Children express their learning through many languages:
Art, Music, Drama, Cooking and Gardening
Motor Skills: The arts involve holding a paintbrush, scribbling, cutting, gluing, threading and beading – all essential to the growth of fine motor skills and the ability to write.
Language Development: Making or talking about art integrates reading, writing, and math, through learning color words, shapes, counting, and more.
Decision Making: Art education strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. The experience of making decisions and choices in the course of creating art carries over to every aspect of life.
Visual Learning: Drawing, sculpting with clay and threading beads on a string all develop visual-spatial skills, which are more important than ever. Even before they can read, kids are taking in visual information from pictures and three-dimensional objects from digital media, books and television. At CIJS, students begin observational drawing at the youngest grade level. Not only does this help our youngest students enhance their fine motor skills, but these essentials skills are a crucial part of learning to write because it trains the brain to think about details which translates into being a better writer. The most challenging part of writing is learning to transfer details from our brains to the paper. Therefore, when engaging in these activities from a very early age, we learn to implement these importance skills on a daily basis and becomes second nature.
Inventiveness: When kids are encouraged to express themselves and take risks in creating art, they develop a sense of innovation that is essential to success in their adult lives.
Cultural Awareness: We live in an increasingly diverse society and the images in the media present mixed messages with sometimes racist or sexist meaning. Teaching children to recognize the choices an artist or designer makes in portraying a subject helps them understand that what they see is someone else’s interpretation of reality.
Improved Academic Performance: Studies show that art and academic achievement are connected. There is evidence that young people who regularly engage in the arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in a math and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate (American Academy for the Arts).
CIJS includes the “Wonder of Learning” through the arts as part of the curriculum. These important learning opportunities are integrated in meaningful ways into daily activities. At CIJS, we offer a variety of experiences. Our students use descriptive words to discuss their own creations or to talk about what feelings are elicited when they see different styles of artwork. Students produce theatrical/musical productions on stage, learn to cook, garden, participate in art shows, make water walls, and have access to thousands of educational materials to facilitate their growth.