Study unit 4
Arts integration in the foundation phase
Arts integration has been seen as “teaching through the arts”.  A common definition is a bit difficult to find, as many different art forms and ways of integrating arts into the teaching of traditional content exist. It can also be seen as an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form.

Children engage in a creative process which connects an art form and another subject and meets evolving objectives. When we choose to apply arts integration principles in the foundation phase, we need to engage learners in teaching and learning activities which encourage them to draw on their prior knowledge with the aim of discovering new concepts and skills and to demonstrate their understanding in a practical way through the arts, they can illustrate how music makes them feel by drawing a picture or writing a story, demonstrate their understanding of the difference between rotation and revolution (when learning about planets, for example) by creating a dance. Arts integration activities promote active learning experiences through which foundation phase learners can internalize new knowledge and skills by engaging in authentic activities which have real-life value. Children must engage with authentic music activities (which include singing, moving, drawing what they hear in the music) before introducing music notation.

Since arts integration encourages learners to demonstrate their understanding through the arts, learners can not only learn within safe, collaborative social environments but to demonstrate their understanding in ways and at a level which they are comfortable with. The arts, especially music and dance, are prominent in various African and international cultures and therefore also offer opportunities for creating learning environments in which learners from diverse backgrounds feel welcome and respected. When foundation phase learners can demonstrate their understanding through the arts, we also promote and accommodate their innate love of music and movement while also adding elements of exploration, discovery fun and play in our classroom.

Arts for most of the children are a way of letting go of their issues or giving the parent or the teacher a bigger and better idea of what is happening in their life for example a child may not say that he is not feeling well today but he may draw or paint an unhappy face or he will draw black lines for a dark place in which he is at that moment, which give the teacher the ability to se that there is something wrong or they can dance and the child will say that he don’t want to dance today but he is always willing to participate.

Make time and space for arts in your classroom!!!!!!