Malka Haas (1920-2021) was a key pioneer in the founding of Israeli kibbutz kindergartens, and she profoundly influenced both the curriculum and practice of early childhood education (ECE) for the entire country. The article reviews Haas's biography, her professional development, and the main principles in her educational approach: "the…

The residual meanings attached to the arts emerge through histories that have maintained disciplinary difference between dance, music, art, drama. This modernist persistence affects intellectual and corporeal innovation in school-based arts so how might a rearticulation of arts practices, as well as research and education procedures from the…

In this article, I discuss the concept of compositionism as an onto-epistemology of being and knowing that questions human exceptionalism. Compositionism suggests that humans exist in interdependence with complex bio-social systems that need to be assembled together with an ethics of response-ability toward threatened places and beings. I propose…

This paper proposes that the future is uncertain for many children. Both natural and human-made disasters are adversely affecting the lives of millions of children and their families. An example of an environment-related disaster is cited from Sichuan Province, China, where a massive earthquake killed some 70,000 people in 2008. How the teachers…

Your integration of children's musical culture into the general music curriculum does not need to end with the song collections on your bookshelf. Consider expanding on the materials available by reaching out to friends, students, colleagues, and elders and collecting children's musical culture for yourself and your classroom.

The author of this article creates a semblance between Deleuze and Guattari's conception of a politics of desire and the four realities, as outlined by Brent and Marjorie Wilson. By making this theoretical move, the author advances the idea that children's drawing unfolds from one moment to the next through the assemblages of desire that are most…

This article describes how American and Japanese kindergartners see play and what teachers can learn from them. The authors share their findings from analyzing photos and interviews from 44 American children in the southeastern United States and 55 Japanese children in the main island of Japan, all aged five to six years. In the study, children…

"Fun" is considered, from both research and practical knowledge, to be a critical factor in children's decision to participate (or not) in physical activity (PA). Despite its importance, few studies have provided in-depth investigations into what children really mean when they say an activity is fun. The purpose of this article is to…

Community in the classroom remains critical for a successful classroom climate. However, assessing classroom community features can be challenging, and P-12 students' voices are often left out of the discussion. One way to examine student perceptions of classroom community is through the use of student drawings. In this Pedagogical Implications…

This article describes John Kelleher's experience in observing the creations of his preschool daughter. Both he and his wife are formally trained in the arts, and looked forward to guiding their daughter down an artistic path. In his mind, what makes a great artist usually involves a great deal of technical ability and commitment to a complex…

Creative youth development (CYD) is a dynamic area of community arts education that successfully bridges youth development and arts education. CYD is an intentional, holistic practice that combines hands-on artmaking and skill building in the arts with development of life skills to support young people in successfully participating in adolescence…

Children are drawing inventors. Their art is certainly not what most adults think of as drawing. Almost instinctively, kids know that drawing is everywhere--that they can draw with almost anything, and that innumerable surfaces can be converted for art use. Teaching drawing is showing interest and enthusiasm for kids' drawing inventions--instead…

Playing with food, painting and sculpting with it, begins in the high chair. As movement progresses, children take their art under the counter, exploring cookware and creating with pot covers. They soon discover there is more action in stirring, peeling, and decorating with foods on the counter. Children are attracted to the changes in textures…

In this article, the author discusses some of the photographs and videos that her students produced, and shares how their artwork serves as one way that, when given freedom and choice, children will incorporate violent play into their artmaking activities. The author argues that these images are not evidence of inherently violent, dangerous, or…

Children's inventions go far beyond track housing or Ethan Allen furniture; they foreshadow the most innovative ideas in building forms and interior designs. Children improvise with containers and find places in a home that suggest enticing dwellings. A drawer left open becomes a balcony, soap trays become cots, and the space between twin beds…