Week 2: The Arts and Young Children

During week 2, I focused on the unit, The Arts and Young Children. Here is a summary of that unit.

Children are natural artists, in the sense that they play creatively with the elements of the arts that they find in their surroundings. But those surroundings must be provided, determined by a philosophy of what child art is, and what it means. Early childhood professionals need to consider why children should do certain arts activities, which ones should be selected, how they should be delivered, and what environment is most conducive to their performance.

In this unit, I learned why the arts need to be taught. I also learned how the arts help children grow socially, emotionally, physically, intellectually, and linguistically.

It is the educator's role to nurture the artist within every young child. Although the focus will always be on guiding the artistic development of the child, in doing so the artist within the adult will also be rekindled. Adults and children must become part of the artistic continuum that stretches from our distant human past into the future. To guide young children as they grow through the arts is a deeply rewarding experience.

Week 2: Why the Arts?

All of the following have been suggested as important reasons children should be taught the arts. I thought carefully about each item and then ranked each by its importance. I wrote a number in front of each, with 1 being the highest rank and 9 being the lowest. Based on my ranking, I wrote a statement that explains why I feel the arts are essential for young children.

8 The arts are part of being human.

2 The arts stimulate brain development.

5 The arts promote early literacy.

7 The arts improve physical health.

1 The arts promote emotional well-being.

4 The arts create community.

3 The arts foster cognitive growth.

6 The arts nurture creativity.

Here is my statement:

The arts are essential for young children because . . .

the arts promote social emotional growth and overall brain development, which will create a better environment physically, emotionally, and mentally for the child in the future.

Week 2: My Personal Arts Timeline

I reflected on all the arts experiences I have had to date and their related ages. Here is what I wrote.

Birth to age 5: Children begin to learn how to hold art supplies and create art even if they do not know what they are creating.

6 to 10 years: Children are able to better express themselves and create what they want to without much help.

11 to 15 years: They start to form an identity with the art that they create, and they create what they relate to or have seen before.

16 to 20 years: Young adults use art to show their personalities and relate to the communities around them that they want to contribute to or be a part of.

21 to 30 years: Adults use art to relieve themselves of stress from the outside environment and they use it to create meaningful pieces.

31 to 40 years: Adults use art to show the things that they appreciate, and they add to the communities that they relate to.

41 to 50 years: Adults start to find new ways to express themselves with art and relieve some of their stress.

51+ years: Older adults utilize all of their experiences to find what is best for their style and how to incorporate art into their lives.

I have not taken many art classes throughout my life, so I do not consider myself to be very artistic, however I do love to listen to music, and I appreciate art museums. In middle school, I always created art for the people around me and never for myself. In high school I did not take any art classes, but I helped create a lot of posters for events and clubs that I was in. I also started going to concerts in high school and I loved being able to express myself through listening to artists that I love. My friends and family have always told me that they appreciate my work because even though it might not be the best, I always created something that I loved. I have a piece on my wall that I created which is based on a movie that I have always loved. Even though it is a picture of a fiction character, it brings me joy because I would always watch the movie with my family growing up.

I responded to the following related questions.

1. Do you remember more experiences from your early childhood or your later years?

I remember a lot more from my later years. I have artwork that I created when I was younger, but I do not remember creating the pieces. The only artistic things I can recall are from baking with my grandmother. I started to listen to my own music and go to concerts without influence from my family in my later years. I also started going to a lot of protests in my later high school years where I would create posters to express my beliefs.

2. How many, and which ones, are happy memories?

A lot of memories I have of creating artwork and listening to music in my later years are happy memories. Even though a lot of art was made at school for projects, it still brought me joy.

3. Do any memories make you feel uncomfortable? If so, which ones?

I don't have many uncomfortable memories, but I also can't recall a lot of childhood memories.

4. What adults participated in creating these memories?

My grandmother was a big part of my childhood and helped me develop my love for creating art through baking. My parents are not very artistic people and spent most of their time working during my childhood.

5. How will these memories affect the way you will approach your work with young children in the arts?

I hope that my memories and relationship with art in my childhood will allow me to help young children with their experiences. Since I don't have many memories as a young child, I hope that I can help the children that I work with create more memories and good experiences that they can remember.

Week 3: Creating Visual Art

During week 3, I focused on the unit, Creating Visual Art. Here is a summary of that unit.

Visual artists have been creating with paper, paint, clay, fiber, and more for thousands of years. Much of what is known about civilizations of the past has been shared with us through the culture's visual artworks. Providing young children the opportunity to work with a wide variety of visual arts media in open-ended ways facilitates the growth of both the mind and hand. It is also a link to our past and our future. Early childhood professionals must ensure that all children have the opportunity to explore new media, create graphic symbols, and develop technical skill.

What are the Visual Arts?

The visual arts involve the creation of two- and three-dimensional images that communicate ideas and emotions. The traditional media for doing this includes drawing, painting, collage, printmaking, and sculpture, but in fact, visual art can be made from almost any material imaginable, ranging from natural fibers to industrial waste to computer screens. The key ingredient is the manipulation of the visual and tactile elements of line, shape, color, form, texture, pattern, and space. These elements are arranged by the artist into a composition, which combines the selected materials into a unified whole.

How Do the Visual Arts Help Children Grow?

Through the visual arts children will develop:

• Physically - By using the large and small muscles of the arm and hand and eye-hand coordination to handle the different art media. (Bodily-Kinesthetic)

• Socially - By working alongside other children and sharing arts materials. (Interpersonal)

• Emotionally - By learning to enjoy the act of creating visual art and by developing self-confidence in their ability to control a part of their environment as they handle challenging tools and materials safely. (Intrapersonal)

• Perceptually - By exploring new ways to make graphic symbols in two- and three-dimensional space, and by responding to the visual and textual effects they have created. (Spatial)

• Language skills - By learning a vocabulary of visual art words, and by learning how to communicate about their artwork and the work of others, orally, with graphic symbols, and, at the primary level, through writing. (Linguistic)

• Cognitively - By seeing that their creative actions and decisions can cause the effect of producing a visual image, and by developing the ability to compare and evaluate their own work and the work of others. (Logical-Mathematical)

• Visual art concepts and skills - By meeting the Common Core Standards for Visual Art and/or other standards.

How Are Visual Arts Activities Designed?

Drawing, painting, collage, and other visual art media can be used by children of all ages, but children vary greatly in maturity level and ability to concentrate on a visual arts activity. The choice of an activity should be based, first of all, on each child's day-to-day behavior rather than on chronological age. The presentation of the activity should always be adjusted to the developmental level and needs of the children.

• One-on-One - For infants and young toddlers, who still put things in their mouths, the best way to introduce arts materials and tools is to work with just one child at a time. This allows the child to work under close supervision with a caring adult who can provide immediate positive feedback and share in the child's joyful creation.

• Exploration Centers - Older toddlers and preschoolers will need to spend time discovering how the different art media work. This is the exploration stage. At this level visual art is best presented through art centers where arts materials are arranged in attractive and organized ways that invite independent use. Children should be able to freely choose from a variety of materials and explore on their own as part of their natural play.

• Practice Activities - Once children are familiar with a material, they will need plenty of opportunity to revisit and practice. This is the revisitation stage. Art centers, stocked with beautifully displayed, familiar materials allow choice and continued exploration. Centers allow children to return again and again to familiar materials and tools. In addition, these materials will be at the ready for use in small group or class projects and integrated arts units. Whether incorporated into the classroom or in a separate space such as the atelier in Reggio Emilia type programs, working at beautifully arranged centers should form the backbone of the visual art program from toddler to the primary grades.

• Responsive Activities - Once they have gained sufficient fine motor control and arts skill, children will be able to focus and refine the ideas and feelings they are trying to communicate in their artwork. This is the responsive stage. Responsive activities are often based on common experiences shared by the whole class. In these cases, opportunities for the whole class to make paintings or work with clay at the same time make sense. Working together in this way allows children to see how each of them responds in different ways to the same stimuli. But whole class activities should never replace access to a well-supplied art center.

Week 6: Artistic Development

During week 6, I explored artistic development. Here is a summary of that unit.

Creative arts for the child involve more than the simple manipulation of materials at an art table or putting on unusual clothes in a dramatic play center. It is a developmental process. A number of researchers/theorists have studied children’s development in the arts, including Gardner, Kellogg, and Kindler and Darra, and their work helps us interpret children’s creative processes and products, and plan for their future work. The artistic development of individual children is a combination of the biological maturation patterns of the body and brain, mediated by social and cultural factors and experiences. Children’s artistic growth is not a step-by-step process but rather a multifaceted way for children to develop in the arts through new methods of expression and communication. Table 3-2 on pages 61-62 of our textbook provides a good summary of children’s development in the arts. Early childhood professionals have a responsibility to document and share this growth with the aid of cameras, video recorders and portfolios.

Developmentally appropriate practice, the hallmark of quality in early childhood education, is based on the idea that early childhood professionals must know how young children typically develop, what variations may occur in this development, and how to adjust their teaching/curriculum to meet the needs of each individual child. To do this we must ask ourselves the following three questions, which are the basis of developmentally appropriate practice and which help us select the best arts activities for the children we serve:

1. What is known about child development and learning? This knowledge helps us identify the child’s expected developmental level by directing us to look at the child’s similarity to others of the same age. This is called normative development. In order to plan appropriate arts experiences for young children, early childhood professionals must know what children are generally like at various ages so they can make decisions about which arts activities/experiences will be safe and appropriately challenging.

2. What is known about each child’s individual development? This knowledge helps us discover what makes each child uniquely different from others so we can better meet individual children’s needs during arts (and other) activities. Children have unique strengths, needs and interests, due to maturational differences, developmental delays, physical challenges or other factors. Early childhood professionals must know about a great deal about the individual children they serve in order to plan arts activities/experiences that meet individual children’s needs and interests.

3. What is known about the social and cultural context in which children live? This knowledge helps us better understand the communication style, cultural beliefs and attitudes, strengths and desires of both the child and the child’s family. Some children have been exposed to images and art forms in the home, community and media, while others have not. Some children have received encouragement to pursue arts activities and positive feedback on their explorations, while others have not.

What Is Known About Child Development in the Arts?

According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children's Position Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009, pp. 1-31), being knowledgeable about normative development, or what children are generally like at various ages, allows teachers to make initial decisions about which activities and experiences will be safe, but challenging, for young children.

The following information is intended to provide general guidelines from which appropriate arts activities may be selected.

INFANT. In our textbook, the term infant is used to refer to children from birth to 18 months. Infants have the following characteristics:

• Explore first with mouth and later with eyes and limbs

• Use movements, gestures, and vocalizations to communicate

• Have very limited self-regulatory skills and require constant supervision

• Show development of physical control from the head down and from the center of body out to the limbs

• Are strongly attached to caregivers and respond best in one-on-one settings

• Have short memories and attention spans

• Can learn to respond to simple commands

TODDLER. In our textbook, the term toddler is used to refer to children between the ages of 18 months and 3 years who may exhibit the following characteristics:

• Need to explore with all their senses and may still put objects in their mouth

• Have limited self-regulatory skills and require close supervision

• Engage in parallel play

• Show developing control over large muscles in the arms and legs

• Have short attention spans, usually less than 10 minutes, and need simple materials to explore

• Need to repeat actions

• Say names of objects and understand more words than they can say

• Are developing a sense of self

THREE- TO FIVE-YEAR-OLDS (PRESCHOOLERS). Most children of this age display the following characteristics:

• Show increasing self-control and can work side by side in small groups

• Usually will not put inappropriate items in mouth

• Show developing control over wrists, hands, and fingers

• Have an increasing attention span and can work independently for 10 minutes or more at a time

FIVE- TO SIX-YEAR-OLDS OR KINDERGARTNERS. Most children in this age range display the following behaviors:

• Show increasing control over wrists and hands and exhibit a more mature grip on drawing tools

• Can concentrate for a period of time, 30 minutes or more, on a self-selected arts activity

• Can work together in small groups of three to six on common projects and are able to share some supplies

• May dictate or be able to write stories with invented spelling

• Can follow a three-step direction

• Can classify objects and make predictions

• Can use words to describe the qualities of objects—color, size, and shape—and begin to sort them by those qualities

SIX- TO EIGHT-YEAR-OLDS OR PRIMARY AGE. Most children in this age range show the following behaviors:

• Hold drawing tools with a mature grip

• Concentrate for an hour or more on a self-selected arts activity and return to an ongoing arts project over a period of several days

• Initiate, participate, and assume roles in cooperative group arts activities

• Begin to read and write stories with the majority using conventional spelling by the end of the eighth year

• Understand that objects can share one or more qualities and can use this knowledge to make predictions and comparisons and to draw conclusions

Looking at all the factors affecting a child artist is essential to planning an arts activity or, in fact, any learning activity for that child and assessing the resulting performance. While normative growth charts give us some idea of what to expect from a group of toddlers or primary age children, we should never assume that if a child is a certain age, or is offered the same arts activities as another, we will be able to predict exactly what that child will do with them. But when we understand the range of possible responses, recognize individual difference as normal, and know our children as unique beings with their own histories and passions, we will better choose activities for them. The growth of young children, from exploring scribblers and babblers to symbol-creating artists, musicians, dancers, and actors, is an amazing journey. This is what makes teaching the arts to children so exciting.

Based on what we know about how children develop in the arts, we must consider four things in selecting appropriate arts activities for our students.

WE MUST HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS. Developmental stage models and an understanding of the factors affecting individual development enhance our understanding of why children's arts performance looks the way it does. But it should not limit our expectations or make us hesitate to try a certain activity. Among young children, we should expect a range of behaviors, from simple exploration based on their level of physical control to complex expressions of their ideas. Within an age cohort, the creative arts produced by children will vary widely, depending on the children's cultural and social experiences and their familiarity with the art form. For example, it is not at all unusual within a group of four-year-olds to witness some children scribbling, some using a limited number of symbolic forms, and some drawing complex graphic symbols. We must accept the scribblers' and babblers' artistic performances as just as valid and important as the more adult-pleasing recognizable pictures, songs, and stories, and select open-ended activities that allow all participants to be creative and personally successful.

WE MUST VALUE CHILDREN'S ART PRODUCTION AS A DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS, NOT AS A PRODUCT. It is essential to find ways of recording and presenting not just the final product or performance, but the whole process of creation. Anyone who has watched and participated in a child's arts activity knows that the final product may be a letdown. Young dancers may trip and hesitate as they attempt to glide around the stage. Beginning singers may sound out of tune. Arts activities needs to be accompanied by a record of what the children said, the stages the works passed through, and how the children moved as they worked. This is a challenge for a busy, overworked teacher, but it is not impossible.

WE MUST UNDERSTAND BETTER WHAT THE CHILD IS THINKING. Knowing the physical, social, cultural, and emotional factors affecting a child helps us better understand and accept the young artist's behavior and resulting creative work. For example, a smiling child banging and stabbing the paper with a crayon is probably not being aggressive, but more likely exploring the possibilities of the crayon. A child doing the same thing, but whose dog has just died, is probably expressing grief.

WE MUST SELECT ACTIVITIES THAT ARE SUITABLE FOR PARTICULAR CHILDREN. Because there will always be a range of abilities in any group, the arts activities that teachers select must be open-ended and allow every child to be challenged. There must always be room for exploration as well as revisitation and responsive work.

Week 7: Awakening the Senses

During week 7, I investigated sensory perception and sensory activities/experiences for young children. Here is a summary of that unit.

Humans learn about the world through their senses. Tastes, smells, textures, sounds and sights, often in combination, stimulate our sensory organs which convert them to neural impulses and send them to our brain for processing. Sensory perception is essential for functioning successfully in society. In fact, we rely so heavily on the intake of information through our senses that when deprived of sensory input for as little as fifteen minutes, adults begin to lose their sense of reality.

Starting at birth, the brain filters the information coming from the senses, discarding some and attending to others. In order to build deep meaning, children need to use selective attention, the underlying skill required for effective learning in all developmental areas. Selective attention requires children to choose the most important or compelling stimulus, focus on it, discover its meaning, and then react. Early childhood professionals have a responsibility to provide children with developmentally appropriate sensory experiences, including in the arts, to facilitate their development in all developmental domains.

When presenting a sensory perceptual activity, the early childhood professional must intentionally frame the sensory aspects. This is done by:

• Selecting a sensory rich experience

• Alerting children to the experience

• Allowing a choice of interaction with the stimulus

• Actively engaging both verbally and nonverbally about the sensory qualities of the experience

• Observing, assessing, adjusting, repeating and scaffolding as needed, based on the children’s reaction to the stimulus.

For toddlers and older children, a sensory stimulus should be a WOW – Wonderful Object of Wonder – introduced with questions and wonderings by the teacher.

Early childhood professionals should alert children to the sensory qualities of their arts explorations and artworks by making appropriate comments about arts elements encountered – line, color, shape, pattern, rhythm, texture, form, space, movement.

My instructor shared her Pinterest Board, Sensory Explorations. https://www.pinterest.com/clsargeant/sensory-explorations/

I thought carefully about objects in the environment that have interesting sensory qualities and how I could alert young children to their sensory qualities. I situated myself in a place where I felt safe, where I could attend to/focus on the sensory qualities of the environment - interesting sounds, interesting smells, interesting images (things to look at), interesting objects to touch, interesting objects to taste. I did not listen to music. I turned off my cell phone. I focused on the sensory qualities of the objects around me for a 10-minute period.

Here are three objects I noticed that I could introduce to young children to help them appreciate their sensory qualities.

Week 8: Coming Together Through the Arts

During week 8, I explored how children come together through the arts. Here is a summary of that unit.

Some of the most joyful arts experiences children can have are those in which they work in a group to create something great together - a mural, a box robot, a musical revue, or an original dance. Working together for a common purpose forges children into a group. It becomes “our mural,” “our robot,” “our songs,” or “our dance.” It is not surprising that so many of the “class-building activities” of cooperative learning programs are based in the arts. It is easy to incorporate the ideas and skills of every child into an arts activity. Projects and investigations provide opportunities for fostering social-emotional development and promoting group bonding.

As with creativity, social-emotional skills flourish in an environment where children feel self-confident, where they are relaxed, and where they feel secure. A positive social climate develops when children feel that their ideas and feelings are accepted and valued. Qualities such as verbal encouragement, modeling empathy, using emotionally expressive language, and showing emotional warmth to each child have been shown to increase confidence, self-control, empathy, and cooperativeness.

We model acceptance by giving appropriate time, attention, and assistance to every child. The open-ended nature of the creative arts provides the perfect setting to do this. While engaged in arts activities, we can support children’s development of social-emotional skills by:

• Modeling self-regulation by remaining calm and showing patience in trying situations

• Communicating confidence and empathy by using words like we, us, ours, caring, and sharing, on a daily basis

• Providing opportunities to practice self-regulation and cooperative skills by offering arts activities that inspire children to want to work together

• Affirming children when they show confidence, act kindly, wait patiently, and share

• Asking reflective questions such as: Are the children working joyfully? Are they aware of each other's needs?

How Do We Respond to Challenging Behaviors During Arts Experiences?

Responding to inappropriate behavior during arts activities requires a gentle approach that addresses the behavior without restricting creativity nor crushing self-confidence. Early childhood professionals can foster safe, creative behavior in several ways:

• Offer only those activities, props, materials, and tools appropriate for the child's skill level.

• Keep materials and tools not on the child's skill level out of reach and out of sight.

• Provide each child with adequate space in which to work and move. Dangerous behavior often happens when children accidentally bump or push each other.

• Provide sufficient supplies to prevent the children from grabbing for that one special item.

• Closely supervise the children while they work, especially during initial explorations of new materials and tools.

• Keep group sizes small until the children know how to work safely with a particular technique, material, or tool.

• Keep arts supplies, musical instruments, and dramatic play materials orderly so that children do not have to dig or grab for what they want. Be sure there is sufficient open space for creative movement.

• Model safe movement and handling of tools and supplies at all times.

How Are Children with Special Needs Included in the Arts Program?

Because of the open-ended nature of well-designed arts activities, children with special needs can participate fully in most arts programs and group arts activities, often without many modifications. If necessary, changes can be made in the tools and environment to allow active participation. Also, all children must learn to accept and support those with special needs.

Children with special needs are a tremendously diverse group. Some have obvious disabilities, and others have disabilities that cannot be seen by the casual observer. The Individuals with Disabilities Act (Public Law 105-17) has identified ten categories of children who can receive special education services. These include children with learning disabilities, speech and language disabilities, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, multiple disabilities, autism, hearing disabilities, visual disabilities, orthopedic disabilities, and other health disabilities. In addition, the law mandates that children with disabilities be educated in the least restrictive environment. As a result of this law, many children with disabilities will be found in regular educational settings (Heward, 2000). This has led to many inclusion programs for young children in which special provisions are made so that all children can achieve success.

How Do We Meet Children’s Special Needs?

Because children with special needs have unique developmental paths, inclusive early childhood programs need to focus on ways to help them become engaged in learning and in interacting socially with peers. Many of the following techniques suggested for working with mixed ages and abilities will also help children with special needs be successful.

SELECT OPEN-ENDED ACTIVITIES. Exploratory arts activities, which entice children with colors, textures, sounds, movements, and unexpected results, and which can be done alongside peers who are also exploring, can be vital to this process. Arts activities provide an opportunity for children to apply skills needed for further development. Grasping a marker or paintbrush prepares a child for holding a pencil for writing. Pushing and pulling playdough strengthens finger, hand, and arm muscles. Playing a xylophone improves hand-eye coordination.

INCLUSIVE PRACTICE. Inclusive practice asks us to look at how we can adapt the environment and the activities we offer so that diverse learners can participate to their full extent. Diverse learners are not all the same; they have different needs and abilities have the same rights and responsibilities as other children are still part of the class even though their ways of performing and learning may be different. Inclusive arts activities are available and accessible to all students irrespective of class, gender, ethnicity, cultural background, or disability are adjusted to meet individual learning requirements match the materials and environment to the child's needs. Inclusive teaching:

• is proactive, flexible, and reflective,

• recognizes that students and teachers process, store, organize, and retrieve information in different ways,

• takes into account a diversity of learning styles and learning preferences,

• considers the way in which materials will be used,

• considers the way in which materials are delivered, and

• focuses not on the disability, but on the effect the disability has on the student's ability to access, learn, and demonstrate knowledge and skills.

PROVIDE ASSISTANCE. When a child needs additional help to be successful, we should provide it in a way that does not draw a lot of attention. Pairing a child with special needs with a knowledgeable child or adult, for example, who can either get the supplies or help the child move in a dance activity without constant teacher direction reduces the chance of the child being singled out.

USE ROLE MODELS. Because the child may need to approach the task differently from others, model the method or action in many different ways to the whole group.

How Can We Modify Arts Experiences to Meet the Needs of Children with Special Needs/Diverse Ability Levels?

All children with special needs are individually unique in terms of how they cope with arts materials and will require individualized adaptations. The following document provides some general ideas.

Week 8: Helping Children Accept Those with Special Needs

Although young children can be very accepting of individual differences, they may react in outspoken ways to things that are unfamiliar or strange. We need to be sensitive as we help children learn to live with all kinds of people. Here are some tips.

1. Do not criticize children for expressing curiosity. When children notice and ask questions about disabilities and special equipment, answer matter-of-factly with a simple and accurate reply. It is important to be honest when answering. Use correct terminology whenever possible.

Child: “Why does Jared need a special holder for his crayons?”

Teacher: “Jared uses a holder because he has trouble holding small objects tightly. Jared likes to draw like you do, but he has muscular dystrophy, so we figured out a way that he could do it.”

2. Do not deny differences, but help children see their shared similarities.

Child: “Maya just makes noises with the xylophone.”

Teacher: “Maya likes to make music, just like you do. She has learned how to do many things. Now she is learning how to play the xylophone. Would you like to play along on the drum with her?”

3. Children need to become familiar with special equipment and devices but also need to learn to respect the equipment of a child with special needs. If possible, rent or borrow a variety of equipment for children to explore, but make it clear that they must respect the personal equipment of the child who must use it.

4. If children are comfortable doing so, have them explain how their special equipment helps them participate in the arts and why it is important to take care of it. If they cannot do this on their own, then have them demonstrate how the equipment is used while an adult explains.

5. Invite artists with disabilities to share their arts. Make sure they are prepared for the sometimes bold questions of children.

6. Reading books about children with special needs is another way to introduce and talk about how similarities and differences. For example, Moses Goes to a Concert by Issac Millman (1998) shows how children who are deaf can enjoy a concert.

Week 8: Creating an Arts Environment That Celebrates Differences

Arts activities can be used to help children express their feelings about individual differences. They provide an opportunity for teachers to initiate a dialogue to correct mistaken beliefs and model respect and empathy for others. Early childhood professionals must take action to encourage the development of an anti-bias atmosphere among children. They need to consider the materials they choose to supply and the pictures they display. Activities should be provided that foster discussion and the elimination of the misconceptions that are the basis of many prejudicial beliefs held by young children. The arts can be used in a variety of ways to support an anti-bias curriculum.

SELECTING ANTI-BIAS VISUAL IMAGES AND SUPPLIES. Children need to see and become familiar with people who look different from them. They also need to develop an authentic self-concept based on liking themselves without feeling superior to others. Early childhood professionals can help children achieve these goals by doing the following.

• Provide arts materials that reflect the wide range of natural skin tones. Paints, papers, playdough, and crayons in the entire range of skin colors need to be regularly available, along with the other colors.

• Mirrors and photographs of themselves and their families should be available at all times for children to learn about themselves and each other.

• Images of people who represent the racial and ethnic groups found in the community and in the larger society need to be displayed. There should be a balance in the images so that there is no token group. It is recommended that about half of the images should represent the background of the predominant group of children in the class. The remainder of the images should represent the rest of the diversity found in society.

• When selecting visuals and posters, look for ones that show a range of people of different ages, genders, sizes, colors, and abilities. Display photos of people who are involved in activities that depict current life. Many prints are available that reflect this diversity, including those depicting arts from Haitian, African, African-American, Native American, Mexican, and Asian sources.

• Artworks, music, stories, and dances should represent artists of diverse backgrounds and time periods, including the present and counteract stereotypes. This is particularly important for Native Americans.

• Illustrations in the books read to the children and available for them to use should also reflect society's diversity.

• Stereotypical and inaccurate images should be removed from display in the room and used only in discussions of unfair representations of groups of people. Avoid so-called “multicultural” materials such as bulletin board kits and patterns that depict people from around the world wearing traditional clothing from the past. These materials leave children with the impression that, for example, all Native Americans wear leather and feathers, all Japanese wear kimonos, and all Africans wear dashikis.

SELECTING ANTI-BIAS ACTIVITIES. Arts activities can be chosen that help children acquire inner strength, empathy, a strong sense of justice, and the power to take action in the face of bias. Here are the four basic goals of anti-bias education.

1. Help children develop self-confidence and a positive group identity with their home culture and with that of our society.

2. Help children develop empathy for, and a feeling of commonality with, those who are different.

3. Assist children in developing an understanding of fairness and the knowledge that discrimination and exclusion hurts.

4. Nurture children's ability to stand up for themselves and others in the face of unfairness and prejudice.

Week 8: Anti-Bias Curriculum Video Reflection

I watched a video about anti-bias curriculum (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPKXKEWfSzQ). Here are the five most important things I learned from the video that I will apply in my own classroom as I integrate anti-bias curriculum:

1. I will continue to challenge students to think about how their words can affect someone.

2. I will use different scenarios to challenge my students thinking and problem-solving skills.

3. I will integrate new activities such as, the mirror activity, so that children can observe and appreciate their differences.

4. Children learn from the children and adults around them, so it is important to engage in conversations about race and other differences when they come up instead of ignoring them.

5. There is no reason to be uncomfortable when talking to children about differences.

From all of the information provided above and, in the video, I have found many things I will implement in my own classroom. One of the most important things is observing children and their actions before putting them into big group projects or discussions. It is also important to always have art different supplies available for children that may have a harder time gripping or have sensory issues. I will also continue to and work on my coping skills when I am stressed out because children can easily pick up on that and it is important to show them how to effectively deal with their feelings. When selecting materials to show the class, I will make sure that they always include diversity so that every child can feel seen. Lastly, I will continue to ask children questions instead of solving a problem for them. This will allow them to find their own solutions and question themselves about the problem.

Week 9: Creating a Place for the Arts

During week 9, I investigated how to create a place for the arts in early childhood environments. Here is a summary of that unit.

When considering the physical learning environment, the emphasis for many years has been on efficient functioning and ease of cleaning. Early childhood professionals have tended to avoid “messy” experiences, often to the detriment of children’s development. One large space has been expected to serve all purposes. It is not surprising that in such environments visual arts activities are limited to a multi-purpose table that must be cleared off at snack time, a few boxes of junk and perhaps a single easel. Music and dance rarely occur, and dramatic play is found only in the dress-up corner. Children deserve better than this.

In order to create an environment that fosters joy and is conductive arts creation, major changes must occur in how early childhood professionals design and equip their classrooms. The key to an enticing, functional place for children is an environment where children can focus on the activities and materials available, work independently and clean up when done. The environment must be clean and functional, and meet the needs of individual children. But that is not all. The space must also demonstrate that the arts are valued – not simply as a playtime activity, but as a vital vehicle for self-expression. Classrooms should be arranged such that children’s needs are met; teachers can move about easily to locate the supplies they need and focus on children’s activities; and beautiful workspaces inspire both children and adults to do their best work. Unfortunately, our society as a whole suffers from a lack of aesthetic vision. That must change.

What Kind of Environment is Needed for the Arts?

The learning environment is everything that surrounds us and exerts an influence over us. It consists of space, furnishings, time, and organizing elements. Environment affects our social and emotional sense of well-being. In preparing the environments in which children will create, there are unlimited possibilities. No two early childhood environments need to be alike, nor should they remain static. The environment should change as the children's interests and activities change. The key element is flexibility. When flexibility is built into the room, we can create the best environment for our children.

How space is organized determines what experiences can be offered to our children and what relationships will be formed. In designing the Reggio Emilia schools, Loris Malaguzzi emphasized the importance of the early childhood learning environment, calling it the “third teacher.” The aesthetics and organization of the surroundings we create will affect the mood, motion, and behavior of the young children in our care.

Developmentally appropriate practice reminds us to consider the needs of the children first when planning activity areas. Infants and toddlers need different kinds of spaces than do primary children. Infants and toddlers need room to move and freedom to explore in safety. They need challenging sensory materials at their level with places to be private and places for large movement. Older children need personalized spaces that make them feel like they belong, small and large group gathering areas that foster social communication and sharing, and learning centers that recognize their interests and passions while encouraging hands-on learning, independence, and creative thinking. Learning environments for all ages should allow children with special needs to participate fully. Families need to feel welcomed into their child's school and classroom. The arts and their ability to make things “special” provide an avenue for doing this.

The learning environment is the total space children use and how it is arranged. It includes outdoor areas as well as any entrances or hallways that the children will pass through or work in. The actual space is less important than its design. It does not matter if the program is in a home, in a large room, such as a church basement, or in classrooms designed especially for young children, when carefully planned almost any space can be effectively arranged to provide an excellent experience for young artists.

My instructor shared the following Pinterest boards related to creating beautiful, well-organized environments in which children can explore the arts and share their creations with others.

Classroom Design

https://www.pinterest.com/clsargeant/classroom-design/

Documentation

https://www.pinterest.com/clsargeant/documentation/

Applying What I Have Learned About Creating Learning Environments Where Children Can Explore the Arts

I carefully read the information above about creating learning environments in which children can fully explore the arts - the visual arts, music, creative movement and the dramatic arts. Based on that information, I will do the following to create learning environments where children can explore the arts.

Comfort

I will do the following 2 things to ensure that my early childhood learning environment is comfortable for children:

1. I will provide areas that my children can enjoy themselves in as they play. I will make sure that the areas provide ample space where the children can do large activities and small activities.

2. I will create a cozy private area where children can go if they are feeling overwhelmed or they just need some time to themselves.

Softness

I will do the following 2 things to ensure that my early childhood learning environment incorporates softness:

1. I will provide peaceful music for the children to listen to throughout the day to create a calm environment.

2. I will give children access to many different soft textures in their art experiences such as, play dough, so that they can explore with their hands and fingers.

Safety and Health

I will do the following 2 things to ensure that my early childhood learning environment protects children's health and safety:

1. In my classroom, I will continue to provide students the opportunity to clean up after themselves especially if they spill something. I will not reprimand my students just because of a simple mistake.

2. I will always make sure to provide safe materials in centers and replace anything that is broken that could cause my students to injure themselves.

Privacy and Social Space

I will do the following 2 things to ensure that my early childhood learning environment includes both private spaces and social spaces:

1. I will set aside multiple spaces in the classroom that children can go to if they want to be away from other children and have some privacy.

2. I will make sure my students know that they can always move around the classroom when they are doing art instead of just sitting at a table the entire time.

Order

I will do the following 2 things to ensure that my early childhood learning environment is intentionally structured to reflect my goals for the children:

1. I will introduce different art materials over time so that the children can explore each material to the fullest extent instead of being overwhelmed with many different things.

2. I will set up toys in an organized manner across the classroom. This will make it easier for children to view all of the available materials without feeling bombarded with everything.

Time

I will do the following 2 things to incorporate the arts into daily rituals in my early childhood learning environment:

1. I will teach the children different transition songs for different parts of the day for example, at the beginning of the day there will be a welcoming song and during transitions there will be a cleanup song.

2. During the end of the day, I will set up an activity for the children to do or have songs that the children can dance and sing to.

Mobility

I will do the following 2 things to incorporate mobility into my early childhood learning environment:

1. I will create a wet kitchen area outside so that the children can explore clay outdoors, so they don't have to worry about making a mess inside the classroom.

2. During large group activities I will move some shelves around so that the children can all participate fully and not be held back by the space of the area.

Nature

I will do the following 2 things to incorporate nature into my early childhood learning environment:

1. I will provide children with the materials to plant their own classroom plants.

2. I will allow the students to bring in different outside materials such as, pinecones and acorns, so that they can explore them in science center or use them to create art.

Week 10: Introducing the World’s Arts

During week 10, I focused on the unit, Introducing the World’s Arts. Here is a summary of that unit.

The arts are much more than the personal act of creating something. They also involve looking at, talking about, and appreciating the art of others. Early childhood professionals must provide children with opportunities not only to explore the processes of the arts but also to experience a broad range of artwork and performances. This requires us to become as knowledgeable about the arts as we can be.

Children get their first ideas about the arts from their family culture. Many ideas about beauty are held in common by people who share a similar heritage. When children enter our programs, it becomes our role to provide experiences with creative art works and performances that supplement and expand on those the child may have experienced with their family.

Initially, children respond to the arts performance of others in a sensory way, hearing sounds and rhythms, repeating the words of a story, seeing colors, shapes, and textures, and moving to the music. We can use that sensory attraction and wonderment to draw attention and foster engagement with carefully selected works and performances.

Here are some strategies that help us engage children with the arts.

MAKING FAMILIAR. In order to “read” the text of an artistic work we must start by familiarizing the child with the work. Starting in infancy we can play music to listen and to move to, hang art posters at their eye level, and act out characters' voices as we read a story to them. We can swirl across the floor with an infant or toddler in our arms amidst a roomful of dancers - all the while engaging their senses and encouraging them to respond by inciting them to look and listen while using enthusiastic description and a vocabulary of the arts.

HEIGHTENING PERCEPTION. We add complexity to the engagement by inviting the child to focus on the experience through our excited sharing of our own sensory responses. We can express how the music makes our heartbeat faster, how the colors sparkle, how the dancers seem to float, and how the scary story gives us chills.

ADDING EMOTION. Experiences with artistic works are tied to our emotions. Facial expressions and nonverbal gestures are ways we share those feelings with our children. We laugh at a comic actor, we sigh upon hearing a beautiful voice, and we pull back when the big bad wolf comes to the edge of the stage and growls at us.

CREATING MEMORIES. We build comfort with artistic works by creating memories through revisiting and retelling. We can replay the music on a recording or hum the tune, point out the similarity in the colors in the painting we saw to the paint at the easel, imitate the dancers' moves, and retell the story of the play.

MAKING CONNECTIONS. When we personalize experiences, we draw on the brain's need to make meaning and increase attention. If you know that the experience relates to one you have shared together, then ask the children if they are thinking of the same one you are. For example, if a familiar song is played on an unusual instrument, you can hum along or sing the words and say: Does this make you think of the same song?

ADDING NOVELTY. Changing locations or adding something new is another way to attract children's attention to and foster aesthetic engagement with artistic works. Going to performances in a theater and exhibits in museums creates memorable experiences and excites enthusiasm for appreciating artistic works. Setting up a special area of the classroom where children can interact with artistic works is another strategy that fosters engagement. For example, for preschoolers and kindergarteners a dramatic play center can be set up as a jazz café where children can listen to jazz recordings, see photographs of famous jazz musicians, read books about jazz such as This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt, and play along on rhythm instruments and kazoos.

MAKING IT REAL. Children need to see and touch “real” pieces of art and actual musical instruments. They need to feel the texture of an oil painting, the flowing form of a stone carving, and the exhilaration of blowing on a mobile. They need to see real actors performing on the stage, and musicians playing in front of them. They will have many of these experiences in the context of creating their own art. They also need to see that it is not just little children, in this room, at this time, who create artworks. In addition, there are many art media and forms that are not safe for or within the skill level of children but that they can experience on an aesthetic level, such as a welded metal sculpture or a symphony played by a full orchestra.

MAKING IT PLAYFUL. The goal of engaging with artistic works and performances is twofold. One goal is learning to appreciate their value as aesthetic creations that communicate, inform, and use arts elements in interesting ways. The second is for sensory stimulation and personal pleasure. Just as we want children to love books, we also want them to love looking at and listening to artistic works and performances. If we set developmentally appropriate goals and choose open-ended activities that match children's interests, if we offer choices, and allow them to be active participants in playful ways, then children will more likely seek out these engagements on their own.

To select the best creative works and performances to share with children, we must rely on more than our own personal values about what kind of art is pleasing to us. We must expand our knowledge so children will be exposed not only to the styles of the arts with which our heritage and upbringing have made us comfortable, and the arts that reflect their personal backgrounds, but also those works that allow them to experience a wide range of artistic inventiveness across the spectrum of culture, age, gender, time, and technique.

In selecting works to share, our goal should be to help children value the very essence of artistic creation, regardless of the artist or the origin of the work. By exposing children to a wide range of artistic forms, we prepare them to be accepting of others' creativity wherever they encounter it throughout their lives.

Here are some guidelines for selecting works of art to share with children.

SELECT DIFFERENT STYLES. Begin by looking for works that reflect a range of styles. Equivalent to genre in literature style refers to the way something is done that is unique to the individual or culture that produced it. Artistic works in the same style have a coherence which helps children find similarities and differences more easily. Consider for example the difference between salsa and the opera, or the conga and the minuet.

SELECT FOR VARIETY. As you select works to share with the children, strive for a balanced representation of different subject matters, media, styles, and places of origin. Selected works should illustrate the following concepts:

• People of many different ages create works of art.

• Artistic works have been made by people from many places and times.

• Artistic works tell us about the lives of other people.

• Artistic works are made using a wide variety of materials, tools, skills, and instruments that reflect the environment and choice of the creator.

• There are many ways or styles of art.

• Artistic works are found in many places in our environment.

• Artistic works have many purposes and meanings.

When selecting artistic works and performances, we should include examples from diverse cultures. Children can learn about a culture and its people from experiencing its arts and talking about how and why they are made and performed. In the process they come to understand the use and importance of the arts in that culture. When children see that the arts of their culture and the arts of other cultures contain many similarities, that culture becomes less strange and more appreciated.

Week 11: Integrating the Arts into the Curriculum

During week 11, I focused on how to integrate the arts into the curriculum. Here is a summary of that unit.

A curriculum is simply a plan for facilitating learning/development.

An integrated curriculum is one that connects different areas of study/subjects (for example, the visual arts, music, creative movement, the theatre arts, mathematics, sciences, social studies, language and literacy) by cutting across subject-matter lines and emphasizing unifying concepts. Integration focuses on making connections for children, allowing them to engage in relevant, meaningful activities that can be connected to real life. An integrated curriculum allows children to pursue learning in a holistic way, without the restrictions often imposed by subject boundaries. In early childhood programs it focuses upon the inter-relatedness of all curricular areas in helping children acquire basic learning tools. Through thematic units and projects, the visual arts, music, creative movement and the theatre arts can be integrated with other content (subject) areas. The thematic experiences provide real-life connections for abstract concepts.

Emergent curriculum is co-created by children and teachers working together to explore ideas that interest them. Topics for study develop from events in children’s lives, daily happenings and concerns that develop as children work and play. When children’s interest serve as the starting point for designing arts activities in emergent curriculum, the children see them as meaningful. Setting up these kinds of activities takes a great deal of effort on the part of the teacher. No published unit or project list will work with every group of children every time. Each group of children is unique in its interests and skills, and the integrated units teachers create must be customized accordingly. When children’s interests are aroused, when they are full of enthusiasm, and when they know they have a choice, they respond by thinking more deeply.

Week 11: How Do We Integrate the Arts into the Curriculum?

The arts are a powerful learning tool. They develop physical, emotional, linguistic, social, and intellectual skills. They activate the spatial domain and stimulate the senses. They are a creative playground for the growing mind. The arts can also allow children to express their ideas and knowledge and to respond to their experiences in all areas of learning. Integrating the arts into the curriculum provides children with the opportunity not only to explore the different art forms in open-ended ways, but also to creatively communicate what they are learning in math, science, social studies, and English language arts.

Integrating the arts into the curriculum requires the teacher to approach the arts in different ways for distinctive purposes. Lessons can be intertwined, so that children acquire arts concepts and skills, while using the arts to connect and increase learning across the disciplines.

STEP 1: TEACHING ABOUT THE ARTS. The arts disciplines are discrete subject areas. Dance, drama, music, and visual arts each have unique concepts and skills. A lesson in which children look at a sculpture and then imagine how the artist made it, for example, is a lesson that addresses the concepts, skills, tools, and work of artists. Children who have specific artistic skills and knowledge can use the arts more effectively and creatively to communicate their ideas. To nourish creative artists, musicians, dancers, and actors, early childhood professionals must plan thoughtful, well-organized arts experiences with clearly stated objectives that focus directly on the arts and artists and that provide many opportunities for arts exploration and practice.

STEP 2: CONNECTING THE ARTS. Next, the arts can connect with learning in other subject areas. When children sketch the parts of a flower or sing a song about the seasons, they are using the arts to enhance learning in another subject area. These kinds of connected lessons allow children to use skills and techniques of the different art forms to practice and communicate concepts and ideas learned in other subject areas. Connecting the arts in this way enriches the child's learning experience by providing multiple pathways for children to make what they are learning about more meaningful. The arts can be connected in this way to math, science, social studies, literature, and to each other.

Connected arts lessons can develop in several ways. They may be carefully planned as part of the curriculum. Children studying trees might be asked to imagine that they are trees in a creative movement activity. On the other hand, sometimes a wondering question may set the stage for an activity. For example, children measuring water at the water table might wonder aloud what happens when different amounts of water are added to paint. The alert teacher seizes the teachable moment and quickly sets up a paint and water mixing activity and invites the young scientists to come explore. Arts activities can also lead to lessons in other curriculum areas.

STEP 3: LEARNING THROUGH THE ARTS. In a fully integrated arts program, the arts are found everywhere in the classroom. Arts pursuits flow into and out of the daily classroom activities as children need them. For example, instead of children passing through a visual art center, each taking a turn at the art medium being offered that day, they are offered a well-stocked art supply center from which they can select familiar tools and media that best meet their expressive needs at that moment. In such a classroom, children's projects incorporate the arts. Children studying about homes, for example, may make crayon sketches of the houses near the school. In the same class another group might choose to put on a puppet show about building a house. Individual arts pursuits are also facilitated. One child may spend several days building a complex house of Styrofoam pieces, whereas another may paint houses at the easel one day and create a house from collage materials the next.

Week 11: What Is the Project Approach?

The project approach is an example of one way to organize and carry out an emergent curriculum. Katz and Chard (2000) define a project as “an in-depth study of a particular topic that one or more children undertake.” The project approach starts with a topic of interest to the children and then fosters the children's exploration of that topic as they apply already acquired knowledge and skills in making sense of new material. It is particularly designed to meet the needs of children in preschool, kindergarten, and the primary grades, and it can be very effective in multiage classes, because it draws on the differing skills and knowledge of each child. In the project approach children work in small or large groups on a project that reflects their personal interests, some of which may be far removed from their everyday experience, and from what the teacher might select. These groups establish a relationship with the teacher in which the teacher is the facilitator, soliciting the children's ideas and then providing the concepts, materials, and skills the children need to accomplish their goals.

According to Katz and Chard (2000), the project approach carries the following benefits:

• Children learn in an integrated manner and the divisions between subjects or play areas is broken down.

• Teachers are challenged to be creative and to devise constructive solutions to educational problems.

• Children are intrinsically motivated because it allows for a much wider range of choices and independent efforts on a topic of their choice.

• Children can select work that matches or challenges their skill level.

• Children can become expert in their own learning. They are in charge of finding information and using it in new ways.

• When children reflect on and evaluate their contribution to a project, they become accountable for their own learning.

The Project Approach in Action

In the project approach, topics rather than themes form the framework. Topics, unlike themes, can be very specific and are chosen because they relate closely to the children's interests.

CHOOSING THE TOPIC. One way to find an emergent topic is to listen to what interests or concerns the children. Did someone just get a letter from a relative who lives far away? That could start a project on the post office. Is a child going to the hospital for surgery? That could begin a project on hospitals. We can also initiate a project by selecting a topic about which everyone has a story or experience to share. For example, we might begin by telling a story about our favorite pair of socks and then ask the children to talk about and draw pictures of their experiences with socks. Teachers Jennifer Kamperman and Mary Bowne (2011) noticed their students blowing into foam noodle tubes to make sounds like elephants and built on this interest by incorporating a large stuffed elephant and a series of mysterious events into a year-long project seeped in literacy activities. They found that by cultivating the interests of the children not only did the children take ownership of their learning and developed in language and social skills, but they as teachers became more creative and sensitive to ways they could incorporate these skills into the project.

FACILITATING LEARNING. Based on what the children say and draw, learning activities are planned that relate to each individual child's ideas and questions. These activities should allow open-ended exploration of topic-related ideas, and encourage the child to observe, to sense, to explore, and to experiment, both individually and with others. For example, after several children participating in a project on plants comment that all leaves are green, a variety of plants with different color leaves can be put on display alongside containers of different colored dried leaves to use in collages. These activities are then available as a choice for any child to investigate.

ORGANIZING ACTIVITIES. Although flexibility is an important feature of the project approach, projects usually follow a set course consisting of the following 3 phases:

• Phase 1 is devoted to memory work. Children are invited to tell personal stories, to make drawings, and bring in things from home that relate to the topic. The children's knowledge and questions can be made into a KWL chart. A sample KWL chart, related to the topic Snakes appears below. One teacher's effort to document children's memory work related to the topic Wild Animals also appears below.

• Phase 2 is devoted to gathering data from observation and experience. During this phase children go on field trips, make drawings from real things, and talk to experts. Children record what they learn through drawings, creative movement, music, dramatic play, and constructions.

• Phase 3 is concluding the project. At this time the teacher helps children select from the work they have done, and what they want to share with other classes and their families. Time is also taken to record conclusions and evaluate what was learned.

SMALL GROUP WORK. One of the key features of the project approach is the importance of working with children in small groups. Teachers meet on a regular basis with groups of children. Together they discuss the initial experiences and pursue questions and ideas that lead into a variety of independent investigations or projects. Small group projects can range from writing a book to making puppets and putting on a puppet show. Children are limited only by their imaginations. As they work on their projects, the teacher offers guidance, provides requested materials, directs the children to sources of information, and teaches specific skills as needed.

DISCUSSION/REPRESENTATION. Time is set aside to talk about and share the children's ideas daily. These can be recorded by the teacher in various ways through charts, graphs, dictation, and audio taping. The children's changing ideas can also be documented through their drawings and constructions and through photographs and videotapes made of their activities. This is a very important part of the process; it is the way the different groups' learning is made visible to all the children.

Completed projects need to be recognized in a special way. One of the main dangers with the project approach is the temptation to focus on the finished products and to ignore the thought and process that went into it. Teachers must plan ways to share the children's work through displays of not only the project, but also all of the documentation of the process that went into it.

My instructor provided the link to her Pinterest board, KWL Chart.

Week 11: What Is an Integrated Learning Unit?

An integrated unit is one in which many different subject areas are tied together by relating them to a carefully selected, broad-based concept or theme. This is expressed in the form of an overarching question that ties together the learning areas. For example, if the chosen question is “What is water?” then books about water will be read. Children will experiment with water. They will paint with water, wash the dolls and toys in the play area, and splash in water at the water table. They may take a field trip to a stream or lake and talk about the animals that live in the water.

Visualizing the possible ways that all the subjects/learning centers can be integrated around a common question enables us to see beyond the isolated arts activity of the day and allows arts concepts and techniques to be introduced, explored, practiced, and mastered in together with all the other subject areas/learning centers. The following guidelines will aid in the selection of appropriate questions for integration.

IS THE QUESTION BROAD-BASED? Decide if the question is one that is rich in possibilities for expansion to the different subjects or growth areas and any standards that must be addressed. Using a brainstorming web, like the one pictured at left, can be used to explore the depth of a unit. Once the concepts to be learned are laid out on the web, try to brainstorm the activities you might use to teach them. Are there wonderful books to read? Are there related songs and poems? Will there be things to explore through science, visual art, drama, and play? Will children be able to use skills from all the multiple intelligences to explore this question? Some questions for integrated units have more potential than others. Successful integrated units can be built around questions such as:

• How do animals live?

• How do our bodies work?

• What is a family?

WHAT RESOURCES ARE AVAILABLE? Are needed supplies available for certain activities? Are there places to visit or people who could talk to the children about this? Where can books be found that address this question?

HOW MUCH TIME IS THERE? The question should be open-ended enough so if the children's interest wanes it will be easy to move on to something else. There should be sufficient time, however, so that if the children become highly interested, they do not have to be cut off to “move on.” It is not the specific content that teaches. The goal in early childhood education is not to make children experts. Rather the question should be a vehicle that will allow children to explore and learn about their environment within a meaningful context as they master the required subject area skills and concepts as delineated in state standards and the Common Core.

HOW CAN THE EXPERIENCES BE MADE REAL? The most important part of unit design is to make sure that it includes plenty of real, authentic experiences. It is not enough to read about a subject, watch videos, or search the Internet; if children are studying water they need plenty of activities in which to use water. If they are studying animals, they need to go to the zoo or pet store and see, smell, and touch live animals.

CAN THE REQUIRED SKILLS AND CONCEPTS BE WOVEN MEANINGFULLY INTO THIS QUESTION? The broader the question the easier it will be to incorporate all the various subject area/developmental domain objectives. The goal should be to weave in as many as possible. However, in doing so, it is not enough to draw a waterwheel on a subtraction math worksheet and think it is related to a unit on water. In order for learning to be meaningful, the children need to have focused instruction in subtraction, then learn how subtraction relates to the unit question by applying the new math skill in an authentic hands-on way. For example, subtraction in a primary unit on the question “What makes the weather?” could be practiced by having each child set out a premeasured cup of water and each day measuring and subtracting to see how much water evaporated.

WHAT AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENTS CAN BE USED? An authentic or performance assessment asks the child to perform a task in which the skill or concept is used to successfully accomplish a real-life goal. This type of assessment asks the child to design or create something that shows what they have learned. Examples of authentic assessments include having children design a creative movement and original song using all the parts of the body after studying about how the body moves or building a boat that floats and holds a certain amount of weight after studying sinking and floating. Authentic assessments often start out with a rubric or list of criteria that represents quality work. Rubrics can be individualized to meet each child's abilities and needs, or they can be co-designed with input from the children.

A sample concept web appears below.

Week 11: The Arts in Integrated Teaching

Integrated teaching provides an excellent way to unify the child's arts experiences with the rest of the curriculum. However, it is very important to make sure that the arts activities are open ended. It is a real temptation for the teacher, for example, to want to give the children unit-related pictures to color and patterns to follow, but it must be noted that such directive activities do not foster creative growth, no matter how attractive the results may be. Do not expect or demand that every child make the same arts projects to take home. The arts allow each child to express a unique view of the unit concepts. Open-ended arts activities can be incorporated into integrated units in many ways, including:

THROUGH EVERYDAY CREATIVE ARTS ACTIVITIES. Make sure basic, familiar arts supplies and props are always available. During the unit, children should be free to choose to draw, paint, make a collage, move creatively to music, or create a puppet, whether as a personal exploration or as a reaction to a unit-related experience.

THROUGH SPECIAL MATERIALS. Unit-related materials can be offered as a choice. For example, for the unit “What is a tree?” pressed leaves can be added to the collage area, twigs for painting can be placed alongside brushes at the easel, and drums made from hollow tree trunks added to the sound center.

THROUGH RESPONSIVE ACTIVITIES. Encourage children to use the arts as a way to record and respond to special events and experiences by providing opportunities for the children to show what they are learning through activities that incorporate arts skills. For example:

• Make individual thematic journals by stapling together several sheets of blank or partially lined paper. Then set aside a daily time for children to record in pictures and words their ideas about the topic. Have children share their thematic journals with a partner or a small group.

• Set up a storytelling center. At this center, children can dictate their unit-related stories to the teacher. Later the class can help act out these stories for everyone to enjoy.

• Set up an author's corner where they can write imaginary stories based on something they have learned during the unit. For example, if they are studying animals, they can write and illustrate a story about one of the animals.

• Create a music center with thematically related instruments and sound makers where they can compose a musical piece or song. For example, if the group is studying water, the center might feature water drums, water bottles, and rain sticks.

THROUGH GROUP ACTIVITIES. Plan one or more group arts activities that relate to the unit concepts. Quilts, murals, and box sculptures can be designed to relate to many theme concepts. Whole group singing and creative movement activities can help make concepts come alive.

The unit activities selected should span the range of developmental growth areas and tap into all of the domains of the multiple intelligences. Consider questions to be addressed, explorations and experiments to be done, vocabulary to use, and assessments to be made. Here are some strategies for success.

• Put activities in developmental order. Activities should be planned to logically build on each other. Skills acquired in one activity should recur again at slightly more challenging levels in the next activity.

• Check for comprehensiveness. The developmental growth areas, together with Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (MI), can be used as an organizing framework to make sure that no area of learning is more heavily emphasized than another.

• Determine the amount of time needed. It is important to plan how the activities will unfold over time.

The Integrated Unit in Action

Integrated units consist of the following components:

SETTING THE STAGE. Before beginning the unit, allow the children to become familiar with how the workspace or room is organized, what behaviors are expected of them, and how the time is divided during the day. Once the unit begins, the children will already know where the basic supplies are and which areas are used for certain activities. Taking time to allow for basic exploration of the environment and getting to know each other beforehand will make it easier for everyone to concentrate more on the theme.

THE INITIAL EVENT. Once a question is selected, plan an initial event that will be stimulating and provocative, and which gets the children excited about the theme. It should be full of engaging images, ideas, and feelings—a WOW. The event may be one that takes the children beyond the walls of the room, such as a walk or field trip, or it may involve bringing something special to the children, such as a visitor, an animal, or an object. Rearrange the room, and put out new materials, new learning centers, and play items that relate to the unifying theme of the unit. The idea is to raise the interest of as many children as possible.

PRESCHOOL INTEGRATION. In a play-based program, unit activities should be integrated into each of the learning centers offered but should not replace them. Children need the continuity of knowing that sand, blocks, home-life/dramatic play, and easel painting will be waiting for them every day. Integrate the unit activities into these areas in small ways such as changing the paint color or texture or the paint tools offered at the easel; providing different containers or toys in the sand; putting out topic-related toys; or providing different dress-up clothes, art to hang, or play food. Although it may not be possible to integrate unit concepts into every area every time, try to find creative ways to touch as many areas as possible.

PRIMARY INTEGRATION. In the primary grades integrated activities can be used to unify the different subject areas. For example, if the question is “How do living things survive?” then conduct a science lesson in which children plant seeds and water them. Through this activity they can apply their addition skills as they measure the growth of the new plants, their writing skills as they describe the plants in their journal, and their visual art skills as they draw pictures of the different stages of growth. Integrated arts activities fit especially well into reading and writing workshops where children can read about the theme and then express their ideas in all types of creative ways.

ENDING THE UNIT. After all the time and effort spent on an integrated unit, it should not be allowed to fizzle away at the end. Here is how to end an integrated unit:

• Share - Provide time for the children to share what they have learned with each other. Children can show the works they have done and explain how they created them. Consider trying a variety of formats. Although having the child stand up in front of the group is a common method, other possibilities include audio taping or video recording the child's presentation for sharing with the others, having the children write books or design a game, or by creating a digital presentation. These can then be shared with parents as well.

• Display - The children can make displays or complete authentic assessment tasks that show what they have learned, and their classmates can circulate among them asking questions and making comments. To keep the group focused on the presentations, provide them with a simple checklist to mark or coupons to collect that show which displays they visited.

• Evaluate - The end of an integrated unit is a time for evaluating what has happened. What were the children's favorite activities? What do they remember best? What new things did they learn? What do they want to tell others about their experiences? What have the children learned and accomplished? This is the time for reflective questioning by both the children and the teacher.

Week 12: How Do We Address Special Needs During Dramatic Arts Activities?

Dramatic activities, because they involve movement and language, require many of the same adaptations as creative movement and dance so that all children can participate fully.

CHILDREN WITH AUDITORY NEEDS. For consistency, use the same visual start, stop, listen, and relax signals developed for creative movement and dance activities. Select activities that do not rely exclusively on language. Use picture cue cards for preschoolers and word cue cards for those who can read. Visually mark the area of the performance or play space.

CHILDREN WITH VISUAL NEEDS. Start by making sure the children know the location of the props and the boundaries of the area to be used. Survey the area with the child and handle the materials with them before beginning the activity. Give personal asides during dramatic play and performances that let the child know where to find things. Provide a buddy and plan activities for pairs.

CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT DISORDERS. Children who have trouble focusing are easily distracted in dramatic play settings where there are many choices and materials. To help these children develop focus, partition off play areas with low dividers that allow visibility for adults but shield one play area from another at the children's eye level. Offer clear directions and simple oft-repeated rules using multiple modalities. Provide plenty of hands-on activities and offer new materials or suggested ideas when the child seems to lose focus. Participate in the play with the child anticipating the child's needs and modeling ways to interact with peers. Have on hand other activities that the child likes and can do independently for use when the child indicates she or he is ready to move on to something else.

CHILDREN WITH AUTISM. Because these children have impaired communication and social skills, group play is especially challenging for them, and they often prefer solitary play. With peers they may miss social cues and not be able to follow the improvised narrative script of child-initiated pretend play. Teachers can help foster interpersonal skills by playing one-on-one with these children while modeling ways to interact with others. For example, the one-on-one Floortime Model has been shown to increase social, cognitive, symbolic, and creative behavior in children with autism. It utilizes five steps to help children learn how to interact with a playmate. These same steps can also be used to join in the play of all children, especially infants.

1. Observe the child playing and decide how to approach him/her.

2. Join the activity and match the child's emotional tone.

3. Follow the child's lead.

4. Expand on the child's activity by making a gentle suggestion, asking a question, or modeling an action.

5. When a child' responds to your expansion, “the circle of communication” is completed and the process is started over again from step 1.

To help a child with autism participate in group play, establish rituals for entering and interacting with peers. Task cards can be used to cue appropriate behaviors. The Integrated Play Group Model is based on Vygotsky's model of learning from expert peers. Using this strategy, the child with autism is paired with several other children who serve as the play “experts.” In the beginning the teacher sets up the play theme and materials and models for the peers how to include the child in their play. The group meets consistently on a regular basis. As the children learn how to interact with each other, the teacher slowly withdraws, becoming an encouraging onlooker, and lets the play evolve naturally.

ACCEPTING DIFFERENCES. A large part of the dramatic arts is stretching the imagination. Challenge stereotypes by refusing to accept limiting responses. Gender differences, for example, are established as early as twelve months of age and many children and parents have definite ideas about what toys are appropriate for boys and girls. In dramatic play, there is no reason that a girl cannot play the part of a boy or vice versa. Encourage exploration of many roles by calling the housekeeping center the dramatic play area instead, and including materials that will interest boys as well as girls, such as a tool chest, and by creating more open concept centers such as a bakery or restaurant where roles are less stereotypical.

Week 12: How Are Dramatic Arts Activities Designed?

In the classroom dramatic play can be used to help children develop their language skills, experience the creative process, consider the visual aesthetics of settings and costumes, and much more. These kinds of dramatics activities should be designed in open-ended ways that allow children to use their imaginations to re-create and express ideas and feelings. Ideas for play activities can be child-initiated such as in informal play, teacher-initiated, such as using pantomime and improvisation to illustrate new words, or inspired by some special event, such as reading a new story and then acting it out.

Informal Dramatic Play

Informal dramatic play is characteristically spontaneous, growing out of the natural inclinations of the children. It is child-initiated but can be supported by teachers when they enter into children's ongoing play and provide facilitation as a co-player, such as by joining a tea party and modeling the use of “please” and “thank you” as part of the play. Elaborating on children's pretend play scaffolds language usage and models positive ways to interact socially.

• FACILITATING WITH WORDS. Close observation of children at play allows teachers to facilitate language skill development. For example, a caregiver might notice two toddlers playing with toy cars and making car sounds, but not using words. She might walk over to them and join in driving a car too, while asking them questions about where their cars are going to increase their use of oral language.

• FACILITATING WITH PROPS. Teachers can also enrich play by showing children how to create their own props. An observant teacher functions as a stage manager when he notices that a group of kindergarteners has built thrones and are pretending they are kings and queens. He puts out some paper strips, scissors, glue, and sparkly paper and invites them to make their own crowns.

• SOCIAL FACILITATION. The flexibility of dramatic play allows everyone to participate. Children, such as those with developmental delays or autism, may not know how to enter into group play situations. We need to be aware of potential social difficulties and be ready to step in. One way to do this is to model how to ask to join a playgroup. Another is to make suggestions that open up the play to more participants. If two children are imagining they are a shopper and a store clerk and another wants to join, the teacher could point out that there are usually many shoppers in a store. Another is to set up rules to make sure that play is fair. Vivian Paley (1992), for example, told her kindergarteners that they could not exclude other children from play, and then enforced the rule through storytelling and ongoing discussions with her students.

Open-ended Play Centers

The teacher can also set the stage for informal dramatic play by creating play centers that build on children's natural interests and everyday experiences, such as a playhouse or a store. Other centers can help children learn about how things work or address concerns. For example, many children are fearful of doctor's visits. Creating a doctor's office in which to play can help children work out their fears. Lisa Miles (2009) following up the interests of her preschoolers after reading the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, built an old-fashioned general store stocked with baskets of yarn, ribbon, metal buckets and scoops, a scale, wooden crates, and jars of beans, buttons, and cinnamon sticks. She found that putting a piece of plywood on the floor provided the sound and feel of an old store.

Prop Boxes

Prop boxes are similar to play centers in providing children with starting points for child-initiated dramatic play. They have the advantage of being easy to store and ready to use at the opportune moment.

A prop box consists of a collection of objects that will spark children's imaginations. The items can all relate to the same main idea, such as a butterfly net, a wide-brimmed hat, magnifying glass, “cages” made from berry baskets, plastic caterpillars, and butterflies. Other prop boxes can be based on an experience. Prop boxes can include child-safe objects, books, tapes of relevant music, and suggestions for use. Label the box clearly when putting it away for storage so it is immediately ready to use another time.

Prop boxes can be used individually or with small groups of children and are particularly effective when using an emergent curriculum design and for the primary grades, where large play centers are less likely to be found. For example, a teacher might make up prop boxes to go with the children's literature used in the classroom as a way to provide opportunities to revisit the story through role-plays.

Week 13: Making Music

During week 13, I explored music in early childhood environments. Here is a summary of that unit.

The goal of music experiences for young children is to develop each child into a musical person. A musical person is not a just a consumer of music, nor a professional musician. A musical person is someone who is tuneful, beatful, and artful. A tuneful person carries the melodies of wonderful songs in their head. A beatful person feels the beat of music of all kinds and the natural rhythms of the world around them. An artful person responds to the expressiveness of all music with all their body and soul.

We owe it to the children we teach to give them the gift of music. Music education must start before the child is born and be intensive through the early years. To do this we need to become comfortable ourselves in the world of music. We do not need to be virtuosos. However, we do need to become enthusiastic and confident. Teachers must also be learners. It is never too late to learn to play an instrument or take voice lessons.

Music in the Early Childhood Program What Is Music?

Music is organized sound. One of the tasks of teaching music is to introduce children to the different ways in which music plays with and orders sound. Listening, rhythmic activities, singing, and playing instruments form the basis of creative music experiences, through which the elements of music—rhythm, timbre, dynamics, form, melody, and harmony—are organized into compositions that speak to our mind, our body, and our emotions.

We are all familiar with everyday sounds: the honk of a car horn, the clatter of dishes, children's voices on the playground. On their own these are not considered music. However, any ordinary sound can be turned into something musical. At its most basic music is made up of repeated beats. At its most complex, it is a composition of rhythm and tempo, dynamics and pitch, timbre and texture, and melody and harmony. These are the elements of music.

RHYTHM. Rhythm is a time-based pattern that orders sound and makes it musical. A car horn pressed first short and then long repeated over and over creates a rhythm. Each honk on the horn is a beat. A rhythm can be varied by changing which beat has the strongest emphasis or accent. For example, a long horn blast followed by a short one would consist of a strong or down-beat and a weak or up-beat as in one two, one two, one two and so on. Repeated patterns of strong and weak beats create the meter of the rhythm. A waltz or polka meter, for example, is made up of one strong beat followed by two weak beats—one two three, one two three. Syncopation, found in some genres of music such as jazz, is a deliberate change in where the regular stress is expected to come. For example, the stress might come on the weak beat as in one two three four or there might be a rest where a strong beat is expected.

TEMPO. Tempo is the speed at which a rhythm or musical composition is played. It is usually indicated by a term written at the beginning of the piece. Largo, for example means slow. Allegro means lively and fast. Up-tempo or presto means very fast. Within a piece of music the tempo may change many times, or it may remain steady throughout.

DYNAMICS. Dynamics refers to changes in volume from loud to soft and to the accenting of certain tones in a rhythm or piece of music.

PITCH. Sound is created through vibration and is measured by the frequency of that oscillation. The lowest sounds most people hear are in the range of 20 Hz. The highest are about 20,000 Hz. The highness or lowness of a particular sound is referred to as its pitch. Many instruments have vibrating parts such as a drumhead on a bass drum, which produces a low pitch, or the strings on a violin, which can produce high pitches. Others such as tubas and clarinets make sound using a vibrating column of air.

TIMBRE. Timbre or tone color is the unique quality of a sound. It is how we can tell the sound of a car horn from that of a bird's song or identify the particular voice of a friend on the phone.

MELODY. A note is a single sound or tone. Melodies are created by varying the pitches of notes and playing them in a sequence that may repeat. How the sequence is arranged and repeated creates the form or composition of the musical work. For example, a song might be composed of alternating verses and choruses. The American folksong The Erie Canal has this type of form.

HARMONY. Accompanying the melody may be a sequence of tones that enriches it and makes the sounds blend. Harmony is often created by using a chord—several notes played together at the same time. Harmony creates what is called musical texture or a layer of sound that can be pleasant or dissonant to the ear.

How Are Music Activities Designed?

Musical activities can be organized in three ways: as individualized instruction, as open-ended, independent exploration, and in organized groups. An effective music program needs to incorporate all these approaches into the curriculum in order for children to develop fully as confident musical creators.

One-on-One Interactions

For infants and toddlers, in particular, but for all children as well, interacting one-on-one with an adult has been shown to be vitally important in acquiring musical competence. Children, for example, sing more accurately when singing individually than with a group (Goetz & Horii, 1989). Learning to play an instrument proceeds faster when the child receives intensive one-on-one lessons.

One-on-one musical interactions can occur throughout the education of young children. Singing to an infant or toddler while going about daily activities, such as dressing, diaper changing, putting on outerwear, eating lunch, walking places, and so on fit naturally into adult-child interactions. In preschool, kindergarten, and primary classrooms one-on-one echo singing and instrumental solos can be purposely planned into group activities.

Exploration Centers

Music centers allow children to explore sound, rhythm, and music in playful, creative, and open-ended ways. A center for exploring sound can be problematic in a busy, noisy preschool and primary classroom. However, it is possible. To muffle the sound, include soft items such as a pile rug, pillows, and draped fabric. A sturdy table covered on three sides with heavy cloth and open in front makes a cozy “music house” in which to listen to music and explore making sounds, but still allows teacher supervision. Several types of music centers address different components of music education.

• CONDUCTING CENTER. To the listening center add flashlights covered with different-colored cellophane that children can move in concert with the music while shining the light on the wall.

• COMPOSING CENTER. Alongside instruments of varying kinds, provide a metal tray and magnet-backed notes, plain paper and markers, or paper with staves for older children so they can try their hand at composing.

• INSTRUMENTS. Provide handmade and commercial instruments to accompany the recorded music or to use in making up original songs. Make sure there is an assortment of percussive, drums, shakers, and so on, and melodic instruments, such as a xylophone or hand bells.

• LISTENING CENTER. Stock the center with a child-friendly CD/music player, or tape recorder, and earphones.

• SOUND DISCOVERY CENTER. Set out materials that can be used to make sounds or musical instruments. For example, offer different plastic containers with easy-to-close lids and a variety of small objects, such as pebbles, jingle bells, and buttons that fit inside. Children can use these to make their own shakers to keep time to the recorded music or their own singing.

Responsive Group Activities

Music is mainly a social activity. Although individuals may play or sing for their own personal enjoyment, music is usually experienced as part of a group. However, the size and purpose of musical groups can vary.

• SMALL GROUP. Small groups of children can participate in listening, singing, and composing activities as part of projects and at centers. For example, primary students might compose a song to accompany a skit, or a group of preschoolers may sing a lullaby to the dolls in the housekeeping center.

• WHOLE GROUP. Many music activities lend themselves to whole group settings. Children can listen to music during a nap or snack. They can sing favorite songs together as part of group meetings as a way to build community. New songs can be taught to the whole group so everyone can sing along. A rhythm band in which everyone participates can show children what can be accomplished when every member works together.

• TRANSITIONS. Music as a form of communication can be used to signal changes in activities, mood, and behavior. Playing calm music while children work and play can create a peaceful, relaxing environment and build a sense of community.

The Musical Instrument Experience

Rhythmic activities naturally grow into explorations of tonal musical instruments and melody. First experiences with musical instruments should allow children to explore the different sounds they can make.

One-on-one

Like percussion instruments, tonal instruments should be offered one-on-one at first. Many of them are delicate and need to be explored with supervision. Help children learn to identify the instruments by name. Ask them to describe the shape and sound of each.

Music Center

Follow up by expanding the sound center into a music center, and provide simple, durable instruments, both homemade and purchased. Make a recording of each instrument's sound, and place it in the music center so the children can explore timbre - the unique quality of the sound - by matching the mystery sound to its instrument.

A computer, MIDI keyboard, and music software can be added as well. As in visual art, an older computer dedicated solely to music exploration is a valuable addition to the arts program. Research has shown that using music software intended for children provides a playful way for them to explore timbre, pitch, and melody.

Whole Group

Expand the rhythm band to include tonal instruments or try creating a melody band of just bells or recorders playing simple tunes and those of the children's own composition. As children gain skill and confidence, stage impromptu parades and concerts. Add child-created tunes to a favorite story or poem. Always remember to keep these activities open-ended and flexible. Performances that require hours of rehearsal and create stress are inappropriate for young children and steal away the child's natural affinity for making music.

The Singing Experience

Children sing spontaneously from as early as age two. They often make up little tunes based on simple, repetitive words while playing. Singing daily helps develop self-confidence, expands vocal range, and helps draw a group of children together into a cohesive group.

Many adults, however, may feel uneasy singing aloud. Nevertheless, all teachers can teach children to enjoy singing. Although we may not like how our voices sound, that does not mean we cannot sing with children. As is true in all arts activities, our level of enthusiasm is far more important than having a trained voice. Children will be more involved in their own participation and learning a new song than in criticizing their teacher's voice.

To develop your confidence, always practice a song first. If possible, learn the song from a fellow teacher or friend. If that is not possible, sing along with a recording. Many children's songs are now available on the Web. The National Institute of Health Sciences has an extensive collection of children's songs, lyrics, and MIDI files. Many of the songs suggested in this chapter can be found on their Web site at http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/home.htm. Songs from around the world with both English lyrics and the lyrics in their original languages, plus videos of the songs being sung can be found at http://www.mamalisa.com/.

Selecting Songs

Choose songs that are short, easy to sing, have a steady beat, and lots of repetition. The pitches of the song should fall within their comfort range, which varies with age. Repetition of the whole song, rather than phrase-by-phrase teaching, seems to foster quicker acquisition of the song. Body movements are effective in teaching songs, especially hand gestures indicating pitch and other characteristics of the music.

Children (and adults) usually learn the chorus of a song long before they know all the verses. For example, many people know the chorus to “Jingle Bells,” but how many know more than one verse? Use the following guidelines when choosing a song to sing:

• Infants - Songs for infants are often very short with lots of repetition. Lullabies are soothing melodies with a slow beat. Teasing songs, such as “This Little Piggy Went to Market,” allow adults to interact with the child physically through tickling, finger actions, and sound effects.

• Toddlers - Songs for toddlers should have a limited range. The majority of children will sing most comfortably from middle C to G. Middle C is the 24th white key from the left-hand side of the piano. Nursery rhymes and folk songs are often in this range. To appeal to active toddlers, select songs that have interactive elements and movements that draw the child into the song and make it more memorable. Toddlers also love nonsense songs and songs that involve moving their bodies. Songs about feelings help them understand emotions better.

• Preschool and kindergarten - For preschoolers, look for songs that tell a story or have words strongly tied to the beat and melody. Many of these are traditional folk songs that have been passed down for generations. Preschoolers particularly like songs that are personal and relate to their everyday lives. Make up songs that feature their names, feelings, body parts, daily activities, and special occasions such as birthdays: Songs can also help them learn to count, spell, and learn other rote material. Interactive elements and movement are still an important element in songs for this age and help children remember the words better. Song games encourage children to practice singing and moving to the music.

• Primary age - As children get older their vocal range extends to as much as an octave above and below middle C. Songs for primary children should use this range because children will lose the high and low notes if they do not use them regularly. As children learn more about the world, they enjoy learning the story behind the song. Songs in foreign languages fascinate them. They also enjoy songs from their favorite movies and from radio (see Table 10–2).

CHANTS. Chants are words spoken in rhythm with no or limited change in pitch. Often they are half spoken and half sung in a rhythmic, repetitive way. Sometimes a chant is performed on just one note and sometimes on two or more notes. Nursery rhymes, such as “Jack and Jill,” and traditional finger play such as “Pat-a-Cake,” are good examples of this. Jump-rope rhymes are traditional chants. Some familiar ones are “Miss Mary Mack,” “My Name is Alice,” “Lady, Lady,” and “Touch the Ground.” Chants provide a bridge between early language development and singing and, as such, are very appropriate for infants and toddlers. Because of their simplicity, these are often the first “songs” children sing. Young children will also make up their own chants as they play. Chants are easy to invent on the spot. To help develop a child's singing voice an adult can chant a request to a child and the child can chant it back.

INVENTED SONGS. Music naturally engages children in learning. In particular, there is a strong link between literacy development and singing. Shelly Ringgenberg (2003) found that children learn vocabulary words better through a song than through conventional storytelling. She suggests that teachers take the melody and rhythm from familiar songs, such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb”or “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,”and add new words based either on a story in a book or that use the concepts or vocabulary being taught.

This type of song is also known as a “story song,” “zipper song,” or “piggyback song,” and many examples can be found in books and on the Web. However, it is just as easy to invent our own to fit the needs of our own children. In addition, allowing children to participate in making up songs based on old favorites is a powerful way to begin a creative music community. Children, if allowed to contribute to the writing of the song will take ownership and pride in the song. Other advantages include:

• The melody will be familiar, making it quicker and easier to learn the song.

• Because you choose the content, speed, and length, the song can be tailored to fit the needs of the moment.

• It saves time that would be spent searching for an existing song that might fit.

• No materials are needed except voices and creativity.

Week 14: Moving Creatively

During week 14, I explored creative movement in early childhood environments. Here is a summary of that unit.

Movement is basic to life. From birth children spend their waking moments in constant motion. The newborn waves arms and legs, the infant crawls, the toddler toddles, and the preschooler jumps, runs and climbs. Even in the womb, the fetus swims and kicks.

What Is Creative Movement and Dance?

The ability to move is a function of three interacting bodily systems. First, our muscular and skeletal system provides support and a framework for action. This framework is guided by kinesthetic awareness - the system of sensors found in our muscles, joints, and tendons, which provides information on posture, equilibrium, and the effort required for a motion to occur. Both these systems are kept balanced by the vestibular sense located in the inner ear, which keeps track of the motion and position of the head relative to the rest of the body. All these parts work together to create the simple and complex actions that we perform unthinkingly each day of our lives.

Our capacity to move allows us to interact with the world and people around us. However, when these movements are organized into a work of bodily art we come to understand how marvelous our bodies are. Through carefully chosen creative movements, we can communicate feelings, tell stories, and become part of the music. We dance.

Creative movement and dance are inherently human and incredibly ancient. Paintings on pottery indicate that dance was as much a part of life in Neolithic times as it is today. Then as it is now, the creative movement of the body was tied to social and spiritual rituals. In the past these rituals were often related to everyday life and needs. The first dances probably imitated the movements of activities such as hunting, harvesting, and planting. Today we dance to feel part of a group, to make friends, and to release bodily tensions.

Is It Creative Movement or Dance?

The art form based on moving our bodies has been called both creative movement and dance. Usually in early childhood education, the term creative movement is used to emphasize the open-ended nature of movement activities that are developmentally appropriate for young children. Dance, on the other hand, more often refers to formalized styles of movement in which children are taught specific ways to move and particular dance positions and steps, such as ballet or the polka.

In truth, both aspects of movement are essential in the education of young children. All children need the opportunity to use the creative process in discovering their own original ways to move and in using their bodies to communicate their emotions and ideas. However, as they grow they also need to learn how to control their bodies and match their movements to rhythms, music, and the movements of others by participating in simple dances from our own and other cultures. For this reason the term creative dance can be used to encompass both these aspects of the movement arts.

The Core Processes of Creative Dance

The National Dance Educational Organization (NDEO) has identified four core processes integral to dance they call the inner core and which form the basis of the new Common Core Standards in the Arts for Dance (National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, 2013).

• Performing. Although we usually think of performance as something done in front of an audience, in this definition performance is the actual physical movement that a dancer does. A dance performance can be done alone or with a group, and with or without an audience.

• Creating. This is the invention of original movements by the dancer either through solving movement problems through improvisation or through choreographing movements to be performed alone or with others.

• Responding. Responding is when we observe a dance performance and express our ideas about it. Reflections on a dance performance can take many forms ranging from talking and writing about it to creating a movement in response.

• Connecting. Dance does not exist in a vacuum. It is an expression of ideas, viewpoints, and experiences. It is learned best when the physical, creative, and responsive processes are interconnected and taught together, and when creative dance is integrated into all areas of learning, culture, and life. Because dance develops the strength of and control over the body, it is also connected to healthful living.

The Elements of Creative Dance

The elements of dance describe a body in motion and so are not separate but simultaneous actions.

• Time - We can move our bodies slowly or quickly using varying speeds and duration.

• Space - Space refers to how we position our bodies in the space that surrounds us. Our bodies can occupy different levels and be open or closed.

• Energy - This is the effort we use as we move our bodies through distances in that space. Our body can move in a relaxed way or under tension. We can attack and release.

The physical performance of dancing is created in a context of personal and cultural influences which influences the aesthetic quality and meaning of the movements. This context consists of the following:

• Body - The body is the tool we use to create dances. It is our muscles, bones, tendons, reflexes, and breath. It is the medium through which our ideas and feelings are expressed. Each body is unique in size, shape, and muscular control. This makes dance the most personal of all the arts.

• Motion - We use our bodies as an expressive art medium when we move. Creative dance is made up of motions, which consist of streams and pauses in a sequence. Locomotion means the movement moves from one place to another as when we leap, hop, and run. Nonlocomotion refers to those moves we can do standing in one place such as bending, twisting, and swinging. Movements can go in any direction, any distance, and be balanced or unbalanced, large or small.

• Relationship - This refers to the way that the dance elements, the body, and motion are combined with each other to communicate the dancer's meaning.

• Intention - This is the dancer's or choreographer's purpose for the dance. The performance of the dance fulfills its intention.

• World View - Both dancer and the viewer bring unique personal and cultural experiences to the performance which determine what the dance communicates and how that message is received.

Week 14: How Are Creative Movement Activities Designed?

Creative dance is concerned with the role of movement in artistic creation. Activities that support this differ from physical exercises and sports, which are also concerned with physical development. In creative movement activities children are asked to imitate and expand on everyday behaviors and actions using their bodies, sometimes with music and props. Waves can be represented by gently undulating one's arms. Even formal dance has this aesthetic element to it. As the dancers move in choreographed motion, geometric and symbolic patterns are created.

Creative movement activities are best organized by the skill, attention, and experience level of the children.

One-on-One Activities

Creative movement is by its very nature a social activity and most movement activities for young children are usually done in a group setting. However, infants and children with limitations on their motor control are best taught first in one-on-one and then pair situations where they can practice and develop the skills needed for successful participation in a larger group. For example, while being held in one's lap, an infant's arms might be gently moved to a lullaby. An older child might play a game of hand mirrors with an adult where they sit or stand opposite each other and place hands palm to palm, while they take turns being the leader and moving the hands in different ways.

Exploration Exercises

Explorations are activities that allow children to explore the possibilities of how to move their bodies and to solve creative movement problems. These can be done one-on-one or with small or large groups of children. In the beginning, these may form the entire movement experience. Later on, they can be used as warm-up exercises for more complex movement experiences.

Group Movement Sequences

The richest creative movement experiences are those in which a whole group participates. Depending on the age of the children, these can range from having the whole group responding to the same open-ended prompts to elaborate story dances in which individuals and small groups play different roles. Movement sequences can be based on or include traditional and formal dance forms familiar to the group and are best when improvised or choreographed by the children themselves.

What follows are some creative movement starters - some ideas to get children moving creatively.

Week 14: Planning Creative Movement Activities

Creative movement activities work best when presented in a flexible format that allows the activity to adjust and change in response to the movements of the children. There should be plenty of opportunity for children to provide input and be leaders as well. Depending on the ages, experiences, and physical abilities of the children, creative dance activities can take many forms.

ASSESSING PROFICIENCY. Creative movement activities should closely match children's physical development. Careful observation of a child's movements can provide important clues to the child's level of physical skill. Graham, Holt-Hale, and Parker (2001) have identified the following four levels:

• Pre-control - The same movement cannot be repeated in succession.

• Control - The same movement can be repeated somewhat consistently but cannot be combined with another movement or object.

• Utilization - The same movement can be repeated consistently and used in new situations and combinations.

• Proficiency - The movement is automatic and effortless and can be performed at the same time as other actions as well as modified to fit planned and unplanned situations.

Week 14: The Creative Dance Experience

Dancing is moving to music in a repeated pattern or using formal positions. Knowing the steps to a dance allows us to easily move in concert with other people. However, for young children, learning to dance should not be for the purpose of public performance or learning perfect steps, but rather to learn how to better control their bodies, and thereby find joy in moving to the music with others.

Formal dancing instruction is not appropriate for young children. However, children can be introduced to styles of dance and then be allowed to incorporate these styles as they move in their own ways to the music. Select dance forms that have a few repetitious movements that closely match the words or accompanying music, such as those found in children's play songs and folk dances. Choose works that allow individual creative movements and do not require rigid conformity to prescribed dance steps or matching one's steps to those of another. For example, a Greek circle dance allows more freedom of movement than does a square dance.

Selecting Developmentally Appropriate Dances

Young children learn to dance much as they learn to sing a song. They begin by tagging on, repeating one or two of the main movements of the dance over and over. A child attempting to waltz may sway back and forth. Over time and with practice they will slowly add more parts to the dance until they have mastered the entire piece. Dances for the very young should consist of one to three basic movements that match the beat of the music and are open-ended enough that children can invent other ways for doing the dance for themselves. This turns what could be a lockstep performance into a creative arts activity.

A danceable song for young children has a strong beat with lots of repetition. In addition, some children's songs provide directions for how to move. An example of this type of song is “All Around the Kitchen” by Pete Seeger, in which the lyrics provide directions for the movements. There are many wonderful children's albums that feature danceable songs from around the world. However, do not be afraid to invent ways of dancing to any favorite song or piece of music. Many songs have obvious places to insert a repeated motion. For example, Woody Guthrie's “Car Song” lends itself to driving motions. There should also be plenty of opportunity for children to make up their own dance moves to teach to others.

Open-Ended Creative Dance Experiences for Infants

Dance experiences for infants should focus on the joy of moving together with a caring adult.

• HUG ME. Name a body part and hug it in a repeated pattern. Say: “I hug my leg, leg, leg. I hug my head, head, head” and so on. For very young infants, hug their body part for them. Older infants can hug themselves or their caregiver. Change the words to hug other parts of the body or use a different action such as tap, kiss, and so on.

• BOUNCING. Place the infant on one's lap. Put on a catchy tune and bounce the infant gently up and down to the music, providing any needed head and back support. An older child can sit face-to-face holding your hands. Move the child up and down to the music. Say “up” and “down” as you move together. Then explore other ways to move together to the tune.

• DANCING FEET. Play a danceable song and hold the infant upright so that the child can wiggle and kick his or her feet to the music.

Dance Experiences for Toddlers

Toddlers with their newfound independence need open-ended dance experiences that let them join in as they wish.

• BUDDY DANCE. Have the toddler put his or her feet on your shoes as you move gently to a dance tune. Then let the toddler dance on his or her own.

• SHAKE A LEG. Put on a peppy instrumental piece of music and shake different body parts as you dance. Toddlers may have trouble moving each limb separately and keeping their balance. Make sure the floor is cushioned and all forms of movement are accepted.

• MARCH. Put on a John Phillip Sousa march and parade around the room. Add props and rhythm instruments.

Open-Ended Creative Dance Experiences for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners

With their better physical control and more fluid movements, three- to five-year-olds are ready to learn simple repetitive dances that they can use as springboards to inventing their own dances.

SLOW MOTION. To increase body control, take any dance the children are familiar with, such as “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” and do it in slow motion. Then do it as fast as you can.

CHAIN DANCE. Have the children join hands. Put on a tune with a regular beat. The leader starts the chain off by moving the free arm or leg in an interesting way as he or she leads the group around the room. The rest of the children then copy that movement. Have different children take turns being the leader, each of whom improvises a new dance movement.

Open-Ended Creative Dance Experiences for Primary Grade Children

Children who can perform a sequence of movements are ready to learn and remember more formal dances. Even so, start with dance games and open-ended dances before trying fancy footwork. Use creative movement activities as warm-ups. Remember that the goal is feeling part of a group, not public performance.

Folk Dancing for Children

Folk dance refers to dances that are at least 100 years old and are not copyrighted. They are usually danced at informal gatherings and have as many versions as the people who dance them. In a folk dance, the dancers can stand in many formations: in a circle, a square, a spiral, a line, or two facing lines. Sometimes participants may dance in small groups of four, as paired partners, or as solo dancers. There may be a caller or leader who gives directions to the dancers such as in American square dancing.

Folk dancing teaches children how to move in a pattern while maintaining a constant rhythm. The predictability and rhythm of the movement and the accompanying song or music helps children learn the sequence of steps and practice counting.

The best way to introduce young children to this kind of dancing is to start with simple singing games in which the song cues the children how to move. Examples of these kinds of games include the well-known “Ring Around the Rosy” and “London Bridge Is Falling Down.”

Follow this by introducing the concept of line dancing by having the students march to different dance tunes. When they seem comfortable with the rhythm of a tune, have them form two lines and face each other when dancing. This naturally leads into circle dances. Finally, introduce four- and two-partner dances.

When selecting folk dances, look for ones that use basic movements. If you wish to try a dance and the moves are too complicated, don't be afraid to simplify them or even invent your own steps to a song or type of music. Here are some basic steps found in many folk dances from which to build original dance combinations:

• Slide - In this move one foot moves away from the other and then the other foot moves over to join it. You can slide in any direction and for any number of steps. This is best taught by standing with your back to the children.

• Skip - This move is very hard to describe in words. Basically, you take a step, hop with a rocking motion on the back foot, then bring that foot forward so you can hop on the other. The hop is shorter than the move and uneven in feel. Skipping is one of the last large motor skills children develop, so be accepting of all children's attempts. Holding a child's hand and slowly skipping with him or her as the motion is rhythmically described is one way to help children improve their skipping.

• Step-Hop - Although similar to a skip, the step-hop is evenly balanced. The step and hop are equal in timing. Once children can skip, play an even one-two beat on a drum or clap until they can match the beats.

• Cross-Kick - The foot is kicked out and across the body with the toe pointing outward at a slight angle to the body. Other kicks include back and front. This step requires children to be able to balance on one foot. It helps to have children hold hands or lock elbows in the beginning.

• Jumps - Some dances involve jumping in place or forward or back on both feet. The “Bunny Hop” is an example of a dance built on jumps.

• Taps - The dancer taps toe or heel on the floor to make a tapping sound. This is the basis of tap dancing in which shoe soles have metal plates to emphasize the sound.

Process not Performance

For children, moving creatively through dance is the process of learning how to control their bodies in space as well as a delightful way of expressing themselves. As they whirl about the room with their peers, they do not need to worry about how they appear to others. However, expecting them to perform these same movements in front of an audience instantly changes the focus from process to product.

Reading about Dancing

One of the best ways to increase the attention span and develop attentive listening when reading aloud to young children is to encourage them to move in concert with the story. Almost any children's book can have movements added to it effectively with a little forethought. If there is a rabbit in the story, you can cue the children to make wiggly bunny ears every time they hear the word “rabbit.” If the book is about going on a car trip, cue them to drive the car by turning the steering wheel every time you turn a page. In Bill Martin's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (1995), the children can shade their eyes and turn their heads every time they here the cue words “What do you see?”

There are also many children's books about moving, dancing, and dancers from around the world that can be shared with children. Spicy Hot Colors: Colores Picantes (Shaham, 2004) interweaves nine colors and four dance steps with a jazzy bilingual text. Lion Dancer: Ernie Wan's Chinese New Year (Waters, 1991) is a photographic essay about a boy preparing for Chinese New Year and his role in the traditional Lion Dance.

Responding to Dance

All discussions about dancing should start with the body and its movements. Begin with naming the body parts and describing the different ways they can move. Have children describe their motions using their own descriptive language, as well as the vocabulary of the dance elements. Ask questions that make them think critically about their movement choices.

• Why did you choose to move in that way?

• What is another way you might have shown that tempo or feeling?

• How could you extend that movement?

• Is there a way to combine these ways of moving?

Provide opportunities for preschool through primary-age children to record their responses to dance activities in their journals or at the art center using pictures and words. For example, have children draw pictures of themselves dancing. This is a useful way to assess how children see themselves as dancers. Do they draw themselves alone or with others? Do they show themselves doing active motions or standing still?

The power of creative movement and dance is immense in terms of developing children's ability to think spatially. Yet, it is often the one art form that is missing from young children's educational experience. If children do movement activities, it is usually in the form of simple dance games with little input from the children themselves. Although “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and “Ring Around the Rosy” are perfectly fine, simple movement activities for young children, they are not all that creative movement education can be. Creative movement and dance must allow children to think with their bodies. The teacher of creative dance must be willing to improvise along with the children. The best dance activities happen when the teacher watches what the children are doing and builds on their ideas, adding props, music, and enthusiasm as needed.