Chapter 12 Nurturing the Imagination

Course Objective #2  Gain knowledge and appreciation of the nature and meaning of the arts, the historical, cultural and social contexts, personal expression, production / performance, and art criticism.

Course Objective #3  Plan and implement developmentally and individually appropriate curriculum and instructional practices based on knowledge of individual children, the community, and curriculum goals and content that honor children’s prior experiences at home and at school.

Course Objective #4  Use and explain the rationale for developmentally appropriate methods that include play, small group projects, open- ended questioning, group discussion, problem solving, cooperative learning and inquiry experiences to help young children develop intellectual curiosity, solve problems and make decisions.

Course Objective #5  Demonstrate current knowledge of and ability to develop and implement meaningful, integrated learning experiences, use the central concepts and tools of inquiry in curriculum content areas including art, music, drama, and movement

The imagination is not just a faculty separate from the mind. It is the mind itself in its entirety Gianni Rodari (1996)

Definition of dramatic arts  Drama could be as formal as children memorizing and performing a theatrical production  Dramatic play is the ability to make-believe and create pretend stories

Piaget’s levels of play 1.Practice play – infants in sensorimotor stage explore and interact with objects using repeated actions 2.Symbolic play – preoperational children imitate action they have seen during make believe scenarios 3.Concrete operational – children play games with preset rules & organized sports, or re-enact stories they already know

Vygotsky and Play  Make believe only possible with emergence of abstract thought  Play promotes learning as children practice social behaviors in safe environment  Bruner and Sutton-Smith agree that play is a way to learn and think

Power of Play  Children learn about the world  Active  Intrinsically motivating  Integrates everything children know  Promotes longer attention spans and allows children to pursue interests more deeply  Develops creatively, social, emotionally & cognitively  Fun way to learn

Dramatic Arts and Developmental Growth  Physical  Social  Cognitive  Language skills  Emotional  Drama concepts & skills

How children develop through dramatic arts Proficiency in oral language and body control How to use costumes, props & settings Aesthetically organized & creative presentation of a message or story By age of 5 years most children capable of creating & performing complex stories, often sustaining them over an extended period of time

Using dramatic arts to assess growth  Content knowledge  Critical and creative thinking  Physical control  Language development

Meeting special needs  Auditory needs  Visual needs  Accepting differences

Sequence of development in dramatic arts (p. 393) Preschool: constructive play w/ blocks, sand, etc. w/ other children w/ increasing interaction uses voice to match character play more fictional, can pretend, imaginary playmates, role-play imaginary characters play more fictional, can pretend, imaginary playmates, role-play imaginary characters retell, invent & acts out stories w/ simple plots, invented stories incorporate ideas from familiar stories

Sequence of development in dramatic arts (p. 393) Kindergarten more orderly object & constructive play cooperative play w/ shared purpose talks about their play fantasy play is more complex & fluid uses invented spelling & drawing to tell a story

Sequence of development in dramatic arts (p. 393) Primary construction more complex, creates props, likes games w/ rules enacts roles & assigns roles in logical, fair ways increased control over voice evaluates dramatic performance can use dissimilar objects to represent others, knows difference between real & pretend, daydreaming replaces pretend play writes invented stories from experience or picture, stories have elaborate plots, scripts for drama & puppet shows

Designing dramatic arts activities  Informal dramatic play  Play Centers  Addressing diversity  Adults may facilitate with words, props, modeling, rules, etc.  Prop boxes, designated areas  Play centers, antibias props, selected dolls, added diversity to prop boxes

Developing the imagination  Mental imagery –Reduces stress, fear & pain  Planning guided imagery activities –For children who have learned to fantasize & can remember what they have imagined –Mind pictures, memory pictures, imagining the familiar, trips of the imagination, expressing mental images

Pantomime  Acting out without words  Descriptive pantomimes – gradually longer and more involved  Planning pantomimes – space, audience, props, seeing everyone, can everyone see and hear you, building on children’s skills, clear rules

Pantomime  Infants & Toddlers – doing things (Mulberry Bush), being things (walk like a lion), being silly, playing with props  Preschoolers/Kndgt. – pretend within normal fantasy play, how would? Inside the picture, re-vision it, be someone, statues would? Inside the picture, re-vision it, be someone, statues  Primary – messages, invisible objects, who or what or where am I? slow motion, tableaus (hold pose), verbs

Improvisation Experience  Representation of an idea through movement and words  Descriptive improvisation  Role-plays  Props – often help people relax in roles and not worry about speaking  Masks

Improvisation  Infants & Toddlers - Faces and sounds, picture perfect  Preschool/Kndgt. – sound effects, clown around  Primary – card readers, do as I say, talk back

Story Play (or narrative drama) Experience  Characters, verbal expression, use of the body, plot, conflict, setting, mood  Finger plays – little stories to catchy rhymes  Storytelling/retelling – ancient art form was way to preserve and relay history and culture  Narrative drama – physical retelling of familiar poems, fables, nursery rhymes & stories  Puppetry - inanimate object brought to life through manipulation

Storytelling  Infants & Toddlers – family stories, read stories, tell me  Preschool/Kndgt. – family & school storeis, retell, puppets, masks, take a role, draw it  Primary – story jar, odd pairs, everyone’s story, one word, “what would happen if …?” describe it, setting easel

Costumes, hats & jewelry

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, Imagination encircles the world. I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, Imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein

For next week April 27th Post reflection on wiki Review (look at Appendix A on Safety) Make puppet(s) Make scenery, props, etc. Record music, make aids to increase participation of classmates Write puppet show script from familiar story Practice puppet show with your team