Caryn

They can relate to their real life experiences through art. If they are learning about fruits and vegetables then you do art activities with them, they will talk about it.They will for example say “we bought apples,watermelon,bananas and broccoli from the store with my Anaana”.

As an ECE worker I can support this by preparing art activities that are interesting and that will be relevant in order to help children communicate.

I like art activities because they are children centred ,they engage them as they interact with the materials.They play part in development of a child in all the domains.

The challenging part with art activities is trying to make a whole group participate.There are individual differences.Some may not want anything to do with painting but they like paper crafts.The other challenge is finding the activities suitable for particular age group especially the infants.Some times resources may not be available for certain activities.I scrubbed my head hard thinking about art activities on a theme”Fairytales” to infants.

I would welcome more advice on how to make art activities using the locally available materials.

Margaret.

ECE workers can support this by being more open for learning about art, promoting it and doing and practicing it at work. What I like about art is I am also learning and enjoying it.Its a good therapy and can make me feel happy and proud that I do little things for me and for the kids.What’s challenging is the material sources.With kids , one thing that challenges me is that sometimes they get bored quickly and they get up few mins after they tried it.

Yes, I want to be a productive educator.I want to know more about how to make recycle materials into art . I think kids gonna be surprised that what they think is garbage can still be useful.

-Mila

As an ECE worker can support this is getting some activities ready and tell the other workers here is an activity to do with the kids. The children love to paint and you can see it in their little faces happy that they are gonna paint.

I love doing art with the kids at daycare. I like it because they say I wanna show my mom and dad or this is for my Anaanna and Ataata. I love doing are with my daycare kids cuz its fun and amazing what they can do and tu use they’re imagination and just draw. I like to see them draw anything it amazes me what they can do and draw and art is a good way to make them be keep busy.

I would want to learn how to do more activities for the kids at daycare and get support from my other co workers to help plan art and activities for the kids.

Lynnda

In my daycare we often play dance music, As soon as the kids hear the song, they start moving their bodies, showing their happiness and excitement.

How can ECE workers support this? As an educator worker , I can support our kids, by providing what materials they need. Show them how they will do it. And praise their work, and always let them feel you are proud of what they are doing. And I will always make sure they have safe spaces.

What I like about doing art activities with them, is seeing how happy their faces are, and I can tell that they really love what they are doing.

The most challenging part is you cannot gather all of them together at the activity area, because each child has different level of focus.

Yes , I would like to learn what other arts activities that kids can express their feelings more.

Vanissa

ECE work can support to incorporate art in their programming and always have art supplies easily accessible. To allow the kids to create what they can according to their abilities, it might not be perfect but it’s their work and they did it. It’s always a joy to see them being proud of their work and some of they even rejoice in doing simple things like drawing a line or sticking eyes in the right place.

I like art that it keeps kids engaged and it showcases their skills and creativity. I am always surprised about what kids come up with and how passionate when they are explains it. Especially if it’s free style drawing.

Sometimes kids are easily discouraged because they cannot do something right and that causes them to be frustrated and then have a meltdown and it takes a while to make them calm down. Having a mixed group is always a challenge to cater to all groups.

I would like to be more creative and have fun encouraging ways to keep the kids going when it gets tough.

Langa

1.. Sometimes craft work can expose children to emotional frustration when they are not satisfied with their art.

2. The children like to use common examples of their immediate surroundings as experience they have and share together in daily life eg imitate a drawing of my father’s truck. 3. Children choose what toys, materials, papers .they like to use for a particular art. Art enable children to try talking , shy children get more involved and start trying to grab words to try expressing themselves. ECE WORKERS CAN SUPPORT ARTS BY ;

1. Providing different types and forms of papers ,materials ,colours, pencils, drawing papers, sand table, pompoms ,empty boxes ,bins , cutting scissors , paint etc.,can enable children make right decisions on what they want to do and achieve by the end of the art.

2.children are asked simple questions during arts work to test their knowledge of understanding of what they are doing or what they what to come out with in the end of the art. Eg, asking them reasons for using for choosing a particular drawing to colour and reasons for their chosen colours.

3 . I shall observe children to support their emotions when they get frustrated during the art by asking if the more material or any form help.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT USING ART FOR COMMUNICATION. 1. It enables me discover hidden talents in children. 2. Builds a healthy relationship between learners and teachers .

3. Children feel complete confidence especially if they realize their arts work at the end of the.

4. Art work is involving, all children participate in different ways and are able to express their feelings , builds interaction between peer.

CHALLENGES. 1.My biggest challenge with arts work is cleaning up and time allocated for that, children get so tired and are bored to start cleaning up.

2. It is hard for me to realize some their arts until they are able to tell me what they made.

3, two my children turn to cry aloud when they ask me to draw for example a car and the drawing does not look like what they expected, that’s funny I know and could be very challenging too.

WHAT I LIKE TO LEARN MORE.

1. A more professional ways and skills in written or planing arts and stories that would enable children communicate more.

2. Try to foster different cultural activities or arts to make them feel at home. 3 use arts that will demonstrate the intention for the arts. GLORY

A child can tell stories with just small dots or lines and while they create, I often hear them talking describing what they’re making, saying things like “This is my house, this is my dog, or We went on the airplane, I saw this and that”. These shows how arts help children communicate their thoughts in different ways and that’s what I love the most. The challenging part with art is children have their own interests that’s why I always try to balance activities to keep everyone engage. For example during our fairytale themed activity, I read them the Repunzel story and we dressed up like a princess and princes in the morning. In the afternoon we painted a braided yarn pretending to be Repunzels hair. Some children enjoyed pretend plays, and some likes to do couloring and some loves to dance. By doing these, I got them express themselves in the way that feels better for them. With this scenarios, I am more eager to learn a creative way of expressing a story through art.

Freda