Early SMARTS

Like letters and numbers, children need to know the colors of the rainbow before entering Kindergarten. SMARTS classes reinforce color recognition by using colors to help us represent sounds, dance moves, or emotions. We accomplish these goals while simultaneously teaching skills like color mixing or creating a dance.

To do most arts activities, especially painting, playing piano, telling stories with movement, and writing, children need to practice developing the coordination of their hands. In SMARTS classes students may have to build a robot using different-sized cardboard boxes or use watercolors to paint a mural. Students will practice the skill of manipulating their bodies while simultaneously learning to work as a group and to see ordinary objects as arms, legs, and antennae. 

Children must understand that speaking/reading, visual art, music, and dancing all possess patterns that repeat through sound, movement, or images. Speed, volume, and vibrancy affect rhythm. A steady beat (tempo), like a heartbeat or rhythm of walking feet, is a central defining rhythm that controls or drives other rhythms. SMARTS’ classes reach this goal by allowing students the opportunity to create rhythms with their feet and hands, by clapping along in unison with a song or creating a dance. Additionally, they are creating live art in the form of a dance or a song.

Children need the opportunity to try new things, experiment, and explore with their five senses - sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. Children need to have the freedom to make choices and witness the cause-and-effect nature of their choices. SMARTS reinforces this skill, by offering a variety of class options in which students try; different instruments, create art with a range of mediums, and build a classroom structure where experimentation is the norm.

Children need the freedom and safety to develop confidence in the arts by making mistakes, starting over, and working through obstacles. Practicing these skills builds confidence in working through problems, which builds a foundation for resiliency. Sharing a creative work of art and receiving affirmation from adults and peers at a young age also helps build children’s self-esteem and sense of worth. This validates a child’s self-expression and encourages the use of imagination. 

Children need to have an opportunity to interact with other students. They need to develop emotional management skills and empathy. Interaction teaches children about their own needs and helps them anticipate the needs of others. Children share customs, culture, and family norms. Children learn what excites, scares, or makes others feel uncomfortable. SMARTS reinforces this goal by providing a safe, fun, interactive environment.

Children need to experience playing with art in an unstructured environment without plans, time restraints, or expectations. When children are in charge of constructing their own experiences, they are allowed to pursue something they enjoy. When playing creatively, children produce narratives, build representational structures/objects from blocks, innovate by finding new ways to play with common toys, and learn to cooperate with peers in conceptual scenarios. Playing is not only a way for children to process their experiences, but it also helps children heal and recover from challenges or conflicts in their day.