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Creative Beginnings Early Childhood Teacher Training

Creative Beginnings is a model for a quality early childhood education which prepares young children for kindergarten. The use of the arts engages students in their learning and allows them to express their creativity and make meaningful choices. Schools and educators that have participated over time have made a fundamental shift in their approach to educating their students and preparing them for kindergarten. They now see that the arts help their students improve language skills and develop a sense of self in ways that other disciplines do not. These schools and educators have made long-term commitments to include the arts in their curriculum so that their students have an advantage when they enter kindergarten. Creative Beginnings and the arts are now part of who they are and influence how they teach in all subject areas.

Creative Beginnings promotes early childhood development and school readiness by training early childhood educators to effectively use the arts as the teaching medium in their classrooms. The reason for the use of the arts is simple. Active learning in preschool at ages 3 and 4 creates the framework for adult success. (Source: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 27, High/Scope Press, 1993.) While learning through other disciplines may often focus on development of a single skill or talent, the arts engage multiple abilities and skills, nurturing the development of reasoning, communication, social and motor skills that enrich and improve all facets of a young person’s life.

Arts Education in Preschool

• Stimulates and develops the child’s imagination and critical thinking
• Strengthens problem-solving skills that lead to overall school success
• Plays a central role in motor, language and social-emotional development
• Promotes social skills and provides an avenue for building competence (Source: Americans for the Arts, 2002; Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections, 1998)

Creative Beginnings focuses on giving teachers the tools to make systemic improvement in the way they support student learning, for both the students in their classroom this year, and the students they will teach throughout their careers. Creative Beginnings teachers explore and develop their own personal creativity and expertise, making them more confident and engaged professionals. On-site mentoring and one-on-one coaching is an essential element in the program's design, and encourages long-term, sustainable change in teaching practices.

Program Goals include:

1. Teachers will use and/or increase their use of open-ended arts activities in the art form they experienced in the residency.
2. Teachers will use and/or increase their use of child-centered arts activities in the art form they experienced in the residency.
3. Teachers will model language with students that encourages thought and reflection about the art form they experienced in the residency.
4. Teachers will report an increase in confidence in implementing creative activities with their students.
5. Teachers will perceive themselves as more creative at the end of the program than when it began.

The Creative Beginnings Program usually involves three days of classroom workshops with a certified YAV trainer and teaching artist, followed by coaching and mentoring as teachers prepare and present their own arts integration lessons. The program can be tailored to each site’s needs.

For more information contact: Our Education Director at 1-800-314-ARTS or at 757-466-7555 in Hampton Roads (extension 311). You may also reach us at info@yav.org.