Art in the Early Childhood Classroom

Lindsay Jacoby

TTE321

My Thoughts before…• Art is paint, crayons, paper, markers, and pencils.

• Children can express their ideas, thoughts, and emotions through visual art.

• All children are creative beings and can easily express themselves through visual art.

My Experiences and Observations• At my placement:

• Not all children are interested in art (drawing, coloring, painting)

• Some children have difficulty expressing themselves through art

• Visual art is the only “art” explored

• Children are instructed on what to create

• Children must create things that are representative of the real world• Hair is brown or blonde, skin is white/pink/brown, people do not float they

have to be standing on the ground, animals are drawn a certain way, people are drawn as “mat man”

• Process vs Product

• Small group work (4 children at a time)

• No music, no free expression

My Experiences Informing Instruction• I wanted to incorporate gross motor skills

• I wanted children to be able to play and learn as a whole group

• I value the arts as more than just visual

• I want children to explore their bodies through music and movement

• Occurred during my Caribbean unit using the Caribbean Story Box

• Lesson 1:• Playing Islands

• Lesson 2:• Mambo Dancing

Lesson 1: Playing Islands• Planning:

• Introduction to Caribbean unit

• Whole group

• Gross motor

• Creative movement, dance with music

• Materials:• 13 hula hoops = island

• 13 scarves = life line

• Ziggy Marley CD

• CD player

Lesson 1: Playing Islands continued• Documentation

• Children holding out their scarf:• “Grab my scarf!”

• “Here’s a life line!”

• “I’ll save you!”

• Children needing a life line:• “Help!”

• “I need a life line!”

• “Give me your life line!”

• I encouraged creative movements and gross motor skills using the scarves by saying:• “Move like a palm tree in the wind”

• “Move like a monkey”

• “Move like a wave in the ocean”

• “Jump like the coqui”

Lesson 2: Mambo Dancing• Planning

• I wanted to allow the children to explore their bodies through music (Caribbean music)

• Gross motor skills

• Social skills

• Free expression

• Teaching myself the steps in order to teach the children. Prep and Practice!

• Materials• Video of Mambo footwork

• Music video of Mambo I, I, I

• Teachable Moment• After watching and dancing to the Mambo the children wanted to watch La Cucaracha

from our Mexico unit

• The children created their own instruments after watching La Cucaracha

My Thoughts on the Arts

Then…

• Art is paint, crayons, paper, markers, and pencils.

• Children can express their ideas, thoughts, and emotions through visual art.

• All children are creative beings and can easily express themselves through visual art.

Now…

• Art is any expressive medium

• Children can express themselves, their ideas, thoughts, and emotions through any creative art discipline (music, movement, art)

• I can help children be successful, creative beings by exposing them to all kinds of art, music, and movement.