Expressive Arts
What are Expressive Arts?
Expressive arts provides both practical and experiential opportunities for children to develop imagination, creativity, and aesthetic talents.
Involvement in expressive arts enables children to develop specific skills and techniques, whilst providing opportunities to develop understanding and appreciation of culture within both Scotland and the wider world.
Expressive arts encompass five different elements:
Participation in Performances & Presentations
Children have the opportunity to experience the energy and excitement of presenting to and performing for audiences, as well as being part of an audience. In Early Years, this can include: singing songs, creating art work for display, and performing short improvised dramas for small groups of peers.
Art & Design
Through having opportunities to explore, design, and create using a range of materials, media, and technologies, children can experience inspiration and enjoyment.
In Early Years, this can include: creating individual art work using a range of resources, designing and creating models, and developing knowledge of artists and designers.
Dance
Dance provides opportunity to choose and explore ways to move rhythmically, expressively, and playfully. This contributes to physical activity, physical development, enhanced quality of movement, and the advancement of technical skills.
Drama
Drama involves children exploring how to use their voice, movement, and expression to explore both real and imaginary situations that help them to understand and share their world.
In Early Years, this can include the re-enactment of familiar stories and exploration of real-life experiences through role-play, which is supported through home-corner, small-world, and dressing-up provision. To an extent, this can tie in with ‘participation in performances and presentations.’
Music
Through performing and creating music children can explore sounds and musical concepts whilst developing their vocal and instrumental skills. Children have the opportunity to use their voice, musical instruments, and music technology to enjoy playing with sound and rhythm.
In Early Years, this includes singing, playing along to, and learning about music of different styles and cultures.
Why do Expressive Arts matter?
Children can be inspired by the experiences offered within expressive arts, sparking their imagination, thoughts, and ideas.
Expressive arts play a central role in shaping our sense of personal, social and cultural identity. Learning in the expressive arts also plays an important role in supporting children and young people to recognise and value the variety and vitality of culture locally, nationally and globally.”
There are no limits within expressive arts, nor is there any expectation for the end result, the main focus being on the process and the learning that has been achieved from par-taking in the experiences.
Not only can children develop and enhance their creative thinking during expressive arts, these experiences can also build on and develop skills within other curricular areas.
Expressive arts can support children to develop a range of creative skills, including: curiosity, open-mindedness, imagination, and problem solving. These skills contribute to children’s confidence, ambition, and positive self-esteem.
How can I support Expressive Arts?
Expressive arts and creativity are best supported through provision of a rich, child-centred environment that offers children freedom to make choices about what they do and how they do it. This involves all core provision areas being well maintained and resourced, as well as ensuring that areas remain inspiring, inviting, and capable of providing an appropriate level of challenge.
Practitioners should remain mindful that expressive arts do not centre around an ‘end goal’ or production of a finished piece. Creativity is a process that requires exploration, experimentation, and making mistakes. It’s important that practitioners embrace this ethos in order to support children on their creative journey.
Additionally, the outdoor environment provides a unique and infinite collection of resources natural resources that both promote and inspire children’s creativity, imagination, investigation, and problem-solving.
Children’s creativity can be supported by ensuring that they have access to the natural environment’s versatile canvas and collection of resources that afford opportunities for art, construction, design, music, and performance.
