2. WHY ARTS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD?
As wright (2012) states, people of all ages make meaning through the
arts as they use formless ideas that express awareness of themselves
and the world around them. Before children are able to communicate
properly, they can hold a pencil, they can move their bodies and they can
babble. For young children the Arts can be a way for them to express
their thoughts and feelings through dance and especially drawings/
painting.The arts can assist in your child’s personal development, which
includes verbal, sensory and literacy skills as well as interpersonal and
emotional skills.Through the arts your children can work on their
creativity and self expression (Deirdre, 2009). According to Berk
(2012), drawing in the arts is one aspect in which helps children’s fine-
motor development. As your children develop in the ability to mentally
represent their world, their drawings begin to make more meaning.
3. MUSIC
CORE PRACTICES
• Listening
• Moving
• Singing
• Playing
• Creating
• Haines and Gerber (2000)
ELEMENTS
• Rhythm
• Melody and
harmony/pitch
• Timbre
• Texture
• Dynamics and
expression/ mood
• Form/ structure
• Haines and Gerber (2000)
IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC
Learning and experiencing music in Early
Childhood can have a major influence in the
development of your children. In the
beginning of foundation year children are still
grasping reading and writing.Through
providing a range of opportunities for musical
activities, your children will be assisted in
literacy development while increasing interest
in words, pattern and print. Music will also
allow your children new opportunities for the
development of thinking (Isbell and Raines,
2013).
4. MUSIC
LINKSTO EYLF
• Through this music experience children are
working within outcome 4: Children are confident
and involved learners.
LINKSTO ACARA
• Through music children will learn to
become aware of the elements which
include rhythm, pitch, dynamics and
expression, form and structure and
timbre and texture as they make and
explore music.
• This learning experience coincides with
the ACARA content for music of ‘sing
and play instruments to improvise,
practise a repertoire of chants, songs
and rhymes including songs used by
cultural groups in the community.
LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN MY CLASSROOM
The music curriculum in my classroom will consist
of making instruments and using these
instruments to accompany their group singing.
Your children will be provided with materials to
make their own instrument, once the children
have finished this activity a selected song will be
chosen and the children will use their instruments
as well as body percussion to make the beat of
the song while also singing. This will help children
with learning the elements of music, especially
rhythm, melody and harmony. Below is an example
of children playing and investigating with
homemade instruments.This video is quite long,
the first minute is enough to give you an idea of
the types of homemade instruments children can
make.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0GEsZ6JnY
5. DANCE
ELEMENTS
• Body
• Space
• Dynamics
• Relationships
Wright (2012,p.97
IMPORTANCE OF DANCE
Children use dance to express their ideas and
feelings about the world around them. Often
children will be seen doing the most unusual
dance moves.This is because they copy the
movements of things they see around them
(Schiller and Meiners, 2012).Through dance your
children develop a wide range of gross motor
skills as they become aware of their bodies.Your
children learn about the body bases, parts and
zones used in dance. As your children make their
own dances they become aware of space and
time while discovering locomotor and non-
locomotor movements (Schiller and Meiners,
2012).
CORE PRACTICES
• Creating
• Performing
• Appreciating
Wright (2012)
6. DANCE
LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN MY
CLASSROOM
In my dance curriculum in the classroom
children will be given time to dance freely to
selected music that has a certain theme.This
will enable your children to move their bodies
and make their own dance moves according to
how they have viewed the things around them.
The video below shows a child dancing freely
by her own choice. She is using her body to
make dance. Please watch between 55 seconds
and 1 minute 40 seconds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGeeK49tT
wk
As well as free dance your children will look at
all different dances, from multiple cultures
around the world, to gain understanding of the
different types and styles of dance.
LINKSTO EYLF
• Outcome 1: children have a strong sense
of identity.
• Through my dance experience children
have the opportunity to express
themselves through free dance. Children
use the world around them as
inspirations for movements to certain
themes of music.
LINKSTO ACARA
• Children explore, improvise
and organise ideas to make
dance sequences using the
elements of dance.
• As children respond to dance,
they explore meaning and
interpretation, elements and
forms of social and cultural
contexts.
7. DRAMA
ELEMENTS
• Voice
• Body/ gesture
• Props/costumes
• Text/ Script
IMPORTANCE OF DRAMA
Through dramatic play children can learn a
lot about the world around them,
themselves and the reasons for the way
other people behave in the ways they do.
Throughout the primary years, drama is used
particularly for models of behaviour and
action that can be performed safely (O’Toole
and Dunn, 2002).
CORE PRACTICES
• Dramatic role play
• Drama corner
• Text/ storytelling
• Professional theatre
8. DRAMA
LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN MY CLASSROOM
One of the learning experiences in my drama
curriculum will be the children completing
exercises based on the voices of different
characters.Your children will take on the role of
their favourite character and enact to each other
in small groups how they think that character
would act.
Another learning experience for the drama
curriculum I will be using will be to get your
children to write creative dramatic narratives
using the correct structure and then share with
the class or small groups.
LINKSTO EYLF
• Through these learning experience
children are working within each of
the learning outcomes of the EYLF.
• Through these learning experiences
the children will be able to identify a
sense of identity not only for
themselves but the characters they
play.
• The children will gain the ability to
follow narratives, stay in character
while performing movements and
also persevere at a task which may
initially be difficult for them.
• Children will develop dispositions
for learning such as curiosity,
cooperation, confidence, creativity,
commitment, enthusiasm,
persistence, imagination and
reflexivity
LINKSTO ACARA
• Through the drama curriculum children will
use voice, facial expressions, movement and
space to imagine and establish a role and
situation.
9. VISUAL ART
CORE PRACTICES
• Painting
• Drawing
• Sculpture
• Constructing
• Modeling
IMPORTANCE OFVISUAL ART
When children are working within the arts,
whether that be drawing, painting or constructing,
they are using all of their senses.This means the
arts can used as a powerful tool for your children’s
learning.When your child is working within art
they are not just making things, they learn about
themselves and therefore feel a sense of belonging.
Using drawing as an example from the visual art’s
core practices children are able to quickly explain
things as they make their thinking visible.This
enables them to make plans and tell
stories.(McArdle, 2012).
ELEMENTS
• Line
• Tone
• Colour
• Texture
• Shape
• Form
• Space
• Pattern
(Deirdre, 2009)
Helen Nieuwendijk, Spike, oil on canvas
10. VISUAL ART
LEARNING EXPERRIENCES IN MY CLASSROOM
Through my visual art curriculum as well as having
intentional teaching, I believe it is important for your
children to have the time to draw freely to enable them to
make their thinking, ideas and stories visible through their
art. Below is an example of children freely finger painting,
through their speech it is evident the thinking that
happens when they are undertaking an activity like this.
Please watch between 1 mintute and 2 minutes,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTEovndcFa0
The intentional teaching lesson I plan to implement will be
to teach your children about the main elements of visual
art. In this lesson your children will collect 5 things from
the outside environment to use as inspiration for their
drawings.The children will use the colours, textures and
shapes from these objects to create a drawing.
LINKSTO EYLF
• Through enabling your children to freely draw in my arts curriculum they are working
within outcome 1: children have a strong sense of identity and also outcome 4: children
are confident and involved learners. Children are able to express their ideas and make
meaning through this strategy.
• Through the intentional teaching lesson your children are working within outcome 2:
children are connected and contribute to their world.
LINKSTO ACARA
• Through the arts curriculum the
children will explore ideas, experiences,
observation and imagination to create
visual artworks and design.
• Through my arts curriculum your
children will also learn about how to
make visual representations of their
ideas, experiences, observations and
imagination.
11. MEDIA ARTS
CORE PRACTICES
•Still photography
•Sound
•Animation
•Puppetry
•Print
IMPORTANCE OF MEDIA
In contemporary society children are born into a world that is surrounded by
technology and media. It is important for your children to be involved in a
media arts curriculum in the early years to prepare them to engage in our
technologically advanced world throughout their lives (Prowse, 2012). Digital
filming and editing equipment provides important skills, knowledge and
understanding for your children that will most likely be important for
employment and leisure opportunities later in their lives (Marsh, 2005)
ELEMENTS
• Storyboarding
• Recording
• Editing
• Publishing
• Special effects
• Writing
• shooting
12. MEDIA ARTS
LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN MY CLASSROOM
Through my media arts curriculum your children
will be writing stories and then using moviemaker
to create a movie/ video for their story.Your
children will have access to digital cameras, voice
recorders, scanners and computers.The children
will be introduced to this software where they
will learn to use it competently.
LINKSTO EYLF
• Through this activity children will be working within outcome 4 and 5 of the early years
learning framework.
• Children are confident and involved learners - Children resource their own learning through
connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials.
• Children are effective communicators -Children use information and communication
technologies to access information, investigate ideas and represent their thinking.
LINKSTO ACARA
Through my media arts
curriculum the aspects of the
ACARA document that your
children will cover are:
• Use media media technologies
to capture and edit images,
sounds and text for a purpose.
• Explore ideas, characters and
settings in the community
through stories in images,
sounds and text.
13. REFERENCE LIST
Australian Curriculum,Assessment and Reporting Authority 2014, The arts, viewed 10
April 2014, <http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/TheArts/Curriculum/F-
10?u=da&u=dr&u=ma&u=mu&u=va&y=F-2&layout=1#page=da>.
Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace
Relations 2009, The early years learning framework, barton ACT.
Berk, LE 2012, Infants, children, and adolescents, 7th edn, Allyn and Bacon, Suite, Boston.
Deirdre, RB 2009, chapter 1,‘The state of the arts’, MMADD about the arts: an
introduction to primary arts education, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest,
NSW.
Haines, B, Joan, E and Gerber, Linda L 2000,‘Children and music’, Leading young
children to music, 6th edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ, pp. 3- 16.
Isbell, RT and Raines, SC 2013,‘Creativity and the arts with young children, Music,
music, music, 3rd edn, Wadsworth Cengage Learning,,Australia, pp. 185- 222.
McArdle, F 2012, Chapter 2 ‘The visual arts:Ways of seeing in Children’, in S.Wright
(ed.) ,Literacy moves on :popular culture, new technologies and critical literacy in the
elementary classroom, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH.
Marsh, J 2005, Chapter 2 ‘Moving stories: digital editing in the nursery’, in J. Evans (ed.),
Children meaning-making and the arts, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest
NSW.
14. REFERENCE LIST CONTINUED
National Quality Standard: professional learning program 2012, Discovering music making,
video,Youtube, 10 July,Viewed 15 April
2014,<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G0GEsZ6JnY>
National Quality Standard: professional learning program 2012, Doing your own thing- child's
agency, video,Youtube, 19 September,Viewed 9 April 2014,
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGeeK49tTwk>.
National Standard Quality: professional learning program 2012, Finger painting, video,Youtube,
7 August, viewed 17 April 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTEovndcFa0>.
Nieuwendijk H 2007,A Creative Investigation into the “child-made” artefact, self published.
Orchard, J 2014,‘Drama for early years’ EDUC 2023, University of South Australia,Adelaide,
April.
O’Toole, J and Dunn, J 2002,‘Pretending to learn: helping children learn through drama’, The
basics of drama teaching, Longman/ Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.
Prowse, S 2012, Chapter 6 ‘How do media production and ICT fit into the early childhood context’,
in S.Wright (ed.), Children meaning-making and the arts, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs
Forest NSW.
Schiller, w and Meiners, J 2012, Chapter 4 ‘Dance: moving beyond steps to ideas’, in S.Wright
(ed.), Children meaning-making and the arts, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest NSW.
Wright, S 2012, Children, meaning making and the arts, 2nd edn, Pearson Education Australia,
Frenchs Forest, NSW.
Images
Open clipart 2014, homepage, viewed 16 April 2014,< http://openclipart.org/homepage>.
