Every scribble tells a story in Snakes Room
It may look like just a whole lot of scribbles to you, but drawing is an important part of children’s development. Every scribble tells a story.
The benefits of drawing and adult intervention can both hinder and support young children’s creativity and self-image.
How to encourage creativity, skills and confidence
We value every child’s individuality and originality. To support this we:
- Evoke artistic expression from within the child. (There is no right or wrong in artistic expression because art comes from within).
- Provide every child the opportunity to try out original ideas which serves their own intentions.
- Place our focus of children’s art ‘on the process’ rather than ‘focusing on the end product’.
Why is drawing important for children’s development?
Drawing is an especially important outlet for children who do not yet have the verbal skills to communicate their feelings.
Children sometimes draw to express what they are feeling and thinking.
When a child draws something familiar to them, for example, a pet, they have the opportunity to think about what they know and how they feel towards this animal.
They use their memory to recall what they know about the pet, in turn extending their concentration and language skills.
Drawing activities helps develop manipulative skills that will assist children in their writing. Manipulative skills refers to activities where children have a good control of their working utensils.
Working utensils such as;
- Pencils;
- Crayons;
- Felt pens;
- Paint brushes; and
- Scissors.
Mastering objects they use, allows children to take control of their world through artistic expression.
Guidance in the classroom
In the beginning of the year we started by encouraging the children to draw basic things like people, houses, trees, flowers and the sun.
And now just 5 months later, it is really impressive to see that some of our children are demonstrating great skills in their drawings and meanings to them.
During one drawing session, we asked the children to draw a self-portrait from a picture of themselves they had brought in.
We assisted the children by encouraging them to look at the facial features in the photo and then drawing their eyes, nose, mouth and hair on their portraits.
Creating enjoyment is key.
Self-doubt is a signal to learn more and improve, not a reason to quit. We discourage the words “I can’t draw” and we rephrase with” we can’t do it YET!”. Reciting our Growth Mindset song in times of self-doubt, reminds the children to give it a go.
Home play
If you would like to practice our growth mindset song at home it goes like this:
“My brain is like elastic, it stretches and it grows,
Even when the task gets tricky,
I will have a go.
I won’t give up,
I’ll take a risk,
I might get all upset.
Mistakes don’t mean that I can’t do it,
It just means I can’t do it YET!”
That’s all this month from Miss Roshin, Miss Coby and the Jomgwongs
Also please follow our Facebook and Instagram Pages and stay up to date.
