7.4: Environments and Materials

Most materials necessary to support preschoolers’ learning in the creative arts are inexpensive and easy to obtain and can often be shared across art domains. In fact, by rotating props, books, masks, and the like, teachers reinvent them in novel ways.

Each art discipline has some basic needs to create exciting and enriching learning experiences. As each discipline is discussed later in the chapter, further materials will be summarized.

• Dance and movement require only space in a room and benefit further from music and costumes of modest scope and cost.
• Many things handy in a preschool environment can serve as props for dramatic play (spontaneous engagement in pretend play) and drama (guided experiences with instruction on acting out a drama), where imagination can turn almost anything into something else.
• Visual arts primarily involve drawing, painting, and creating two- and three-dimensional works of art. These activities commonly make use of natural materials in addition to traditional art supplies, such as crayons, pencils, finger paints, watercolor paints, moldable dough, construction paper, and sufficient drawing or painting paper to provide the inspiration for children’s creations. Children need flat places to draw and paint—tabletops, the floor, or outdoor surfaces, such as fences.
• It is important that music is not limited to prerecorded songs. Music is an active process that may require specialized materials. Children can use a variety of rhythm instruments, such as wooden blocks, bongo drums, or hollow, hardwood boxes; little instruction is necessary. When these materials are not available, clapping hands and stomping feet can keep the rhythm. Other musical instruments that may extend this collection include recorder-like wind instruments, shakers, stringed plucking devices, and so on.
• Adaptive materials may be necessary to ensure that activities are accessible for all children with disabilities or other special needs, allowing them to participate in art activities with a sense of enjoyment and accomplishment.
• Materials that may serve as props for pretend play, or costumes that reflect the children's cultural backgrounds in the preschool program, are good to have on hand.
• Any and all art materials can be used to foster the creative process. Having a wide range of loose parts available provides children with numerous opportunities to explore their creative tendencies.

Figure 11.8: Children enjoy playing basic musical instruments.[1]

Physical environments that support learning in the creative arts begin with sufficient, appropriate space. The few basic materials described above and space for the children's use of materials and movement are all that is required of the environment. For example, costumes, prop-like objects, and art supplies, along with a designated workspace accessible to children, can help encourage learning while creating an aesthetically pleasing physical environment.

Scheduled time for arts activities, with an organized flow of necessary preparation and cleaning up (or possibly winding down of excited children), will also help facilitate learning. Teachers quickly learn—often through trial and error—the importance of allowing sufficient time for an art experience. The arts can also be woven into other areas of the curriculum throughout the day.

An effective environment for teaching and learning in the creative arts for the preschool child considers:

• The suitability, accessibility, safety, amount, and variety of materials.
• The aesthetics (beauty) of the early childhood environment.
• Sufficient open space for movement, dance, and theater play.
• Support for children’s drawing skills.
• Indoor and outdoor environments for creating art.
• Art is displayed at the children's eye level. This includes their examples of visual arts and photographs of those engaged in the arts.
• A well-constructed environment for social and collaborative learning.[2]

Research Highlight: Is It Art?

What is the difference between “art” and a mere scribble? Preschool parents may be as interested in this question as the puzzled adult viewing modern, abstract art at the local gallery. One sense of art stressed in this curriculum framework is that the creative arts aim at the joys of free expression and the pleasures of seeing and creating images. Art instruction at the preschool level is also concerned with basic, first steps that can lead to more advanced artistic skills.

Differing views prevail concerning the child artist. One approach seeks artistic significance in a child’s work—perhaps a genius or a prodigy is emerging. A contrasting view dismisses the child artist by labeling his artwork “haphazard” and its occasional glimpses of clever expression and beauty as “accidental.”

Over the years, the work of Nelson Goodman and Howard Gardner at Harvard University’s Project Zero has helped to demystify children’s art. Those scholars view art through the lens of cognition rather than through a value-driven critique of aesthetics. Art is a cognitive activity, requiring thinking, problem solving, communication, and intent. Learning in art is frequently tied to learning in language and culture as well.

For Goodman, the classical question "What is art?" is transposed into a less familiar question: "When is art?" As Goodman suggests, art “occurs” when its symbols are functioning aesthetically. The aesthetic functions of symbols include expressiveness (conveying meaning or emotion), susceptibility to multiple interpretations, and richness (full or abundant rendering). These ideas de-emphasize judgments of beauty or merit; Goodman’s artistic creator is the individual with sufficient understanding of the properties and functions of certain symbol systems to allow her to create works that function in an aesthetically effective manner.

And what of preschool-age children? Rhoda Kellogg’s documentation and classification of hundreds of thousands of children’s drawings from 30 countries testify to children’s ability to use symbols at an early age, often depicting qualities of the artist as defined by Goodman. Children’s art is often expressive, conveying emotions, feelings, actions, and stories. Children’s art may be more or less replete, with abundant renderings of objects or symbols and vague, sketchy treatments at other times. Young children are unlikely to plan and create works with multiple readings—this ability typically belongs to more mature developmental stages and can emerge in adolescence.

Appearing commonly in drawings of children, especially those of two- or three-year-olds, is the mandala, a term used to designate symbolic representations that typically incorporate a circular motif, often featuring a cross-like figure. For the child, the mandala is a well-balanced, pleasing form that lies en route to genuine representation. The contrasting, superimposed elements of the circle and cross are precursors to the figure’s metamorphoses into rounded figures with legs, arms, and facial details.

According to Gardner, the conditions suggested by Goodman, though helpful in thinking through the puzzles of children’s art, nevertheless leave the debate about art created by children in a state of relative limbo. The preschool teacher’s role is to introduce children to a range of constructive symbolic media and provide them with the faith that the child’s own vision and ability to give form to vision are worthy. The preschool teacher can view children’s art without an eye for realism; rather, the gaze might borrow from Paul Klee, who, when discovering his childhood drawings, described them in a 1902 letter to his fiancée as the most significant ones he had yet created.[3]

Sources

H. Gardner, Art, Mind, and Brain: A Cognitive Approach to Creativity. New York: Basic Books, 1982, 60.

H. Gardner, Artful Scribbles: The Significance of Children’s Drawings. New York: Basic Books, 1980, 38. 6. Ibid., 53.

J. H. Davis, 2005, Framing Education as Art: The Octopus Has a Good Day. New York: Teachers College Press, 70.

As cited in L. Camhi, “When Picasso and Klee Were Very Young: The Art of Childhood,” New York Times, June 18, 2006. www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/arts/design/18camhi. html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 (accessed September 10, 2009).

Let’s take a closer look at each of the strands/disciplines of the Creative Arts.

References

[1] Image by Airman 1^st Class Ellora is in the public domain

[2] The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 2 by the California Department of Education is used with permission;

Source of text in blue: Clint Springer

[3] The California Preschool Curriculum Framework, Volume 2 by the California Department of Education is used with permission