Teachers can make the following suggestions to families to facilitate their support of the creative arts for their children:
Try drawing, painting, and sculpture with the child at home.
Embrace dramatic play at home. Provide props, costumes, space, and time.
Show interest in their play and play with them.
Turn on the music and move with their children.
Incorporate dance and movement into everyday routines.
Tap and clap to rhythm of songs and encourage children to do the same.
Notice and talk about works of art seen and songs and music heard at home and in the community.
Notice and talk about shapes and colors in works of art and in the environment, sounds heard, episodes of dramatic play
Incorporate dramatic play into a variety of activities, such as reading and going on outings or trips.
Bring the child to an art museum or areas in the community with public displays of art, community concerts, family-child music classes, community dance performances, and movement programs.
Be open-minded and encouraging about works of art that are sent home from the preschool setting, children’s spontaneous musical performances, children’s dramatic play
Share art, songs, music, and dance traditions or movement games from their homes.
Donate materials that can be used in a variety of art experiences.
Come to watch or participate in an art show, children’s dramatic experiences, or a parent-child dance event[1]
Figure 11.12: These children are looking at this three-dimensional piece of artwork.[2]
The arts take on different meanings and expressions for individuals and communities. Therefore, this chapter recognizes that the arts will materialize and thrive in ways individual to each child and to the early childhood setting. This curriculum framework serves as a starting point and reference for teachers and child care providers to shape how the arts can be orchestrated or simply unleashed, as well as integrated, with other early learning experiences. Each arts strand (visual art, music, drama, and dance) is given attention; suggested teaching strategies, interactions, and environmental supports are illustrated with vignettes. However, within each strand there are numerous opportunities to weave two or more of the four art forms into the learning environment. More importantly, there are opportunities to integrate the arts in the other domains such as physical development, science, mathematics, and language and literacy.
It is essential to keep in mind that teachers serve diverse groups of children. The interactions between the home and school are mutual and mutually important. Diversity is an essential quality of human existence, and the creative arts provide excellent opportunities to learn, understand, and express diversity.[1]
