Baby Artsplay!™
Baby Artsplay! Residencies
Two-Generational Programming for Infants and Toddlers
Nurturing curiosity and joy from the start!
Our Baby Artsplay™ residency model is an arts integrated program for infants and toddlers ages 0-4, and their caregivers and educators.
The program’s weekly classes use research-based arts strategies to both support the cognitive, physical, and social development of infants and toddlers as well as to build the capacity of educators and caregivers to use these teaching methods on their own. These developmentally appropriate activities include storytelling, creative movement, singing, and music-making with simple rhythm instruments.
During the residency, teaching artists work directly with children, educators, and caregivers, coaching the adults as they lead performing arts-based activities for the early learners. This collaborative, hands-on approach ensures that educators and caregivers receive effective training for using the arts in daily activities to improve learning.
Program Goals
- Stimulate vocalization and language
- Advance focus and self-regulation
- Strengthen social and emotional skills
- Tap into children’s innate sense of curiosity and desire to connect to the world around them
- Support caregivers and educators in incorporating the arts into their child's home and classroom daily routines.
Two Types of Baby Artsplay!™ Residencies
FAMILY AND CAREGIVER RESIDENCY
About
During a Baby Artsplay!™ Caregiver residency, teaching artists parenter with caregivers and their children to develop strategies for incorporating singing, dancing, drama, and other multi-sensory activities into their child’s daily routine. This collaborative, hands-on approach helps caregivers to tap into their child's innate sense of curiosity and desire to connect to the world around them.
Types of Partner Venues
These residencies often take place in Judy Centers, Family Support (Patty) Centers, libraries, and other community-based centers.
Program Components
While the number of actual classes in a residency is flexible (from a one-week of daily classes to 12 consecutive weekly classes), the basic Family and Caregiver residency model includes the following components:
- Orientation Meeting: This meeting occurs between the center director, the teaching artist, and an Arts for Learning staff member. The teaching artist and the center director discuss the center’s curriculum, its families/caregivers and children, and its community needs. Together, the artist and director identify performing arts-integrated strategies that support the director’s curricular goals, and then use that information to write the lesson plans for the residency.
- Artist Workshops: The artist conducts a series of highly interactive workshops at the center, with each workshop about 20-30 minutes in length and followed by a 10-15 minute post-workshop conference with the caregivers to answer questions and discuss the arts strategies used. The number of workshops can vary in length, but typically take place once a week for 12 consecutive weeks, or daily for five times in one week.
- Evaluation Meeting: After the residency is completed, the Arts for Learning teaching artist and center director have an opportunity to reflect on the residency with an Arts for Learning staff person, understanding whether the learning objectives and goals were met, what went well, what could be improved, and any key takeaways.
CLASSROOM RESIDENCY
About
During a classroom Baby Artsplay™ residency, teaching artists work directly with educators and their children in an embedded professional development model, supporting educators in learning how to integrate singing, dancing, drama, and other multi-sensory activities into their classroom routines. This collaborative, hands-on approach ensures that educators receive effective training for how to use the arts in daily activities to improve learning.
Types of Partner Venues
These residencies typically take place in child care or Early Head Start settings.
Program Components
While the number of actual classes in a residency is flexible (from a one-week of daily classes to 12 consecutive weekly classes), the basic Family and Caregiver residency model includes the following components:
- Teaching Artist Observations:
The teaching artist makes two observation visits to the classroom. These visits are designed to help the children become familiar with the teaching artist and to help the teaching artist become familiar with the classroom routine and relationships.
- Orientation Meeting:
This meeting occurs between the classroom teacher, the teaching artist, and an Arts for Learning staff member. The teaching artist and the teacher discuss the needs of the students and any curricular goals, then using those to map out the objectives of the residency. The artist then uses that information to write the lesson plans for the residency.
- Artist Workshops:
The artist conducts a series of workshops in the educator(s)’ classroom(s), with each workshop about 20-30 minutes in length and highly interactive in nature. Following each session, the artist is available to meet with the educator(s) to answer questions and discuss the arts integration strategies used and how those connect with early learning experiences. The number of workshops can vary in length, but typically take place once a week for 10 consecutive weeks, or daily for five times in one week.
- Additional Planning Meeting:
An additional planning meeting is scheduled between the teaching artist and educator(s) during the program to evaluate how the residency is going and make any needed adjustments accordingly.
- Evaluation Meeting:
After the residency is completed, the Arts for Learning teaching artist and center director have an opportunity to reflect on the residency with an Arts for Learning staff person, understanding whether the learning objectives and goals were met, what went well, what could be improved, and any key takeaways.
Interested in a Baby Artsplay!™ program? Start by filling out the form below!
Addressing the Five Domains of School Readiness through Arts-Integrated Strategies
Through the Baby Artsplay!™ residency model, children are exposed to a variety of arts-integrated strategies that connect with all 5 domains of school readiness, as recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Examples of strategies in each of the domains are listed below.
Language and Literacy Development
- Drama: Develop storytelling techniques
- Music: Use instruments to respond to/enhance musical suggestions in literature, informational texts, chants, or nursery rhymes
- Dance: Use locomotor and non-locomotor movement to convey characters, actions, setting, and meaning
Cognition and General Knowledge including early mathematics and early scientific development)
- Drama: Create sound effects
- Music: Sing/chant/use body sounds/instruments to repeat simple musical patterns
- Dance: Develop simple sequences of movement
Approaches toward Learning (e.g. initiative, curiosity, and motivation)
- Drama: Use imagination to create/develop character with the body and voice
- Music: Improvise melodies, variations, and accompaniments
- Dance: Express through movement and dance what is heard in various musical tempos and styles
Physical Well-Being and Motor Development
- Drama: Perform a role/character
- Music: Explore the use of musical instruments found in the classroom
- Dance: Explore/use dance elements like space (self space, general space, body shape, level, pathways or patterns), time (fast/slow), energy (degrees of force/quality of movement)
Social and Emotional Development
- Drama: Assume a role interacting with others
- Music: Link singing/chanting to classroom transitions
- Dance: Use props (real or imaginary) to explore space and movement
Funders
