Children are natural investigators and love to explore the world around them. Since 1993, Studio in a School has provided visual arts instruction through our Early Childhood (EC) program that focuses on exploration and discovery of painting, drawing, collage, and clay. Our EC program is designed to nurture creativity while building foundational skill such as close looking, making expressive choices, improving fine motor skills, developing focus and critical thinking, and building social-emotional skills such as collaboration and perseverance. Through Studio’s approach, children are also encouraged to talk about their art making process and learn to ask questions and engage in conversations that help provide the foundation for their emerging language and literacy skills.
In addition, our EC program offers intensive training and hands-on mentoring in visual arts instruction for early childhood educators to provide on-site mentoring in centers and schools throughout the city, where they coach teachers on activating their art centers, displaying children’s work, and providing workshops for parents. Early childhood teachers and supervisors report that working with Studio’s artist instructors has helped them enrich their classrooms and develop a sustainable visual arts curriculum which benefit children for years to come.
EXPLORE
Littlest learners explore painting, collage, drawing, and clay. Artist Instructors encourage open-ended exploration of materials and encourage process-oriented art making. Through inquiry-based lessons, Studio curriculum scaffolds skills that develop children’s confidence in their own creativity.
DISCOVER
When children make art, they discover fundamental principles such as mixing colors, making clay stand up, and arranging shapes into a design. They also learn problem-solving as they discover the properties and possibilities of the materials. Additionally, children develop appreciation for other points of view as classes work together, then share reflections on their work.
CREATE
Studio’s approach to art making sparks imagination while building essential skills such as holding a paint brush and learning to mix colors. We give children the space and time to make creative choices and experience the joy of art making.
LEARN
Through art making, children not only learn to make choices about materials, but they learn about their own preferences. Artist Instructors encourages close looking and teaches new vocabulary that encourages students to describe what they see. Through our inquiry-based approach, children engage, focus, persist, and take chances. Most importantly, they learn they can create what they’re capable of, which gives them the confidence, sparks their curiosity, and nurtures their excitement about learning.
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