This post is from the thought-filled William vonReichbauer. William is pictured here in his role as a teaching artist with Open Dream.
We are in our second week of our third and final two-week residency of the 2011 season at Sandhills Theatre Arts Renaissance School in Vass, NC. For the first time this season, my teaching artist partners, Danielle and Adrian, and I have been working with a class of Kindergarteners. A what a fun time it has been!
Kindergarten was developed in the early 19th Century (the term, meaning "children's garden," was coined in 1840) by Friedrich Fröbel for his educational institution for young children he founded in Bad Blankenburg in present-day Germany. Much like the Open Dream Ensemble, Fröbel recognized the importance of play in children's learning. The first kindergarten included singing, dancing, gardening, and self-directed play.
While we haven't been doing anything in the way of gardening, we have certainly had our fair share of playing, singing, and dancing. And we've been learning a lot in the process. Over the past week and a half we have covered comparing relative positions of various objects, exploring different ways that objects and organisms move, and comparing characteristics of living and nonliving things. The arts have really proven to be an excellent vehicle for teaching these topics.
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