As a preschool teacher I am privilege to be among a group of early childhood educators who have long recognized the importance of creative

activities. I believe that most of us if not all are passionate about promoting children's creativity. Most early childhood curricula such as mine have a strong focus on creative experiences especially in music, movement and visual arts, because of our acknowledged role in enhancing children's intellectual, social and emotional development. Recently, there has being studies done by neuroscientists who have work in the brain research area, who say that neural pathways in the brain are formed and shaped by early experiences. Some of these early experiences I believe they are talking about are the arts. According to these scientists in the first three to four years in particular, rich experiences are necessary to build the brain's neuro-circuitry. This then influences development and general wellbeing, and later academic performance in school. In the light of evidence about the importance of early experience, children's active engagement in singing, music and movement, storytelling, and art and craft activities is especially significant. All new and sustained experiences help create unique brain connections that have short and long term impacts on developmental pathways. The role of the arts plays a very important role in the lives of young children such as preschoolers. For example children reading and language skills can be develop through the arts. As children sing, dance, paint, enact, listen to and compose music and poetry, they then internalize the rhythms and patterns of our language. Fluency, vocabulary, and phonological abilities enable children to perceive and discriminate subtleties in sounds and patterns. Childrens efforts to break the phonetic code and associate letters, words and phrases with

sounds and meanings are supported. Through the arts children develop mathematics skills. Music can reinforces brain patterns and connections in much the same way as mathematical thinking. As children clap, sing or dance rhythmic patterns and sequences, they develop the spatial reasoning, spatial-temporal reasoning, and patterning skills that are fundamental to solving math problems and creatively engaging in scientific processes. Also, through the arts a childss social and emotional competence can be developed. The desire to pursue and sustain learning is essential to achievement. Thus for children to be successful in school and life, they must want to learn. Skills such as engagement, disciplined and sustained attention, persistence, and risk-taking are practiced and reinforced in a rich arts and movement program. The role of the arts plays an important role in a childs creativity. Through the arts the child learns to dig deeper, learn independence, is open to experience, curious and is expressive. A wide range of the arts and movement experiences strengthen a child ability that affects every aspect of intellectual accomplishment. Without these capacities, poetry, invention, constructions, music and literature would be impossible. Through my years of teaching experience I have come to realized and believe that children who regularly participate in the arts are absent from school less often, have fewer referrals for discipline, and report higher educational aspirations. They also show higher levels of confidence, impulse control, self-identity, problem-solving, conflict resolution skills, empathy, and social tolerance. The role of the teacher is critical in a childs life. Children depend on teachers to be their confidant, colleague, model, instructor, and nurturer of educational experiences. Thus a teacher

of the arts must have a great deal of ideas, must have a positive attitude towards the arts and must be able to plan a variety of art activities which should meet every individual childs needs, in other words a teacher must be rich in teaching. Also, the teacher must be willingly to adapt to the different cultures within his or her classroom. For example globalization and immigration as cause our society to become very diverse thus, within our classrooms today you will find children coming from different cultures, therefore for an arts program environment to be rich the teacher must take into consideration the children who are from these different cultures. In my center we have a large group of Chinese family, thus whenever Chinese New Year come around we try to incorporate this into our theme of study. For example I would explore a lot of literature, music and Chinese folktales. Also I would ask the parents of these children to come in and share their culture with us. I strongly believe that for an arts program to be rich all of the arts should be explored. When this happens children will be more rounded, have a wide variety of experience and have a tremendous amount of skills. Also, I believe that the arts should be integrated with other subject areas. For example, Music can be integrated with Math and drama can be integrated with Literacy. For example a lesson with music and math integrated could be creating a clapping symphony plus fraction math. In this activity children will understand how musical notes relate to fractions, also solving math problems that use musical notes in place of fractions. Materials are very important in making an arts rich early childhood environment. Children love musical instruments from beating a drum out of beat to banging on a piano. Through this experience children learn the different sounds that these instruments make and the music they create. Hence an early childhood program should be equipped with a wide variety of musical instrument. Some of these instruments can be made by the children and teachers; they do not

have to be store bought or they do not have to be expensive. Children love to dress up, thus an early childhood classroom should be equipped with props, dress up clothing and even puppets. During free time and even a structured lesson children should be allowed to explore these freely. The classroom teacher has many responsibilities for the arts in pre-k. Using his or her knowledge of child development, the teacher has the responsibility to set up the classroom, being mindful that children come to pre-school and kindergarten with diverse learning styles and "multiple intelligences." It is the responsibility of the teacher to observe each child during the arts activities. During this time the teacher will learn more about each child through a process of observing the children as they participate in various activities involving the arts. It is the responsibility of the teacher to promote a sense of fairness while exploring the arts. For example if the teacher is doing a reenactment of the fairy tale, Cinderella, most girls here will want to play this character thus it is the teachers responsibility to act in fairness and allow each girl to play the part of Cinderella. By promoting a sense of fairness children will gain confidence and build a positive sense of self-esteem. I believe it is the teachers responsibility to foster an integrated dynamic approach to the arts, be respectful of childrens diverse learning styles, hence providing concrete opportunities for children to explore the arts and recreate their experiences. Lastly it is the responsibility of the teacher through the knowledge of each child, based on observation and responsive care and engagement build partnership and communicate effectively with each childs parent. For a pre-K program to be successful especially in the area of the arts it must have a set of desirable goals. Some of the goals I think that are desirable for a pre-K program are: Goals:

Children should know basic colors, e.g. red, orange, yellow, blue, and green. Children should enjoy mixing and experimenting with paint. Children should participate in and enjoy a variety of hands on art experiences. Children should be able to talk about art work. Children should be able to participate in dance, music, drama and movement activities. Children should be able to express imagination and creativity. Children should be able to use language to express themselves. Children should be able to enjoy dramatic play with peers. Children should be able to keep rhythm with music.

The role of the arts play an important part in a childs development: emotionally, cognitively, socially and physically. As children sing, dance, paint and sculpt, critical links to achievement are coming together. Through the many arts and movement activities, foundational patterns and dispositions needed for success in school and life are set up and reinforced. New experiences are intertwined and anchored within the brain, enabling children to unlock mysteries of our symbol system, make sense of their world, and learn to live and work peaceably with others. Imagine a world without architecture, music, theatre, dance and the visual arts. Most of human culture would not exist if academic ability were the whole of our intelligence. Many ideas, feelings and sensations can only be understood or expressed through arts and movement. Poetry, music, painting, dance, and other arts are not frills to be indulged if time is left over from the real business of education; they are the business of education. (Silberman, 1971) Bibliography Edwards Carol Linda, The Creative Arts, A Process for Teachers and Children.