STORYTELLING, MOVEMENT, MUSIC, COMMUNITY, PLAY, CULTURE, CO-CREATION

REGION: Southern Denmark
MUNICIPALITY: Vejle
PROCEDURE: 2022
DAILY OFFER: Kernehuset Nursery School

Snippet story: Kernehuset Nursery School (2022)

In general, we would like to become better at including art and culture in our educational activities in the nursery. So we are hoping for input in relation to this, and not least in relation to a playful approach where art is "experienced" by the children through play, and not just by reading stories or the like, which is often the way nursery children are introduced to art.

So our wondering is this, and how can it be done so that it happens through what the children become interested in along the way and what it requires of us as educators.

We have decided on two particular focus points that we would like to play with in our program: How to create playful stories with the children and how to play with music.

- How have you experienced the co-creation between artist/cultural educator/cultural school teacher, educators and children and possibly researcher?

It has been a good and exciting project to try together as a group in Kernehuset's nursery.

We were happy to have two artists leading the way with great ideas that were well suited to what we wanted. That way, it was tailored to us and made it easier for us to take over and try out the ideas later in the process.

- How have children's perspectives been expressed/included?

The games and art forms we tried were both age-appropriate and selected because many of them were open-ended, allowing the children to take the games in new directions.

With the Tractor Tom idea, we based it on something we already knew the children were very interested in.

- Do children play different games and with different people than usual?

We can't see it yet, but we have noticed that the children have been happy to have more music in our everyday life.

- How do pedagogical staff act differently than they did before PlayArt?

It's a little early to say yet, but we've become even more curious about incorporating creativity into our pedagogical work.

- What has it been like to work with action learning?

It's been interesting and we have not been deterred from working with action learning. It fits well with the way we want to work.

- To the artist/cultural mediator/cultural school teacher, if present: What have you gained from participating in PlayArt?

As an artist, it has given me a lot of good experience with the target group, the 2-3-year-olds. And not least what happens when you as an artist try to speak into a universe that children are particularly at home in.

- What are the pedagogical staff still/now curious about?

We are curious about new ways to include art and culture in our educational work. Can art and culture be the framework when diving into other curriculum themes that don't immediately lend themselves to creativity?

- How will you use art, culture and aesthetic processes in the further process?

We will continue to play and experiment with the tools we have been given. Among other things, with a focus on making them into "everyday tools" that we can quickly pull out without having to go through a special process.

- What points for attention should we take forward?

It's important to put new artistic ideas into practice and to try them out in contexts other than the ones they were developed for.