Young children learn through exploration, energetic participation and through imitation and therefore quality arts program comprising of most art forms - visual skill, music, media, boogie and play should be included within the curriculum in the first childhood class room. As mentioned by Spodek, 1993 (cited in Isenberg & Jalongo, 2001) through taking part in the fine art activities children have the ability to express themselves and it offers opportunities for development of creativeness, symbolizing and boosts their studying looks which further helps them gain educational knowledge. Smith, 1982 (cited in Wright, 1991) talked about that children are able to organise their experiences and know about themselves and their world through participating in the arts. Dyson (1990, p. 52) further explained that 'art work and play have critical roles in children's progress as symbol designers '. Like play, art work is voluntary and intrinsically enthusiastic as children are absolve to choose this content and way of the experience. You will find no external demands or objectives and children are absolve to explore, test and check out with the people, items and materials provided. He also described that children go after art work activities for intrinsic pleasure alternatively than external rewards. Furthermore, the gestures and first words children use during make - consider play reflect after people's action's and things around their daily lives which is the first knowledge of symbolisation as well as the essential foundation that develops into sketching pictures, spoken and written words in their later stages. Predicated on my practical experience in the school room and as well as through the readings from catalogs I believe that arts is just as important as any subject matter in the curriculum and children do learn and develop their physical, intellectual, mental and social skills through taking part in the arts activities. It is also a need by the Ministry of Education that the arts be included as part of the curriculum in the Singaporean class. (cited in Framework for the Kindergarten Curriculum in Singapore, 2006).
This article is a brief attempt at taking a look at the importance of the arts in the education of small children attracted from two art work forms that happen to be music and crisis.
According to Isenberg & Jalongo, (2001) four types of learning are promoted through the arts and they're 1) knowledge about the arts 2) skills in the arts 3) dispositions towards the arts and 4) emotions about the arts. As understanding of the arts is developed through sensory experiences and explorations of materials, children given such opportunities to see, explore and find out about the planet, develop their cognitive capacity and it further improves base for later learning in the preschool years whereby they use icons, words and make - imagine play develops. Skills in the arts are developed when children are allowed to explore and experiment in a safe and healthy artwork environment provided with a number of tools and materials under the guidance of a grown-up who has already attained these skills. For instance, children setting up a newspaper use the skill of printing, painting, tearing, rolling, and colour mixing. They use their fine motor unit skills, eyesight - palm coordination and social interaction skills. Through the entire activity they take part in the process of problem dealing with as they test out colour and feel to set-up the paper. There is a specific amount of learning from your errors while they test out the tools. Do it yourself - manifestation as children have the ability to use their own creativeness and creativity expressing themselves while creating the newspaper. (Isenberg & Jalongo, 2001) Vygotsky, matching to Berk, (2000) looked at children's cognitive development as a socially mediated process whereby techniques and skills are moved and supported from more experienced adult as children try new duties. He also believed that so long as children acquire vocabulary, their capacity to talk to others brings about changes in thought and behavior that change from culture to culture. As such, the third type of learning - dispositions towards fine art depends on the adult being the role model and the discussion with more proficient peers and professors to support the kid to participate effectively in the arts. Providing feedback as explained by Wright, (1991) is part of summative assessment that books children's learning and helps them find the elements, concepts, forms, and vocabulary about the arts. When children are given opportunities to respond to art works created by others, for example, when they are considered for appointments to art galleries and teachers model ways to reply thoughtfully while browsing the functions by professional artist children figure out how to respect the work of others so when educators value children's work and screen them, these builds up their sense of efficiency and enables those to have positive sense about the arts.
On the other side, Swanwick, (1998) mentioned that the three components of play applicable to learning through the arts are mastery, imitation, and imaginative play. Mastery will involve learning of an art associated with an art form for example children learning to make finger puppets for a theatre performance or trying to keep to the tempo while experimenting with a musical instrument during a musical percussion period. Children having the ability to identify things and folks apart from themselves as well as learning how to express sympathy, empathy and show concern points out the expressive characteristics of the art form known as Imitation. Based on my class experience, preschoolers making musical noises for pigs running from the wolf and moving their physiques to suggest actions of any wolf and expressing through cosmetic expressions as an upset wolf for a theatre performance of the storyplot Three Little Pigs are types of imitation. Imaginative play targets the framework of an art. Examples of imaginative play through the Three Little Pigs episode are when children test out different musical equipment until they could create the audio that best resembles the pigs running from the wolf and when experimenting with the different ways as they can move that advises the activity of the wolf. Swanwick, (1998) also shows that all three elements of play must maintain action for any ages in order to discover through the arts.
Isenberg & Jalongo, (2001) claim that music contributes to the full total development of the child - cognitive, physical, cultural, emotional, ethnical and aesthetics. In my own centre, we have a music and movements area outfitted with a number of musical tools like bells, tambourines, triangles etc. Children take part in music and movements activities whereby they move as well as sing along and play musical musical instruments. Through these activities children develop their large muscles of the physiques as they invent actions to go with the songs. They develop fine electric motor skills as they play musical equipment and become alert to beat, tempo, and pitch. These activities also build kinaesthetic intelligence. Gardner, (1973, cited in Isenberg & Jalongo, 1997) Children gain experience with music and use of words as they sing the music for case when singing the tune 'If you happy and you know it clap your hands 'they web page link words with actions and give attention to the collection and task and all these involves children's capacity to process mentally the tone, rhythm, and melody and thus requires thinking skills and cognitive connections between music and learning. As mentioned by Isenberg & Jalongo, 1997 that Bruner's three learning phases - enactive, iconic and symbolic suggests developmentally appropriate musical experience for children plus they add that Bruner's enactive stage pertains to Piaget's(1952) sensorimotor level and Erikson's (1950) trust-building stage where physical activity and music are intertwined. Thus, musical activities stimulate the children's senses, cognitive development and also build communal relationships. Children's creative imagination is improved when they are asked to select the other activities and movement apart from those recommended by the tutor. As stated by McAllester, (cited in Isenberg & Jalongo, 1997) music encourages participation, sharing and cooperation. Through participating in the musical activities, you can find cooperation and writing when children get together and utilize a spouse or in a group and these builds up their social skills. Music is also a great tool to familiarise children with the various culture. When children receive the possibility to experience and listen to different ethnical music, they commence to understand and understand what each ethnic group is approximately. and these evolves their aesthetic skills and understand the talent.
Cornett (1999) supports the need for professors to incorporate creative episode in the class as she expresses that drama being truly a part of day-to-day life, prepares a person to connect to real life situations.
Cornett (1999) adds that when children are taking part in the drama, they are able to look at problems from different items of view, respect diverse thinking, and realise that there are many ways to settle one problem. She further claims that through drama, children figure out how to exchange feelings and emotions with each other. This increases their personality development.
Cornett (1999) also expresses that personal development occurs when children control their body and words as they exhibit ideas and feelings during the crisis activities. She also mentioned that positive do it yourself - image and assurance are developed through the problem fixing situations.
Cornett (1999) reiterates that children engaging in situational confrontations during their role play, also become aware of the different feelings people feel for example delight, sadness. anger, dread. She contributes that the kids learn that these thoughts can be dealt with, thus creating a tolerance towards them.
Isbell & Raines (2007), agree that public skills can be developed in crisis as children employed in an organization overcome issues through problem resolving skills. They experience working with peers as they make a deal plans to stage the drama. During connections, children learn to negotiate with each other, work cooperatively, and develop esteem for every single other.
In my centre, besides the dramatic play in the house corner, my course of four time olds entail in simple puppetry and cover up drama using rhymes and children's stories. Rhymes like 'This little pig went to market' are taught to children using puppets and later children retell the rhyme using the puppets. Furthermore, children take turns to dramatise the rhyme - each young one given a cover up of an pig (mask designed and created by child), actions like going the marketplace, eating roast beef are included. Puppets and cover up are excellent props in concentrating children's attention. Through such activities children are able to participate in remarkable action using the component role, as they pretend to be someone other than themselves. Language is improved as they retell rhyme and children have the ability to point out ideas and feelings through dramatic activity. (Isbell & Raines, 2007)
. As mentioned above, experts firmly assume that musical activities and episode enables children to develop their physical, cognitive, social, emotional and cosmetic skills as well as to provide opportunities for development of self applied - expression, imagination, symbolizing all of which enhances their academic knowledge. There are plenty of opportunities for children to learn and develop skills, knowledge and processes through involvement in the arts, therefore having discussed the huge benefits and leaning outcomes of children's involvement in the arts, I firmly think that the arts is important in the training of preschoolers and all art forms should be built-into the preschool curriculum with equal emphasis as any other subject in the curriculum.
