Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
10 Curriculum
for Aesthetic
and Creative
Development
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Explain the aspects of music, creative movement, creative expression,
art, role play and drama activities;
2. Analyse the value of music, development and activities in early
childhood education;
3. Explain how children express themselves through creative
movements;
4. Describe suitable environment for creative expression in facilitating
creative thinking development among young children; and
5. Identify play activities and role play that can be embedded during a
childs development stage.
INTRODUCTION
This topic addresses the aesthetic development of young children highlighting
the sensitivity of a child towards music and art. Arts allows the opportunity for
children to think creatively while enjoying and experimenting with words, paint
and music. Music and creative arts activities provide opportunities for problem
solving and creative thinking and helps to reduce stress, enhance development,
facilitate learning and bring balance in a childs life.
ACTIVITY 10.1
1. List and discuss at least three songs that suits an early childhood
learner aged between four to six years old that would spark a
childs creative movement.
(b) Music evokes physical movement and soothes the body and mind.
(c) Music can trigger the brain while stimulating neural pathways associated
with higher forms of intelligence to increase a childs productivity in
abstract thinking, empathy and mathematics.
(d) Most of us learned our ABCs by singing the ABC song. Musics melodic
and rhythmic patterns helps to develop memory and make it easier for
children to remember factual information.
(e) Music is an art of listening and young children are good aural learners.
Infants begin learning from the sounds of their environment before birth.
Listening to songs that tell a story provide an excellent opportunity for a
child to strengthen his or her concentration and attention. Music is even
perfectly designed for training children's listening skills.
(f) Music activities involve the coordination of the whole body system. The
bodys urge to move, the brains attention to patterns, the ears initiating
communication, the voices response to sounds, as well as the eye-hand
coordination associated with playing musical instruments.
(h) Music can foster appreciation of culture and is an avenue by which songs,
rhymes, and dances can be passed down from one generation to another.
Every culture is unique and children love to participate in the various
cultural songs and dancing across the nation.
(j) Music has therapeutic value that can enhance a childs feelings of self-
worth. Children should be allowed to interpret music in their own way, by
learning new words, melodies, gestures and movements.
(d) Use music to support other parts of curriculum to create variety and so
provide transitions to activities.
(e) Allow freedom of expression and movement for children to express their
feelings, moods and interpretations.
(f) Do not critic and expect perfection in performing skills from the children.
(g) Plan activities that will encourage music participation and expression as
well as providing materials that will help stimulate creative thinking and
actions.
(i) The teacher should further motivate the children by praising their musical
performances.
ACTIVITY 10.2
1. Select a song for an early childhood learner that can be sung using
hand gestures and expressions.
SELF-CHECK 10.1
Children aged two to four years old like to scribble because it gives them a
chance to move their arms around freely. Figure 10.1 and Figure 10.2 shows
random scribbling and controlled scribbling.
ACTIVITY 10.3
(c) Not all children are creative and some children are more creative than
another.
(d) There should be some leeway in a classroom for a childs unfinished work
to be continued the next day.
(f) Help parents to appreciate their childs creativity even though it is not a
finished work.
(g) Be ready to accept certain level of messiness, noise and freedom during
class.
(h) Continue experimenting and testing for alternatives in determining the best
for children and their classroom atmosphere.
(i) Remember that creative experiment should flow through the entire
curriculum.
In a physical environment, there are various ways which can help children in
their creativity such as:
(c) Including objects such as stones, shells, flowers, art prints, fabric and
baskets.
(a) Teaching techniques such as wiping a brush on the side of the paint pot to
prevent dripping or using the right amount of glue.
(b) Giving opportunities to babies and toddlers to explore and experiment with
materials.
(e) Allowing ample time for children to learn and grow over days or weeks by
encouraging their effort.
ACTIVITY 10.4
Playing with sand either by the seaside, in the backyard or in the classroom (sand
placed in a large tray) allows children to:
(a) Feel the texture of different types of sand using their bare hands and
fingers.
(c) Socialise with their peers and friends while playing sand. Sand play activity
also allows children to communicate with one another while they try to
complete their project.
(d) Learn through sand play by giving them freedom to create and foster
learning through reflection, tracking and questioning. For example, finding
and counting the marbles in the sand.
(e) Use sand as a therapeutic tool. This is a popular form of therapy. Some
therapists seek certification in sand tray therapy. Figure 10.6 is a sand
therapy tray which is used by a child to express his or her feelings.
Playing in the mud can be beneficial to children because of the following reasons:
Food can be used to help children learn about shapes, colours or how fruit is
grown. It will also help develop a childs skills in other areas like literacy, gross
and fine motor and teach good hygiene and social skills. Cooking too needs
creativity. It raises a childs self-esteem, encourage team work and improve their
numeracy skills.
ACTIVITY 10.5
SELF-CHECK 10.2
Children learn through different kinds of play; mud and sand play,
water play, blocks and woodworking play and cooking experiences.
What are the advantages that could be instilled in an early childhood
learner through these activities?
Pretend play or role play is much more than simple play activities but it requires
advanced thinking strategies, communication and social skills. Role play activity
teaches a child how to use language in real life and how to communicate.
Children learn to do things like negotiate, consider peoples perspectives,
transfer knowledge from one situation to another, delay gratification, balance
their own ideas with others, develop a plan and act on it, explore symbolism,
express and listen to thoughts and ideas, assign tasks and roles, and synthesise a
variety of information and ideas during their role play.
Role play and dramatic play is a type of activity where children accept and
assign roles, and then act them out. They will pretend to be another person, and
dramatise situations and actions to go along with the roles they have chosen to
play. Drama play can enhance learning during the early years of a child. In order
to have full benefit from drama play, a suitable space or stage could be set up in
the classroom to represent several props with proper and suitable materials that
can be used by the children. Examples of creative drama play are pantomime,
story drama, readers theatre or puppets.
Besides that, the children, should also possess the following qualities:
(a) Self-confidence;
(b) Courage;
(c) Creativity and
(d) Empathy.
ACTIVITY 10.6
You wanted to set up a grocery stall as one of the prop for the early
childhood learners. What are the materials necessary to set up the prop?
Sketch the lay out of the prop.
SELF-CHECK 10.3
List three activities of role play and three activities of creative drama
which are suitable for young children between the ages of two and six
years old. Elaborate how the activities are to be conducted.
The creativity and mental growth of a child grows at different rate. The
progress of art in a child can be defined according to five stages namely: the
scribble stage, the pre-schematic stage, the schematic stage, transition stage
and realism stage.
Besides support from the teachers and parents in childrens art creativity and
expressions, establishing a proper and conducive environment for them to
experience and experiment their creative art is also very important.
Water, mud and sand play, blocks and woodworking, and cooking and
creative food experiences are activities that not only bring joy to the children
but teach them to be creative, imaginative, promote cooperation among
peers, sharing, acceptance of peoples ideas, self-esteem, confidence and
enhance their learning experiences.
Role play and drama play can build-up a childs self-esteem and help them
experience real life through a prop set up in his or her classroom. This
activity helps a child to communicate and speak as well as improve his or her
vocabulary.
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Cecchini, M. E. (n.d.). Ms, how dramatic play can enhance learning. Retrieved
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Let the children play in the mud. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.
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Ruebush, M. (2009). Why dirt is good: 5 ways to make germs your friends (1st
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Salome, R. A., & Moore, B. E. (n.d.). The 5 stages of development in childrens art,
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