The Visual Arts

It is important that children have the chance to explore the arts from a young age. The arts not only provide enjoyment and pleasure, but they develop the mind and help the pupils to think. The arts also help the children develop personal qualities,  provide insight into human situations and also the arts improve performance in other subject areas ( Fleming , 2012).

From an early age children enjoy making marks. This is closely linked with a number of stage theories by the work of Lowenfield and Brittain (1987). The 4 stages are closely linked with children’s age for example the pre-schematic stage is where children from ages 4-7 are seen to perform. However, as the times have moved, as educators we tend not to slot children into these stages as we appreciate that children come from different backgrounds, cultures and often progress at different times as one another.

In today’s seminar, we had the chance to look at children’s art work that had been collected over the years. The art work was placed on three tables, and each table was specific to an age group. For example, table 1 had work from the early years ages 3-5, table 2 middle primary school around primary 2-4 and the table 3, the upper school p5 to p7. We were able to explore the work and see the progress of the work as the child grows older.

At table 1, I noticed that a lot of the art work contained just scribbles which I read up on and figured out this was named mark marking. When children fist begin to put pen to paper, they are seen to make marks. Children find it easy to communicate through mark making and can often tell a story through the random marks that they have made on a page. Some children even find it easier to draw to express their feelings rather than using the spoken word. These marks are often referred to as meaning making ( Matthews, 2003). It is important as educators that we don’t just ignore these scribbles, but we ask the child what their picture is about.

As children move through each stage, they often become obsessed with their work being perfect. When children reach the second level ( the gang stage) they often want their work to stand out, and be as artistic as possible.

As the child progresses, attention to detail becomes more significant (McAuliffe, 2007). In this portrait, you can see that the child is paid great attention to detail and put a lot of work into the piece. As children also progress, they often pay attention and start to notice other children’s work that can make them feel self conscious about their own.  It is important as educators that we encourage children to be creative and unique, and let them understand that everyone’s piece of art will be different.

It is important that we also make cross curricular links with the expressive arts. As numeracy and literacy often take priorities in the classroom, it is important that we can incorporate the arts into these areas of the curriculum. This may help children understand areas that are more difficult for them, and they may also find enjoyment in an area of difficulty. As educators we can set different tasks for example giving children a story and then asking the children to draw pictures over the words which might engage the children. We want children to express their literacy and numeracy through art. I was able to witness this in a few of the children’s drawings in the seminar :

This clearly shows how the arts has been integrated into other areas of the curriculum, in these examples literacy and religious education.

 

Music

The introduction to music in today’s workshop was very interactive and fun! The workshop was based on different types of music and how it made us feel.

The lecture began by 5 different pieces of music being played and we were to write down how it made us feel. We then had a whole class discussion which was interesting as we all had written down different answers. After this, we then were played another piece of music. In groups, we were to create a story board that linked with the music. This was a great task as it allowed us to share our ideas, and create a completely random story. When discussing our stories at the end of the seminar, everyone had came up with near enough the same storylines.

We can use music through out the curriculum. After creating the story board, we could of went on and created a creative piece of writing that was inspired by the music we have just listened to. It is important that we understand that both music and arts can be integrated through other areas such as literacy.

 

 

References :

McAauliffe,D. (2007) Foundation and Primary Settings. In Teaching Art and Design 3-11. (Edited by Sue Cox, Robert Watts, Judy Grahame, Steve Heme and Diarmuid McAuliffe) London : Continuum.

Matthews, J. (2003) Drawing and Painting. Children and Visual Representation. 1st ed. London : SAGE publications.

Fleming, M (2012) The Arts in Education. An introduction to aesthetics, theory and pedagogy. London : Routledge.