Guided Observation

Teachers provide an environment and materials to invite and promote children’s engagement in the visual and performing arts.

For example:

Teachers create an aesthetically appealing, comfortable environment in which children can practice art (PCF, p. 47, 60).
Teachers provide both indoor and outdoor environments for creating art (PCF, p. 47, ECERS, p. 28, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 32).
There is sufficient open space for movement, dance, and theater play (PCF, p. 47 and ECERS, p. 15).
Art is displayed at the eye level of the children (PCF, p. 47 and ECERS, p. 14).
Teachers provide books related to music and include storybooks on conductors and orchestras (PCF, p. 65 and 66 and ECERS, p. 23).
Teachers stock music areas with many music materials accessible for children’s use (PCF, p. 66 and ECERS, p. 29).
Teachers incorporate the use of Web sites of children’s music and other age-appropriate software (if available), to engage children’s interest in sound (PCF, p. 68 and ECERS, p. 35).
Teachers provide opportunities for independent and group play through musical play kits, which can be stored in a music area (PCF, p. 81).
Teachers provide costumes, props, and scenery to inspire dramatic play and drama, both indoors and outside. (PCF, p. 96, ECERS, p. 32, Inclusion Works! p. 53, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 89).
A clearly defined dramatic play area is available, with props for at least two different themes and provided to represent diversity accessible for a substantial portion of the day (ECERS, p. 32 and 36, Inclusion Works! p. 18, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 89).
Teachers provide different kinds of dolls in the dramatic play area to encourage more developmentally appropriate play: dolls in various kinds of dress and with different hair, babies and older dolls, boy and girl dolls (Inclusion Works! p. 53).
Teachers provide children with musical instruments, scarves, hula hoops, and other various props to encourage diverse impromptu executions of upper-body movement (PCF, p. 112).
Teachers provide costumes and music to inspire improvisational movement (PCF, p. 113).
Teachers provide three-dimensional art materials at least monthly (PCF, p. 45 and ECERS, p. 28).

Teachers provide routines for arts activities that provide for necessary preparation and cleaning up time to help facilitate learning

For example:

Teachers give children the time and space needed to explore creativity (PCF, p. 60).
Teachers encourage children to reflect on their own work (PCF, p. 53).
Teachers encourage individual expression in use of art materials (ECERS, p. 28)
Teachers create opportunities for children to work with dough, clay, or wet sand (PCF, p. 55, ECERS, p. 10 and 31, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p.37).
Music is available both as a free choice and group activity (ECERS, p. 29).
Teachers use drama-based vocabulary (PCF, p. 89).
Art experiences for preschoolers are more about the process than product (PCF, p. 44 and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 130).
Teachers provide for children four and older to extend art activity over several days (ECERS, p. 28).
Teachers provide children with opportunities to lead music activities (PCF, p. 65, ECERS, p. 29, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 130).
Teachers encourage children to be playful and spontaneous when singing (PCF, p. 73, ECERS, p. 29, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 100).
Teachers encourage children to invent accompaniments with musical instruments (PCF, p. 81 and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 130).
Teachers model and note appropriate ways of using drama materials (PCF, p. 94).

Teachers provide planned learning activities to support children’s participation and development in the arts

For example:

Teachers incorporate chant games and songs (PCF, p. 67, ECERS, p. 29, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 100).
Teachers provide opportunities to move to music while following directions, such as, “Put your hands up, down, in front, in back, to the left, to the right, now wiggle all over” (PEL Guide, p. 87).
Teachers include a variety of songs that related to a particular topic area (PCF, p. 71 and 73 and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 100).
Teachers minimize the use of recorded music when the goal is singing (PCF, p. 74 and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 130).
Teachers incorporate freeze-and-move games as a fun, simple way to help children develop control of the body in space and to learn and practice fundamental loco-motor movements (PCF, p. 78).
Teachers encourage communication around shape and form to aid children’s drawing skills (PCF, p. 54).
Teachers make instruments with the children (PCF, p. 66 and ECERS, p. 29).
Teachers encourage children to create simple rhythm patterns (PCF, p. 67).
Teachers use music storybooks and connect them to related topics (PCF, p. 71 and ECERS, p. 23).
Teachers help children dramatize poetry and nursery rhymes as a fun way to explore and develop vocal inflection and pitch capabilities in the young singer (PCF, p. 73 and PEL Guide, p. 81).
Teachers engage children in movement through danceable storybooks and help them learn basic steps and musical styles of dance (PCF, p. 79 and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 130).
Teachers have the children draw pictures of songs (PCF, p. 82 and PEL Guide, p. 81).
Teachers use movement to introduce and reinforce concepts from other domains (PCF, p. 114 and Inclusion Works!, p. 16).
Teachers use pictures, stories, and trips used to enrich dramatic play (ECERS, p. 32).
Teachers offer a rich variety of purposeful, playful, multisensory experiences with literacy and language, such as repetition accompanied by music or clapping (PEL Guide, p. 85).

Teachers individualize for children learning English, children from diverse cultures, and children with special needs

For example:

Teachers provide adaptations to support the participation of children with disabilities or other special needs. For example, floor easels, nonskid backings on paint trays, loop scissors, etc. (PCF, p. 95, ECERS, p. 16 and 45, Inclusion Works!, p. 14, 39, and 41, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 39).
Incorporate dances that can be performed without moving the entire body (PCF, p. 107).
Teachers respect individual developmental, cultural, and linguistic differences, and encourage children to respect them (PCF, p. 53, ECERS, p. 14, and PEL Guide, p. 28).

Families are encouraged to contribute, enrich and support their child’s artistic development and education in many ways. In addition, families are seen as a rich resource for the preschool program

For example:

Families are encouraged to bring their own visual art to share with the classroom (PCF, p. 62, ECERS p. 46, PEL Guide, p. 40, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 38).
Parents are brought into the preschool program to see the children’s arts display or art is sent home (PCF, p. 62).
Suggestions are made to parents such as try drawing, painting and sculpture with the child at home or notice and talk about works or art seen in the environment when spending time with the child (PCF, p. 62 and PEL Guide, p. 16).
Teachers ask parents to bring art from home and are respectful and open to what different families bring (PCF, p. 62, ECERS p. 46, PEL Guide, p. 40, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 42).
Teachers encourage children to bring their favorite songs and music from home (PCF, p. 85, PEL Guide, p. 40, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 42).
Teachers advocate greater family involvement by sending song sheets home with the child, sharing information about a community concert, or inviting parents to come to the preschool program and play music instruments (PCF, p. 85, ECERS p. 46, PEL Guide, p. 16, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 71).
Teachers invite families to the classroom, care center, or other location to watch or participate in a variety of dramatic experiences with their children, and include family members when appropriate (PCF, p. 99, ECERS p. 46, and PEL Guide, p. 16).
Teachers encourage families to share oral traditions with the children (PCF, p. 99, ECERS p. 46, PEL Guide, p. 43, and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 38).
Teachers provide families with ideas to incorporate dramatic play and music into a variety activities at home (PCF, p. 99, 116 and PEL Guide, p. 16).
Teachers invite parents to the preschool program for a parent-child dance event (PCF, p. 115).
Teachers invite families to share their dance traditions with the school (PCF, p. 116, ECERS p. 46, and PEL Guide, p. 16).
Teachers ask children and their parents to share with the class culturally relevant and teachable rhymes in their native language to serve as tools for building the foundation for phonological awareness skills (PEL Guide, p. 85 and Prekindergarten Learning and Development Guidelines, p. 97).