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86 Young Children • November 2007

M. Elizabeth Armistead, MA, is direc-tor of early childhood programs at Settle-ment Music School in Philadelphia, Penn-sylvania. She has worked as a teacher and program director for more than 40 years and served as a teacher trainer for 16 years. An advocate for adequate funding for quality early care and learn-ing programs, Liz champions the arts as essential components of early learning for children of all cultures and learning styles. Photos courtesy of the author.

THESE PRESCHOOLERS

have just completed the complex task of creat-ing a sound composition. Activities like this demon-strate some of the many kinds of learning that take place daily at the Settlement Music School Kaleidoscope Preschool Arts Enrichment Program in Philadelphia. This article describes how the program works: how music teaches language and math, how dance teaches action words and spa-tial concepts, how painting leads to writing letters and words. It explores ways in which preschoolers develop physical, cognitive, and social compe-tence through the creative arts.

Background and philosophy

Settlement Music School was founded almost a century ago (1908) with the mission of offering social ser-vices and music lessons to immigrant families in South Philadelphia. Today it is the largest and one of the old-est community music schools in the United States, currently serving more than 15,000 students of all ages in six locations in or near Philadelphia and in Camden, New Jersey. In 1990, Settlement expanded its mission, creating a preschool program to teach music and other creative arts to three- to fi ve-year-olds. Settlement

In music class, the Kaleidoscope teacher reads Sheep Take a Hike, by Margot Apple, a picture book about some sheep who set out on a journey. They encounter many kinds of terrain (uphill, downhill, through bushes and trees, swamp, and meadow) and several types of weather (warm and clear, fog and rain). The story seizes the full attention of the 20 four-year-olds. After they act out zigzagging through a forest, tramp-ing through fog, and trotting home, the music teacher asks the children to pro-vide sounds for these story elements (“Can you give me a sound for trot-ting?”). She draws a symbol for zig and zag on a fl ip chart and asks, “Would that sound good if it were played with rhythm sticks or gueiros [hollow gourds]?” After the children agree on the sounds and corresponding nota-tions, the teacher points to the nota-tions as the children “tell” the story with the chosen sounds or instruments.

M. Elizabeth Armistead

When you play, make each note a word in a story that you are telling.

— Isaac Stern,Virtuoso Violinist, on

National Public Radio’sFrom the Top

sought to enroll families in this

program from a nearby dete-

riorating high-rise housing development.

The preschool was named Kaleidoscope to express the richness of its educational offerings as well as the diversity of its families. The Kaleidoscope Preschool Arts Enrichment Program is a unique creative arts-integrated preschool. Housed within two of Settlement Music School’s branches, Kaleidoscope serves economically and racially diverse neighborhoods in South Philadelphia and in the Germantown section of the city. Most of its 100 preschoolers come from families with low incomes and receive scholarships. Many of the children (15 to 20 percent) qualify for early intervention services, such as speech and occupational therapy provided by local agencies. Kaleidoscope draws together best practices from early learning and music education (MENC 1994; Bredekamp & Copple 1997; Edwards, Gandini, & Forman 1998). The pro-gram’s strong commitment to a school-readiness curriculum and parent involvement fi t well with Head Start Performance Standards. As a result, in 1994 Kaleidoscope entered a collabora-tive relationship with the Presbytery of Philadelphia, a Head Start grantee.

Kaleidoscope How a Creative Arts Enrichment Program Prepares Children for Kindergarten

2, 3, 7

YCArmistead.indd 1 10/15/2007 4:32:20 PM

Young Children • November 2007 87

Kaleidoscope was licensed in 1996by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvaniaas a child care center and academicpreschool and earned NAEYC Accredi-tation in 1998. The President’s Commit-tee on the Arts and Humanities hon-ored the Kaleidoscope program in 1998with the Coming Up Taller Award forexemplary and model programs incommunity-based arts education.

Teachers and physical layout

The Kaleidoscope teaching teamincludes three artist-teachers (oneeach for visual arts, music, anddance), six head teachers, and sixassistant teachers (one for each ofthe six preschool classes, grouped byage). Head teachers have bachelor or

associate degrees in early childhoodeducation, and most assistant teach-ers have an AA or BA in related fields.The artist-teachers have advanceddegrees in their disciplines, strongperformance or exhibit backgrounds,and preschool teaching experience.Many teachers live in the community,and several have children or grand-children enrolled in the program. Kaleidoscope children shareSettlement facilities with school-age,adult, and senior students engagedin Settlement’s core and special pro-grams. On any day, Kaleidoscope pre-schoolers might encounter a stringquartet practicing in an adjacent stu-dio or professional musicians rehears-ing and auditioning in the recital halls.

Homerooms use spaces originallydesigned for music classes and indi-vidual instruction. Their quirkyshapes and distinctive charactersaccommodate a wide array of basiclearning centers. The dance studioin the South Philadelphia facility wasoriginally a bathhouse that servedthe many immigrant families in theneighborhood. Class size ranges from 12, for theyoungest group of threes, to 20 forthe five-year-olds. In homerooms theemphasis is on dramatic play, literacy,and using manipulatives and puzzles.These rooms contain a limited arrayof creative arts supplies, since thechildren spend so much of the dayplaying and learning in the speciallyequipped arts studios. Each studiooffers an abundance of appealing,appropriate, accessible materials. The program is full-day, from 8:15a.m. to 2:45 p.m., and the childrenbegin and finish the day in their home-rooms. Families are encouraged tovisit, participate, and observe in allthe arts classes and homerooms. At9:30 a.m., each group with its home-room teachers begins the daily rota-tion through the visual arts, music,and dance studios. This system givesevery child a daily 35-minute period ineach arts environment. The remainderof the day is spent in homeroom activ-ities and outdoors.

A typical day

On a rainy, blustery March day, 20four-year-olds and their parents entertheir early learning homeroom. Aftergreeting the teacher and signing in,some parents join their children forbreakfast. They talk with the teach-ers and each other as the childrenfinish eating and begin to play. Aftercleanup, the children gather and care-fully walk down two flights of steps tothe music studio.

Theschool was

named Kaleidoscopeto express the richness

of its educational offerings as well as

the diversity ofits families.

87



Music studio

Martha Zook, music teacher, greets the class. She and one of the homeroom teachers help the chil-dren remove their shoes and socks. Everyone then forms a circle to begin the day’s musical activities. As a tran-sitional step to focus attention, the children warm up their voices by singing a song they know well (“It’s Raining, It’s Pouring”) and clap to keep a steady beat. When the song is over, a volunteer weatherperson goes to the window to describe what is happening out-doors. Martha reads Rain, by Rozanne Lanczak Williams, about different kinds of rain sounds: the pitter-patter on win-dows, raindrops falling on an umbrella, boots sloshing through puddles. Then she leads the children in telling their own rain story through musi-cal sounds; their composition starts slowly, builds to thunderclaps, then fades away. After this highly stimulat-ing experience, the children put on their shoes and socks and descend

two more fl ights into the basement for dance class.

Dance studio

The children can hear music long before they enter the dance stu-dio, where they again take off their shoes and socks before joining Kaye Fernandez, dance teacher, in some transitional, warm-up activities. Then everyone spreads out across the studio, each waving a colorful chif-fon scarf in an imaginary wind to the music of “Spring,” from Vivaldi’s FourSeasons. When the music ends, the children fold up the scarves using chin, chest, arms, and fi ngers. Kaye now asks the children how they would move if they were outside in the rain. They demonstrate stomp-ing in puddles, jumping over puddles, splashing through puddles. In the fi nal dance activity, Kaye asks them to step only on the raindrops symbolized by round blue dots applied randomly to the dance fl oor. She starts the music and gives fi ve children tiny umbrel-

las. The fi ve go from one pretend rain-drop to another, stretching to make large steps or balancing between small steps. When they fi nish, they pass the umbrellas to fi ve other class-mates. After everyone has had a turn, the children fi nd their shoes and socks and then, with their homeroom teacher, climb back up two fl ights of stairs to the art studio.

Visual arts studio

Won jung Choi, art teacher, wel-comes the class, and the children put on smocks and choose a work area. Some draw with crayons and markers or cut with scissors. Several tape and embellish designs with bright pieces of colored foil on paper, and others make pictures using stencils and paper punches. A few children paint at easels, alone or with a friend. All of the chil-dren constantly exchange information or discuss their work with teachers. At the clay table, Won jung helps several children make frogs in a spring pond. Soon the children are discuss-ing what frogs do in the rain. The work on the frogs is remarkably realistic. One girl, with guidance from Won jung, makes a princess instead of a frog. This inspires the homeroom teacher to look for a book about the frog and the princess.

Back to homeroom

After their active morning, the chil-dren return to homeroom for lunch, teeth brushing, the fairytale of the frog and princess, and a brief quiet time. Next, they get ready for circle time, where they take attendance, note the day and date, discuss the weather, review what they have done so far, and tell what they have put in their cubbies to share with families at home. With the homeroom teacher as referee, the children negotiate the next day’s job assignments. There are many helping jobs, such as door hold-ers, line leaders, lunch helpers, snack helpers, cleanup signaler, and in the



older groups, circle-time leader. Giventhe inclement weather, the childrenwill not go outdoors today, so untilit is time to go home, they play witheach other and their teachers in learn-ing centers.

Using the arts to achieve learning objectives

NAEYC EarlyChildhood ProgramStandards (www.naeyc.org/academy/standards) serve asunifying core valuesand guiding princi-ples for the program.The Kaleidoscope writ-ten curriculum forms adeep and broad concep-tual base for planning activi-ties in homerooms and studios for allclassrooms. For example, in Januaryteachers plan activities that help chil-dren recognize patterns. They act outmovement patterns to match the wordpatterns and images in We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, by Michael Rosen, inthe dance studio with props. In musicclass they write and perform drum-ming patterns. Children paint anddraw linear patterns in the visual artsstudio, and in homerooms they makedesigns with pattern blocks and geoboards. Together, the arts and early learn-ing homeroom activities supportchildren’s understanding of conceptslike pattern. Working in many envi-ronments enables children to identifypatterns independently and to applypattern recognition across their dailyexperience. Research documents andsupports how essential early sensoryexperiences―such as those inher-ent in visual arts, music, and dance orcreative movement activities―are tolearning (Gardner 1993; Ratey 2001).The auditory, physical, and visualwork in all of the arts studios ampli-fies and enriches children’s explor-atory play in the homerooms.

Planning curriculum

The director and teachers devel-oped the Kaleidoscope curriculumguide as a structure for and meansof coordinating lesson content andplay choices. It stresses collaborationbetween disciplines and is child-cen-

tered, flexible, and spontaneous. When the teachers

meet in the late sum-mer to plan for the

coming year, theyreference the over-all goals estab-lished by theguide and makecertain to build

in time for observ-ing and recording

children’s progress onkey concepts and skills

in visual arts, music, dance,and homeroom activities. They try toavoid activities and schedules thatcould subject children to overstimula-tion, too-frequent transitions, confu-sion, or fatigue. Lesson plans follow the sequenceprovided in the Kaleidoscope cur-

riculum guide that includes programphilosophy, description, structure,and activities. The curriculum guidecoordinates learning activities acrossthe three arts studios and early learn-ing homerooms. It includes a wealthof activities that artist and homeroomteachers have collected over the yearsto create an arts-rich, integrated learn-ing environment that increases chal-lenge and difficulty for typical expec-tations of growth and mastery. TheKaleidoscope curriculum guides teach-ers in planning activities that directlyconnect to the assessment tools theprogram uses. Families support thecurriculum through the parents com-mittee, special homeroom occasions,program events, and performances.

Learning in music

Music is an intensely social expe-rience. To sing or play instrumentsin a group, children must listen tothemselves, their leader (often theteacher), and each other. To be suc-cessful, everyone has to conform tothe spirit and structure of the music,starting and stopping together and

TheKaleidoscope

curriculum stresses collaboration between disciplines and is child-centered, flexible, and

spontaneous.



coordinating their musical activityfrom moment to moment. Singing,playing instruments, and joining ingames are intensely integrative learn-ing activities. They build on children’snatural drive to join in and exercisetheir auditory discrimination or hear-ing ability as well as fine and grossmotor coordination. By the end ofthe year, children freely and flaw-lessly choose, organize, and completetogether many complex singing andmoving games. Activities such as moving to music,playing an instrument, and keepingtime with “body percussion” estab-lish a profound sense of one-to-onecorrespondence, which is the basisfor counting and understanding math-ematics. Music class develops pho-nological or listening awareness (of

themselves and others), listening com-prehension (the ability to name anddescribe categories of sounds, instru-ments, and timbres), and fine andgross motor coordination (using handand percussion instruments). Thesimultaneous demand upon motorskills, cognitive skills, and socialknowledge fosters deep learning andlong-term memory. Once childrenlearn the patterns, pitch, and rhythmsof their favorite songs, they can createnew ones based on modifications tothose they know.

Learning in dance and creative movement

Physical movement tasks demandfull engagement of the mind and body.In the dance studio children gain bodyawareness: they learn the differentparts of their body and how they workseparately and in coordination. Bodyawareness leads children to play andexperiment with locomotor move-ment (walking, running, leaping, hop-ping) and nonlocomotor movement

Physicalmovement tasks

demand full engagement of the mind and

body.



(bending, twist-ing). In addition to teaching the meaning of verbs, these creative movementelementsenrich chil-dren’s under-standing of nouns like giraffe or bearand verbs like gallop,slide, or leap. Completing a sequence of physical movement tasks (going on a bear hunt) builds cogni-tive skills, motor planning (not leaving any of the steps out), and motor coor-dination (making muscles do what you want them to). This success leads to individual creative experimentation or expression (Benzwie 1996). While discussing and recalling activ-ities, children use new language to describe the movement tasks they worked on the previous day. Kaye guides children through creative move-ment activities by starting with simple, familiar tasks that build strength, coor-dination, and confi dence. Using this step-by-step approach, children with varied developmental abilities eagerly try diffi cult tasks and willingly accept more creative challenges.

Learning in visual arts: Easel painting

At their easels the three-year-olds begin

to explore with brushes and paint in primary colors.

Typical fi rst creations are “blobs” (roundish shapes) in the middle of the paper. Some children stick to one color for several months, but eventually most begin to mix col-ors and spread paint in varying amounts (thick or thin). They become interested in brush strokes and in guiding the brush along a linear path. The shapes they produce grow in size and defi ni-tion, covering more and more of the paper. With more opportunities to explore paint and brushes, children’s strokes become designs, and colors and shapes begin to separate. Painting at an easel every day gives children opportunities to experiment,

Children ofvaried developmental

abilities eagerly try difficult tasks and willingly acceptmore creative

challenges.

Painting atan easel

every day giveschildren opportunities

to experiment,learn, and make

progress.

learn, and make progress as paint-ers. By age fi ve, most children make representational forms using several colors and shapes. Lines and shapes become letters, numbers, objects and fi gures, earth and sky (Kellogg 1970).

The pictures tell stories, and chil-dren use adjectives and

adverbs to describe their choices of

materials and col-ors. Children advance tremen-dously in fi ne motor coordi-nation through consistent, con-

centrated use of a wide variety of

art materials. In addi-tion to easel painting, the

children draw, and they work on collage with scissors, tape, sten-cils, paper punches, clay, and found objects, creating large group and indi-vidual two- and three-dimensional projects (see www.ket.org/arttoheartfor many excellent art activities).



with them about referral for further evaluation and possibly early inter-vention services. Home and school visits provide an opportunity to revisit the screening results with homeroom and artist teachers and to share family stories about play, friends, and learn-ing then and in the coming year.

Ongoing assessment

In late fall and spring, all Kaleidoscope teachers record each child’s skill level in early learning, music, dance, and visual arts. Artist and head teachers, using a check-list of typical curricular activities, record what children do, how often they choose to do it, and how success-ful they are in performing the activi-ties and tasks. Teachers also regu-larly write anecdotal notes and record progress in curriculum domains. Children’s portfolios support teacher’s checklist decisions (Fantuzzo et al. 2002). At parent-teacher conferences in December and May, parents receive and discuss the checklists with home-room and artist teachers. In early February, about half-way through the school year, the Kaleidoscope program closes for a day and a half. First, teachers meet with parents to collect information on each child’s progress. Then, for each child, they review the assessment data collected from multiple sources. The teaching staff and social worker dis-cuss each child’s progress, and teach-ers make decisions about lesson plans for the rest of the year.

Transition: Showing what children have learned and saying good-bye

Young children need and deserve recognition for their achievements. At the end of the Kaleidoscope school year in June, the children’s artwork is displayed throughout two of the Settlement School buildings. The art shows lots of lively detail in draw-ings and sculpture. There are broad sections of color and texture in the paintings and collage done by even the youngest children. There is also a music and dance performance; the children and teachers choose songs, games, and movement activities that show what they have learned and how well they can do them. This celebration of accomplish-ment helps families, teachers, and children make the transition to the following year. For some families it is hard to say good-bye to Kaleidoscope, especially when several siblings have attended over many years, and it is even harder for some teachers to see these families leave. The Kaleidoscope arts curriculum builds a strong physical and cogni-tive foundation for future learning (Heckman 2006). Families intuitively know what research tells early child-hood professionals and public policy makers: that high-quality early learn-ing experiences can have lifelong ben-efi ts and that knowledge gaps in kin-dergarten can affect learning in high school (Galinsky 2006). School readiness requires growth from parents as well as from chil-dren. Having seen their children grow into competent and confi dent learn-ers, Kaleidoscope Head Start families face kindergarten with high hopes and expectations. They are ready to face a new school experience with their children. One year a mother of fi ve Kaleidoscope graduates asked to speak to the 200 or so parents and children attending the June perfor-mance. She told the families assem-

Assessing children’s progress

In creative arts environments, chil-dren have many opportunities to demonstrate achievement and com-petence. Although teachers and fam-ilies watch this progress with plea-sure and excitement, some may not fully grasp the extent of children’s development in their artwork or their musical and movement capabili-ties. (An overview of typical develop-ment in the arts―Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections[AEP 1998]―can be downloaded at www.aep-arts.org/publications/index.htm). The Kaleidoscope program documents what children are learn-ing: where each child begins in the school year and where he or she fi n-ishes. Success and achievement in learning and school readiness depend upon sustaining an evolving relation-ship between children, families, and teachers. The Kaleidoscope assessment pro-cess informs and includes parents as participants. The communication and observation opportunities deepen families’ understanding of the pro-gram’s educational values, especially for the creative arts curriculum. Artist teachers join homeroom teachers in all meetings with parents.

Screening

Early in the school year, as in all Head Start programs, homeroom teachers use a formal tool to screen each child. Because arts activities are especially demanding of a child’s sen-sory motor coordination and social development, the artist teachers’ observations add weight to the infor-mation in the formal developmen-tal screen. The screening results may suggest a need for further evaluation for developmental delays, such as in speech or in large or fi ne motor coor-dination. If the screen results, along with teacher observations and infor-mation from parents, indicate a need, the Kaleidoscope social worker con-tacts parents immediately and talks

Communicationand observation oppor-tunities deepen families’

understanding of the pro-gram’s educational values, especially for the creative

arts curriculum.

92



bled how lucky they were to havesuch a program and how muchKaleidoscope had meant to each ofher children. She said that she hadbeen able to finish college while herchildren were in Kaleidoscope andthat she would begin teaching highschool English in the fall. She talkedabout how much she had learned withand about her children over their pre-school years. Hearing her say publiclywhat others have often felt was a raremoment of acknowledgment for theprogram’s dedicated staff. After this particular June perfor-mance, when everyone else had gonehome, five-year-old Ramon sat withhis grandmother in the lobby, seem-ingly in no hurry to leave. Ramon’sgrandmother was dressed in a beau-tiful white suit and he was wearing amatching one. Holding a single roseand intent on every word, she leanedclose to Ramon as he told her a long,rambling story. It was clear from herexpression of pride and love that shewas not really following what he was

saying even though Ramon had herfull attention. She and Ramon werecelebrating his accomplishments, andshe was treasuring this moment ofsuccess with her grandson.

ReferencesAEP (Arts Education Partnership Task Force).

1998. Young children and the arts: Making cre-ative connections. Washington, DC: Arts Edu-cation Partnership. Online: www.aep-arts.org/PDF%20Files/Young%20Children.pdf.

Benzwie, T. 1996. More moving experiences: Connecting arts, feelings, and imagination.Tucson, AZ: Zephyr.

Bredekamp, S., & C. Copple, eds. 1997. Devel-opmentally appropriate practice in early child-hood. Rev. ed. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Edwards, C.P., L. Gandini, & G.E. Forman, eds.1998. The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach—Advanced reflec-tions. 2nd ed. Greenwich, CT: Ablex.

Fantuzzo, J., D. Hightower, S. Grim, & G. Mon-tes. 2002. Generalization of the child obser-vation record: A validity study for diversesamples of urban, low-income preschoolchildren. Early Childhood Research Quarterly17 (4): 106–25.

Galinsky, E. 2006. The economic benefits of high-quality early childhood programs: What

makes the difference? Executive summary.New York: Families and Work Institute.Online: www.ced.org/docs/summary/summary_prek_galinsky.pdf.

Gardner, H. 1993. Multiple intelligences: The theory in practice. London: Fontana.

Heckman, J.J. 2006. Investing in disadvantagedyoung children is an economically efficientpolicy. Report presented at the Committeefor Economic Development, Pew CharitableTrusts, PNC Financial Services Group Forumon Building the Economic Case for Invest-ments in Preschool, January 10, New York.Online: www.ced.org/docs/report/report_2006prek_heckman.pdf.

Kellogg, R. 1970. Analyzing children’s art. NewYork: McGraw-Hill.

MENC (National Association for Music Educa-tion). 1994. Prekindergarten music educa-tion standards. In The school music program: A new vision—The K–12 national standards, preK standards, and what they mean to music education. Reston, VA: Author. Online: www.menc.org/publication/books/preK12st.html.

Ratey, J.J. 2001. A user’s guide to the brain: Per-ception, attention, and the four theaters of the brain. New York: Pantheon. Available onlineas an eBook.

Copyright © 2007 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online atwww.journal.naeyc.org/about/permissions.asp.

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