Art and the early learning journey In her book "Art in the Early Years", Kristen Ali Eglington writes that ‘the visual arts provide a place for the child to look, think, understand and learn’ (p.7). These skills are not confined to art, but are valuable to a child’s broader learning journey. One of the EYFS * key points is to see children ‘using senses to explore the world around them’ (Playing and Exploring – engagement, p.6). Artistic experiences encourage children to use all their senses, to really see things, to feel new textures, to respond to sounds and smells. An artistic process involves making connections between ideas and solving creative problems. The EYFS suggests children should be ‘making links and noticing patterns in their experience’ (Creating and Thinking Critically – thinking, p.7). Practitioners are advised that ‘talking aloud helps children think and control what they do’ (Creating and Thinking Critically – thinking, p.7). This can be seen as children talk about the art they are engaged in, either to themselves, with each other or with an adult. Art can be individual or collaborative, and children learn to cooperate and to evaluate their work and the work of others, giving and accepting praise. The EYFS asks practitioners to ‘encourage children to learn together and from each other’ (Active Learning - motivation, p.6). Practitioners need to ‘notice what arouses children’s curiosity, looking for signs of deep involvement to identify learning that is intrinsically motivated’ (Active Learning – motivation, p.6). With thoughtful practitioner involvement in art, children experience inspiration and self-expression led by their own interests and an appreciation of beauty in new and in everyday things. John Matthews sums up the wider implications of art in the early years as ‘an intellectual journey which has musical, linguistic, logical and mathematical as well as aesthetic aspects’ (p.16) The process and the product The process is the key part of a child’s early art experiences. During the process of making and creating they talk things through, practise a skill, solve a problem, and develop an idea. None of this can happen if a child bypasses the process because of an overly structured activity or access to resources without adult involvement. Eglington describes the process as ‘a series of steps’ (p.20). These steps are individual to the child and the goal they are working towards. The practitioner’s skill lies in guiding, discussing and participating in an artistic process with the child while remaining open-minded about the end product. Each child will have their own expectations about how their finished work will look. Matthews suggests that for the child there is ‘a dynamic balance between what he wants to do and how it turns out’ (p.25). In other words a child’s expectations will be constantly changing as they experiment and explore the artistic process. The practitioner needs to let go of the end product and realise that a process can lead to quite a few different and equally valid endings (Eglington). This process-based approach may need to be discussed with parents and carers so that they understand the learning that takes place and can adjust their own expectations of an end product. The Practitioner’s role The adults in the early years environment set the tone for learning and discovery in art. Matthews writes that ‘the overall direction of the child’s developmental journey, each twist and turn from moment to moment, is influenced by the responses of surrounding people...’ (p.20). A perceptive practitioner will think about when and how to give praise or instruction so that the child’s experience is enhanced. They will be inspired and get excited alongside the children and provide art resources and extend activities according to a child’s interests. For example, there may be a group of children who play extensively with wheeled toys. The practitioner shows them how she discovered that wheeling her bike through a puddle left some tracks. Together they wheel a large tyre through puddles outside and examine the patterns. Later, indoors, they do the same with toy cars and paint. The next day they take photographs of different sorts of wheels to put in their sketchbook, and look at wheels through magnifying glasses. The practitioner brings her bike indoors and they talk about tires and spokes before drawing one of the bike wheels. This approach can provide a planning challenge. Eglington acknowledges that planning needs to take place, but points out that ‘a plan is a sketch, malleable, adaptable and flexible’ (p.26), and the EYFS says staff should ‘help children to gain confidence in their own way of representing ideas’ (Expressive arts and design: Being Imaginative, p.46). Planning needs to allow room for children to change the direction of the original activity, while holding in mind the skills and development they should be experiencing. Inspiration Artistic experiences can be motivated by an enormous variety of things. The key is to excite the children, to find the beauty in something, to be inspired. The work of famous artists, favourite stories, music, a child’s particular interests, imagination, nature, constructed spaces, accessible resources or movement are just some of the possible starting points for art work (Eglington). Children are very good at seeing artistic possibilities in unusual places, as Matthew’s explains: ‘Children engage in activities and use materials which people do not normally see as art’ (p.9). He says that children naturally express themselves through movement, jumping, running, dancing and singing. Enhancing this kinetic ability in their art work can be done by working on a big scale, painting the fence with water and big brushes, drawing lines on the pavement with chalk, dancing footprints across paper, or circling hands through corn flour in a tray to leave spirals. Resources The EYFS says settings should ‘make materials accessible so that children are able to imagine and develop their projects and ideas while they are still fresh in their minds and important to them’ (Expressive arts and design: Being Imaginative, p.46). However, accessible resources do not make rich experiences on their own, and practitioners need to be involved with making choices and creative thinking (Eglington). Resources should be varied, interesting and have a variety of possible uses. Children will need time to experiment with different media, allowing them to understand how they can be used - the effect of adding more water to watercolour paints, or smudging chalk. The opportunity to work on a small and large scale, and inside and outdoors extends children’s art experiences. Keeping Sketchbooks A sketchbook is a place for storing ideas, keeping inspirations, recording interests, having a go, making a plan. A skeleton of a leaf found on the way to school, a picture cut from a magazine, a postcard form Grandma, a drawing of the train they took at the weekend, a photograph of their scooter, lots of photos of different wheels, some fabric they really like the feel of, a plan of how they are going to make a castle out of boxes, a photo of the finished construction: the list of what a child can put in their sketchbook is endless. It does not need to be expensively resourced. It can be made by the child out of folded card and paper and kept where the child can access it whenever they like. It is a good idea for the practitioner to model keeping their own sketchbook so that the children begin to see how they are used and valued as personal and special. Encourage the children to take them out and look at them with each other and their grown-ups. Talk about the interests that are shown by the sketchbooks – a child may have collected lots of round things, soft things, natural pictures and objects, or lots of red things. This can support planning for further art opportunities. Display Displaying children’s art work can lead to the emphasis being on the end product. But there are lots of ways to use display to celebrate the process. The children might like to have an area for spontaneous display where they pin up work they have just done. Displays can include photographs of how they did something, the materials they used or the plans they made. A slide show using photographs of the children involved in art work could be on view at times when parents and carers are at the setting to promote talking with the children about their art experiences. Work in progress needs to be kept somewhere, and this in itself is a form of display, as the EYFS suggests: ‘Have a holding bay where models and works can be retained for a period for children to enjoy, develop, or refer to’ (Expressive Arts and Design, p.44). Children can help to display their work, deciding on a background, positioning the work and what any writing should say. If an art project has really taken off the children could hold an exhibition of their work, including the process from start to finish, and invite parents and carers to come. Celebrating the children’s work in all these ways develops an atmosphere of industry and creativity. For adults and children alike the emphasis should be on having a go at art in all its forms and enjoying the journey of discovery together. * all references to the revised EYFS, statutory from September 2012 References Helping Children to Draw and Paint in Early Childhood; children and visual representation, John Matthews, ed. Tina Bruce, Hodder and Stoughton, 1999 Art in the Early Years, Kristen Ali Eglington, Routlege Falmer, 2003 Development Matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage, 2012
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