I have been taking an expressive arts course at Pacific University for my masters program and it is amazing! It is a student-centered course designed by professor Mark Bailey to explore artistic expression in early childhood and elementary classrooms. Mark designed it to help aspiring early childhood teachers (like me!) to become knowledgeable about methods for exploring art, music, and physical movement, and help us to become skillful in integrating art, music, and physical exploration activities into our curriculum. He believes that he cannot simply teach us what we need to know about helping children to express themselves artistically. So, in order for us as a cohort to effectively learn about children's expression in school, we have been active participants in the learning process. Not only has it served as a source of stress relief from all of my responsibilities this term through a range of hands-on artistic experiences, but it has helped me see what it can do for children. I have become aware that since artistic expression is not on the standards tests it has been thrown on the back burner of education. Ironically, it is probably one of the most important subjects. Children should be allowed to be children and art allows that. Through art and artistic expression, children get to explore their multiple intelligences, serves as an outlet for stress and anxiety, and is just plain fun! Some of the exciting art activities we have indulged ourselves in to this year is Aboriginal dot art from indigenous Australia, creating and decorating our own masks as a form of taking on the life of another person or culture, experimenting with cohesive bonding (a fancy word for tie dye) and Batik from Bali, rythm and music, movement and dance, and the power of play (as in hopscotch and Twister). Here are some pictures from my adventures in expressive arts class:
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