Required Areas of Study
Arts Education
The Arts Education program has one major aim: to enable students to understand
and value arts expressions throughout life. Arts Education encompasses the four
strands of dance, drama, music and visual art. The curriculum includes creating,
studying the arts and their role in cultures, and learning how to approach and
respond to works of art and performances. In order to facilitate the integration
that is central to the Kindergarten program, it is critical for Kindergarten
teachers to understand all strands and components of the Elementary Arts Education
program.
The dance strand of the Arts Education Curriculum encourages students
to gain a comprehensive understanding of dance as they learn specific dances,
look at dances and create their own dances. Through these dance experiences,
students will be encouraged to explore, reflect and learn about dance. In developing
dance through the Kindergarten program, it is important to provide students
with opportunities to:
- participate in creative dance, and learn social and cultural dances
- develop their dance techniques and deepen their spatial and kinaesthetic
awareness
- create dances in order to express personal ideas and feelings, and value
their creations as unique expressions
- gain understanding of the relationship between dance in the classroom and
dance in the home and community
- gain understanding and develop appreciation of dance through observation,
reflection and discussion of dances, including various styles experienced
as participant and audience.
The drama strand is designed to provide students with opportunities to:
- increase their understanding of others, themselves and the world around
them
- increase their ability to construct and communicate meaning through language
and action
- deepen understanding of cultural and social traditions
- gain a lasting appreciation of the dramatic art form through critical reflection
upon drama experienced as participant and as audience.
The approach taken to drama in the Arts Education Curriculum is known as "drama
in context". Within the dramatic context, a wide variety of drama (and other)
strategies are used to challenge the students to:
- explore themes
- stretch their thinking
- solve problems
- extend their use of language
- broaden their frames of reference
- deepen their understanding of human behaviour
- gain an understanding of dramatic art form.
The music strand of the Arts Education Curriculum is intended to provide
meaningful experiences that will lead to the development of: musical imagination
(the ability to imagine sounds), musical understanding (the ability to grasp musical
concepts), and musical participation (experiences in creating, listening and performing).
Therefore, musical activities in the Kindergarten program should:
- encourage problem solving and decision making by the students
- be based upon a "sound before symbol" approach to encourage the development
of sound awareness, sound discrimination and sound sensitivity
- encourage understanding of the relationship between music in the classroom
and music in the home and community
- include a broad range of music, from classical to traditional to popular
music in the mass media
- expose students to the music of many different cultures, past and present
- guide students in creating, listening to, discussing and performing music
so that they experience success rather than frustration.
It is important for students to experience visual art as artists and as
audience. As artists, they can use the processes and materials of visual art to
explore their ideas, feelings, cultural identities, observations and imaginations.
As audience, they can see how other artists have expressed their ideas about the
world and their place in the world we all share. In contemporary art (including
painting, print-making, architecture, sculpture, craft, commercial art, film,
video, gallery installations, etc.) we see artists' reflections on the world in
our lifetimes. Through visual art, we come to see and know ourselves.
In developing visual art through the Kindergarten program, it is important
to provide students with opportunities to:
- develop their perceptual abilities
- learn to use the language, methods and materials of visual art
- explore their own and other artists' ideas, feelings, cultural identities,
observations and imaginations through visual art expressions
- examine the role of visual art in cultures and societies, at home and around
the world, past and present
- explore the role of visual images of all kinds in their community and daily
lives
- gain understanding and develop appreciation of visual art by observing and
discussing art works as artist and viewer.