This article presents an interview with Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld, a longtime early childhood teacher, author, teacher educator, and advocate for integrating the arts with every aspect of the curriculum. In this interview, Chenfeld shares her thoughts about the performing arts: music, dance, and theater. She explains why it is important for young…

What types of theater performances are appropriate for preschoolers? What might toddlers get out of a visit from a cellist who plays a song and demonstrates the different sounds she can make with her instrument? Would inviting a local jazz dance group to perform be beneficial for your early first-graders? The author spoke with a musician, the…

Describes the use of a preschool Parents' Box, a set of activity kits for parents and children to use together, including books, puppets, puzzles, music and dance supplies, and art projects. Provides examples of the labels for the activities, each providing instructions and a suggested age level. Notes that parents and children responded…

Children move the instant they are born and the moment they wake up every morning. Moving is one of the first and most important ways infants and toddlers explore and learn about the world, and this process continues as they grow and develop. Research shows that movement and exercise can spark the growth of new brain cells and facilitate learning…

In 1990, the Settlement Music School Kaleidoscope Preschool Arts Enrichment Program, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, created a preschool program to teach music and other creative arts to three- to five-year-olds. This article describes how the program works: how music teaches language and math, how dance teaches action words and spatial concepts,…

In Kathleen Loomis's preschool classroom at the Bennington College Early Childhood Center, the goal for children is not to produce beautiful and expressive artworks or to learn specific methods of working with art media--although those things do happen. Here, the curriculum is built around the philosophy that learning to think and create with art…

Explores how one first-grade teacher incorporates dance experiences to support lessons across the curriculum. Describes the exploration of basic dance elements; creation of simple dances to support lessons in math, science, and language arts; the study of movement in nature; creation of a dance story; and use of the dance story to produce a…

An approach to teaching fundamental concepts of music and movement is presented through illustration and description. Creative physical and verbal responses are emphasized. (An expanded work by Stecher and McElheny is entitled Musical Arts in the Early Childhood Curriculum). (DR)