, NSW.

Images Open clipart 2014, homepage, viewed 16 April 2014,< http://openclipart.org/homepage>.