A Wonderful World of Art
The art area at Buckle My Shoe is one of the busiest hubs throughout the day. Our little ones love to be engaged in this curriculum area as it is the perfect tool to express themselves, their ideas and be hands on!
There are many different types of art that our little ones can engage in and each type brings with it lots of learning and fun!
The Arts have many benefits for children, one of them being that it promotes their creativity. The ever changing world around us is demanding more ‘out of the box’ thinking and engaging in art activities that stimulate the senses, helps children to build neural connections in their brain. Sensory experiences are an outlet for children’s emotions and feelings – making art a great experience to provide for self-regulation and emotional competence in our young ones!
Most art experiences are hands on and require your little one to use different art tools and materials. As they explore and use these, they are enhancing their fine motor skills and their hand-eye coordination.
Holding and controlling a paint brush, gluing collage materials onto a piece of paper, holding and drawing around shapes and objects are just some examples of the different techniques our tamariki are developing while taking part in different art activities.
Art can also be a great tool to help our little ones make connections and express their understanding of themselves and the world around them. Real life drawing is an opportunity for your little one to draw things around them. This is not always easy to do, as it involves the ability to see something in a 3D context and translate that onto paper as a 2D drawing.
As they are drawing a real life object – such as a flower, they are paying attention to the details that make up that object (petals, leaves, stem) and in the process are growing their own knowledge about this object. Portraits are another example of how our little ones use art to make connections and express the world around them.
We are sure every parent will go through a phase where they will see in their child’s artwork, pictures of family members or scenarios they have been in - such as visiting a special place. Your little ones are using art as a tool to communicate, showing their environment and things that are special and meaningful to them.
Have you ever had your little one come home with a piece of art covered in scribbles? Scribbles are the foundation to writing and is one of the first techniques your little one explores as they learn to hold a pencil. As they gain more and more control, they move onto drawing shapes and lines. Shapes and lines are what makes up letters and voila – your little one will have developed the skills to write their name!
Open ended art experiences can also assist with developing decision-making skills as your little one has a variety of different tools and materials to choose from and can think about different ways to use them to create their very own masterpiece.
At Buckle My Shoe, our little ones can explore an endless variety of art experiences, but some favourites are bubble painting, collage, sponge painting, real life drawing, ephemeral art, family portraits, marble painting and using droppers with dye. We believe that the process is where true learning begins and we encourage out little ones to be leaders as they explore different art forms.