Middle Georgia Technical College

MGTC Students Learn Art for Children

Warner Robins - Students in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECE) program at Middle Georgia Technical College (MGTC) are learning different ways to stimulate the senses and interact with small children through the Art for Children Class taught by Cathy Hoover. ECE students at MGTC are encouraged to gain an understanding of classroom experiences and how they are linked to the work they will do with children.

Students in the class conducted art exercises in sight, smell, and touch by using different mediums. After dividing into groups, some students used shaving cream spread thin on a table to draw different pictures with their fingers. Another group was able to make a play dough-like substance using borax, food coloring, and water. Other students were drawing and another group spread glue on paper in different shapes and then applied different herbs and spices giving the room and sensational aroma. Not only did the herbs and spices provide stimulation of the smell sense, but the textures also required students to use their sense of touch.

As an exercise of sight, students placed a clear, glass dish with oil in it on an overhead projector. Students then injected food coloring to make beautiful, yet temporary masterpieces of art on the projector screen.

Students in the Art for Children class have been studying the use of art materials throughout the quarter. By providing the students with an understanding of how to use art materials through hands-on experiences, they will be able to facilitate the same understanding with the children they teach. Children can use this knowledge to extend and support experiences and projects they are involved in or are wondering about in other areas of the classroom.

The ECE student textbook identifies Reggio Emilia, Italy as being at the forefront of incorporating artistic experiences throughout all domains of children's learning. Some of the exercises conducted in the MGTC classroom are examples of the same exercises conducted in Reggio Emilia.

MGTC's Child Development Center Director, Michelle Cutler-Ervin, has had the opportunity of studying the Reggio Emilia method both at home and abroad. For over 14 years, she has studied the approach through extensive reading, facilitating a Reggio study group, and attending state and national conferences. In addition, she traveled to Reggio Emilia, Italy in 1999 where she studied with teachers and resident artists of the school.

Hoover invited Cutler-Ervin to speak to her students. Cutler-Ervin relayed the history of Reggio Emilia, the importance of aesthetics, forming relationship with materials, and the role of creative experiences within the emerging curriculum.

Students in the ECE program are able to grasp a broad spectrum of information through this hands-on experience, as well as through traditional classroom theory education. For more information on the Early Childhood Program at Middle Georgia Technical College, please call 478.988.6800 or log on to www.middlegatech.edu.

Two students in the Art for Children class experiment with making a play dough-like substance