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North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development

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Goal CD-4: Children demonstrate appreciation for different forms of artistic expression.

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Goal CD-4: Children demonstrate appreciation for different forms of artistic expression.

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Participate in and describe art, music, dance, drama, or other aesthetic experiences (describe dancers spinning round and round; talk about colors in a painting). CD-4f

Express pleasure in different forms of art (call something “pretty,” express preferences, choose to look at book of photographs or listen to music again). CD-4e

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Goal APL-4: Children demonstrate creativity, imagination, and inventiveness.

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Goal APL-4: Children demonstrate creativity, imagination, and inventiveness.

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Do new things with familiar objects or combine them in unusual ways (use a dress-up boa as a snake, pound a drum with a plastic bottle, try to stack bears). APL-4e

Pretend one object is really something different (use Legos® as food while stirring a pot). APL-4g

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Goal CD-5: Children demonstrate self-expression and creativity in a variety of forms and contexts, including play, visual arts, music, drama, and dance.

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Goal CD-5: Children demonstrate self-expression and creativity in a variety of forms and contexts, including play, visual arts, music, drama, and dance.

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Explore art materials freely (make marks, squeeze clay, tear paper). CD-5f

Experiment and create art with clay, crayons, markers, paint, and collage materials. CD-5j

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1. Free

2. Imagination

3. Experiment

4. Experience

5. Movement

6. Color

7. Creativity

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1. What would happen if you colored in the same spot with another color?

2. How many crayons would you like?

3. What would happen if we ran our hand over the paint?

4. What song would you like to dance to?

5. Could you use the chalk on the tree bark?

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This paint can be used on a variety of materials such as paint or the sidewalk. The toddlers can use the paint on the sidewalk to create a picture and afterwards, water can be used to show the children how the colors disappear.

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Tissue paper can be cut into pieces and used in a collage. It can be placed on contact paper or regular paper with glue.

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Chalk can be used to draw on a number of materials. It can be used on brick, sidewalk, and paper. Children are then able to compare the amount of effort it took to color on each surface.

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Food coloring is a fun way to teach toddlers about how colors mix. It can be added to water to create different colors.

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Toddlers can use the dishes to create their own "meals" using materials they find around the area.

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Toddlers can use river rocks to stack or use to paint. If used all rocks must be inspected to ensure that they are not choking hazards.

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Water is a great creative material if you don't mind mess! Toddlers can dance on shallow puddles, create water paintings, and can use it to mix with dirt. If used make sure the water is not deep enough for a toddler to trip and constant supervision is needed.

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Toddlers love to dance to Baby Shark! They can create their own dance moves or follow along to the classic dance moves!

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This song is a lot of fun! Toddlers can make their own dance moves while learning to listen and follow along to the dance moves.

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This song is another favorite for toddlers! They can use their body to become dinosaurs.

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We Are The Dinosaurs 🦕 Best Kids Dinosaur Song by The Laurie Berkner Band (20th Year Edition)

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In this article by NAEYC, the importance of water and sand play is expressed. It is an open-ended material which fosters creativity in young children and allows them to work on without having an end-goal in mind.

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The sand table and the water table can be two of the most popular areas of the classroom for young children, but it is important to remember that these areas are essential to the classroom for higher-level learning.

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This article talks about how important music and dance is for a child's development. It allows for a child to get better control of their body, allows for self-expression, and boosts creativity.

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We all know that music and dancing are fun activities. Children love to move around and make noise, but did you know it's also an important part of their development? Dancing, singing and playing music are part of a child's process of growing up and learning what their bodies can do. It also teaches children how to interact with other people, objects and the world around them.
What happens when a child sings or dances?
According to the QLD Department of Education and Training, regular movement experiences help children to develop movement control, coordination and strength. The DET have outlined the importance of getting children moving, unstructured play and playing music, and ways to help your child do these activities.

Children begin to make sense of sounds before they leave the womb and the first response to it is through movement of their body.

When a child dances, they learn about how their body can move. They experiment with travelling motions such as walking, sliding and jumping, as well as other movements like twisting, bobbing and bending. Dancing uses different muscles than simply standing and walking around does, which strengthens them. Through dance, children learn to coordinate and control their bodies and the movement helps them develop spatial awareness.

If children are copying an adult or learning a set dance such as 'the chicken dance', their listening and understanding skills will be improved. They will also begin to pay more attention to others sharing the space.

Singing is one way children can understand language and sound. Through singing, they will improve their vocabulary and communication skills. Rhyming in songs provides exercise for the brain and develops valuable memory skills. We all learned our ABC's through a song! Singing also improves lung function and increases blood flow.
Why your child should play music
When creating music children become much more engaged than when they just listen. Singing and using instruments boosts their creativity and can easily be done in groups to improve their social skills and help them bond with others. You don't need to send your child to structured music lessons to get the benefits. You can buy great children's musical instruments like a glockenspiel that they can bang on to their hearts content, or create your own for a fun family craft activity! All it takes is some rice inside a container to make a shaker, or an ice cream tub for a drum.

Playing music, singing and dancing is extremely important for children's self-expression. Children can't always communicate their feelings through words, so it's useful for them to have a healthy outlet for their emotions.

Get your child singing, dancing and playing music. It will benefit their development in so many ways and you'll both be sure to have fun too!

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ymca victoria | ymca children's programs

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We all know that music and dancing are fun activities. Children love to move around and make noise, but did you know it's also an important part of their development? Dancing, singing and playing music are part of a child's process of growing up and learning what their bodies can do.

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For this lesson the book "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds can be read aloud. Afterwards, dotters will be handed out to the toddlers for them to stamp on a circle piece of paper. This nurtures creativity by allowing the toddlers to mix colors and place the dots wherever they would like.

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Inspired by the book “The Dot” by Peter Reynolds, students create their own dot “painting” using Crayola Twistable Slick Stix.

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For this lesson plan the toddlers will be able to decorate their own apron. The apron does not have to be for the child's father but the lesson can be modified for the toddlers to make an apron for themselves or someone in their family. This fosters creativity by allowing the children to use a variety of fabric materials to design their own apron.

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An Apron for Chef Daddy If daddy loves to spend time in the kitchen, then this is just the perfect gift for him this Father's Day! Make him an apron that's easy to create and great as a gift!

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This article by Bright Horizons talks about the importance of pretend play. Children are able to use their imaginations to create their own scenarios. This fosters creativity by giving the children the freedom to play with materials in their own way and solve problems creatively.

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Does your child love pretending? Find out how pretend play can spur child development, while learning new dramatic play ideas, activities and games. In the midst of creating a restaurant together, clomping around in grown-up shoes, or twirling around with friends in a fairytale land, children are learning to solve problems, coordinate, cooperate, and think flexibly.

Where can you find police officers, veterinarians, office workers, princesses, karate instructors, and chefs all happily working side-by-side? In the dramatic play area of a child's classroom, of course.

Many assume that fun and imaginative pretend play - in classrooms or at home - has limited educational value. But that's hardly the case! The truth is, in the midst of creating a restaurant together, clomping around in grown-up shoes, or twirling around with friends in a fairytale land, children are learning to solve problems, coordinate, cooperate, and think flexibly. Imagine the skills required to turn the sandbox into a dinosaur bone excavation site!

Dr. Scott Kaufman emphasizes the value of pretend play in his 2012 Psychology Today article stating that, "Systematic research has increasingly demonstrated a series of clear benefits of children's engagement in pretend games from the ages of about two and one half through ages six or seven."

WHAT IS PRETEND PLAY AND HOW DOES IT HELP CHILDREN LEARN?

Pretending is important in child development. Through pretend play, children:

Learn about themselves and the world. Dramatic play experiences are some of the first ways children learn about their likes and dislikes, their interests, and their abilities. They experiment with role playing and work to make sense out of what they've observed. Just watch children playing with dolls to see examples of this. Dolls often become versions of the child himself and are a safe way for children to express new ideas and feelings.

Work out confusing, scary, or new life issues. Have you ever witnessed children pretending to visit the doctor? One child dutifully holds the mock stethoscope as the others line up for a check-up. More often than not someone gets 'shots'. This is a child's way of exploring an experience that is common and sometimes confusing or scary. Through these role plays, children become more comfortable and prepared for life events in a safe way. Children often use pretend play to work out more personal challenging life events too, whether it is coping with an illness in the family, the absence of a parent or divorce, or a house fire.

Develop important complex social and higher order thinking skills. Pretend play is much more than simple play activities; it requires advanced thinking strategies, communication, and social skills. Through pretend play, children learn to do things like negotiate, consider others' perspectives, transfer knowledge from one situation to another, delay gratification, balance their own ideas with others, develop a plan and act on it, explore symbolism, express and listen to thoughts and ideas, assign tasks and roles, and synthesize different information and ideas. In this creative play description, we could just as easily be describing the skills needed to successfully manage a work project for an adult as describing children's pretend play.

Cultivate social and emotional intelligence. How we interact with others is key to our lifelong success and happiness. Knowing how to read social cues, recognize and regulate emotions, negotiate and take turns, and engage in a long-term activity that is mutually beneficial are no easy tasks. There is no substitute for creative and imaginative play when it comes to teaching and enhancing these abilities in children.

Synthesize knowledge and skills. Because learning and child development doesn't happen in discrete pockets of time or during isolated activities, children need opportunities to blend their skills and knowledge together. Pretend play is an ideal way to do this. Think of children playing 'grocery' store. They sort by attributes as they group similar foods in sections of the store, use math concepts to tabulate amounts as they determine prices and calculate grocery bills, use writing to communicate by making signs, experiment with shapes and weights as they organize the store, work collaboratively as they assign roles and play together, and much more.

DRAMATIC PLAY IDEAS & ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN

As a parent or caregiver, you further encourage learning skills and child development as kids engage in pretending. Here are a few children's activities and tips for pretend play.

Use stories: Invite your children to recreate a favorite story or take it further and add their own twist. During your pretending game, prompt their ideas by asking questions like: "What do you think happened next?" and "What if the dog didn't find his bone?"

Provide dolls and puppets: Make sure your child has ample and regular access to things like dolls, stuffed animals, or puppets. These don't have to be store-bought; they can be cut out of paper or made from socks. Through imaginative play, children easily ascribe feelings and ideas to these 'people' and 'animals' and often use them to express, explore and work out their own ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Create "prop boxes": Prop boxes are something most high-quality early childhood programs have plenty of. They are boxes (or bins, crates, or bags) with themed dramatic play materials in them. It's like having a creative experience in a box. Examples of popular prop boxes are a flower shop, office, restaurant, post office, and shoe store. Have a few materials in prop boxes and let your children's creativity take it from there.

Make time: No material, environment, or story can take the place of uninterrupted time to play and explore ideas. Pretend play doesn't fit nicely into twenty minute segments. Be ok with leaving a post office in the living room for a few days to allow your children to fully explore and enhance their creative explorations.

As children's time is taken up more and more with scheduled activities, it is important to consider what they are losing when they miss out on pretend play. In many ways, a few hours creating pretend ponies and galloping around the yard with fellow cowboys and cowgirls is as developmentally essential as any other pursuit. So next time you see your children engaged in pretend play, don't rush them to homework, cleaning their room, or piano practice. Allow time for them to build a rocket ship from chairs and blankets and pretend they're astronauts; it's time well spent. You might consider crafting a space helmet from foil and a bowl and joining in!

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The Importance of Pretend Play in Child Development

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Does your child love pretending? Find out how pretend play can spur child development, while learning new dramatic play ideas, activities and games. In the midst of creating a restaurant together, clomping around in grown-up shoes, or twirling around with friends in a fairytale land, children are learning to solve problems, coordinate, cooperate, and think flexibly.