Why I support product arts in early education


Before answering my own question I think it is important to make clarification about the difference between proceed arts and product arts in early education. The main purpose of the product arts is to support fine motor and executive function skills while the processed art emphasizes on inspiring creativity and exploration. 


So.what is produced arts? It is simple! The child knows what the “product” looks like when they begin the project. It is led by a teacher and a child is required to process the given instructions or perform certain specific techniques to achieve the end goal. To me, in the early education setting, product arts not only provide structure but also flexibility and variety. What does it mean? 


1. Variety in material and techniques


When the center chooses the arts and crafts, various materials and agents are considered to keep children engaged and excited. For example, we made a beehive with a piece of bubble wrap with yellow paint. My little ones love to see how the bubble wrap to create “bubbles” as a hive on the paper. To make a rainbow, a child colored on a coffee filter,  used a dropper to spread water on it and observed how the colors blended into a “rainbow.” The other example is that we create “monkeys” on the branches by using handprints and fingerprints. Most of the children had fun brushing brown paint on their hand because it “tickled!’


2. Flexibility in choices 

I also like children to have options and make their decisions. Children still foster their independence and decision-making skills through the project. For example, on the beehive,they could decide where and how many bees they wanted.  In the “gray sky,” they added the raindrops and lightning in their arrangement. While making fireworks by using  paper rolls, the little ones picked their choices of colors and decided where to stamp them on the paper. 





So, variety and flexibility in product arts surly promote fine motor and executive function skills. By incorporating various materials and using different tools to create arts and crafts not only strengthens their hand muscles but also stimulates their network in their brains. Moreover, it helps the young children in cognitive development and enjoyable learning experience. 

Comments

  1. EuniceJuly 12, 2024 at 2:40 AM

    I love your ideas! Children have their own choice to decide as well as to try out how everything works out at the end. Awesome 😎!

    ReplyDelete

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