School of the Arts Developmental Outcomes By Age Group
Alongside the comprehensive programme, specific developmental milestones and outcomes for children’s progressive creative development are measured in the following ways: The following components form the developmental outcomes for the School of the Arts Programmes.
The Duckling Flock – Exploration Stage
Children aged 6 months to 24 months
Children are able to:
Drama
• Participate in imitation when adult dramatises action for a song, rhyme or story
• Observe adult telling a story or sharing a rhyme with sustained interest
Visual Arts
• Be intrigued by the ability to make marks and participates in mark making
• Attempt mark making on paper and other surfaces
• Display an increasing awareness of, and interest in using mediums such as crayons, bushes and chalks
Music
• Respond to high-pitched noises
• Display calmness when exposed to lower sounds
• Respond or attempt to locate a sound made by a musical instrument in front of them
• Able to identify if a sound is made from behind or in front of them by looking for the source of the sound
• Attempt to participate in musical activities or singing by sounds like “Aaah”, “Eee” and “Ooo”
• Imitate sounds e.g. Boo! La!
Dance
• Explore environment with a range of movement such as crawling, walking and pulling to a stand.
• Jump on the same spot to songs and rhymes in imitation of an adult.
Elephant Herd – Creating, Interpreting and Presenting Stage 1
Children aged 18 months to 2 years
Children are able to:
Drama
• Respond to the adult’s use of voice and movement and participates spontaneously in creative drama games.
• Use objects in dramatic play
• Participate in solitary and parallel play (play alone or play alongside a friend)
Visual Arts
• Display intrigue by the ability to make marks and participates in mark making.
• Explore mediums such as crayons, brushes and chalks for drawing independently.
• Attempt to participate in mark-making activities (making exploratory scribbling)
• Imitate use of drawing mediums by making random marks and disordered scribbling
• Display an awareness for which end of a crayon to use
Music
• Sing rhymes and songs in imitation.
• Use random movement to display feelings (for example, claps when happy and so forth)
• Show awareness and responds to changes in tempo, pitch and volume
Dance
• Explore and attempt a variety of movement.
• Imitate simple relaxation techniques for warming up and cooling down (such as breathing in and out or stretching in imitation).
Monkey Troop – Creating, Interpeting and Presenting Stage 2
Children aged 2 to 3 years
Children are able to:
Drama
• Use voice and movement spontaneously when playing creative drama games.
• Participate in make-believe situations based on imagination, fantasy and life experiences.
Visual Arts
• Freely create images of own world in various media.
• Produce repeated marks//shapes on paper
• Use play and fantasy in two-dimensional and three-dimensional work.
• Explore and experiment with a wide variety of art materials, techniques (including waste materials), and colour in a spontaneous and creative way.
• Use and co-ordinate motor skills in practical work and play (e.g. appropriate handling of scissors, glue applicators, paintbrush and drawing instruments).
• Enter the Shape Stage, and begins to copy simple shapes
• Begin to name own scribbles and uses scribbles to represent objects (for example, child explains that a circle represents the sun or a line represents the road)
Music
• Sing and move creatively to nursery rhymes
• Respond in movement to a variety of rhythms and changes in tempo in sounds, songs and stories.(for example, moves quickly when the tempo is fast, or makes a facial gesture to imitate the characters in a storybook)
Dance
• Through play, attempt to coordinate simple gross and fine motor movements, including crossing the mid-line.
• Draw on play, fantasy and imagination to explore a wide variety of movement words, rhythms and changes in tempo.
• Participate in simple dances based on guided and teacher-initiated formations and patterns.
Lion Pride – Reflecting Stage
Children aged 3 to 4 years
At this stage and age, children are able to use critical thinking skills to reflect on the artistic value and cultural processes, share products and styles of the area.
Children are able to:
Drama
• Think about and imitate how people and animals move
• Use concrete objects to represent other objects in dramatic play (for example, uses a wooden block as a telephone)
• Plan a sequence of play to represent their understanding of the world (for example a child caries a shopping bag and pretends to shop at the supermarket)
• Display animism by using sounds and speech to inanimate objects (for example, child attempts to makes a growling sound for a soft toy)
• Display pro social abilities by mimicking and displaying empathy during play
• Use facial expressions to illustrate emotions
• Attempt to mime without speech or dialogue
Visual Arts
• Display fascination with the use of colours
• Illustrate connections between different pieces of drawings and paintings (for example, two or more pieces of artwork will display a common theme on ‘my home’ or ‘my family’ and so forth)
• Begin to draw circles, squares and other geometric shapes
• Talk about, shares and tells stories about own artwork with others by naming and pointing to parts of drawing
• Attempt to discuss common patterns and print in the natural environment
• Seek to use a variety of colours and mediums to draw with.
• Enter Design Stage, and attempts to create ‘mandalas’ or circles.
Music
• Imitate a variety of natural sounds in own environment.
• Use a variety of concepts such as tempo (fast and slow), timbre (understand ‘sound quality’ ie: a tambourine sounds like bells, whilst a drum has a deep base sound), pitch (distinguish between high and low)
• Distinguish between a talking voice and a singing voice.
• Attempt to sing in tune for familiar rhymes or songs.
Dance
• Recognise and display the ability to represent opposites (ie: making
• Accurately display the ability to use locomotor movements such as
• Describe own dancing using action words/verbs.
• Amoebic actions such as stretching out to represent ‘big,’ and curling into foetes position to represent ‘small.’)
• walking, running, skipping, hopping, leaping, jumping, galloping and sliding to represent lyrics in a song.
Wolf Pack – Participating and Collaborating Stage
Children aged 4 to 5 years
The children are able to integrate his/her interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to plan and participate in meaningful creation. He or she displays skills through individual and group participation in Arts and Culture activities.
Children are able to:
Drama
• Participate in drama games – takes turns, waits for signals, responds to cues, and shares space
• Begin to develop empathy by assuming a variety of familiar roles
• Attempt to re-enact or dramatise the social contexts from child’s own secondary environment such as experiences from school/daycare, the park, a store, the zoo and so forth
• Convey feelings and ideas by combining facial expression, gesture and voice projection.
• Create sound effects to accompany stories told by the teacher
• Can recognise and identify the protagonist, antagonist and narrator in stories and performances
• Begin to articulate dialogues clearly with accompanies affect and actions
Visual Arts
• Demonstrate active involvement in individual and group art-making activities and an ability to share art-making equipment
• Use language to describe drawings
• Begin to enter Representational Stage and begins to use drawings as a means of communicating ideas and perceptions of the world
Music
• Participate readily in different genre of music and musical activities
• Attempt to represent cultural songs from home and shares them with others
• Acquire vocal strengths and attempts to sing in harmony with others
Dance
• Attempt to use ‘shape flow’- using the body in various ways to use
• Display ability to plan and follow directionality
• Resemble shapes to represent an idea. This may include actions such as amoebic movement (imitating stretching out or caving in) or simple dramatic actions such as shivering etc
• Express ideas and stories creatively through movement activities that are guided but open-ende
• Movement and dance to represent corresponding musical concepts (for example, galloping to represent a fast tempo and crawling slowly to represent a slow tempo, or; stamping feet to represent a low pitch and tip toeing to represent a high pitch and so forth)
Whale Pod – Planning and Representation Stage
Children aged 5 to 6 years
The children are able to integrate his/her interpersonal and intrapersonal skills to plan and participate in meaningful creation. They display skills through individual and group participation in Arts and Culture activities. They display an interest in using Arts and Music as a means of expression and representation.
Children are able to:
Drama
• Display awareness of importance of voice projection
• Use observation, imitation and exaggeration to mimic or represent a character and mood in dramatic play and exercises
• Take on the role of characters from books and stories.
• Convey feelings and ideas by combining facial expression, gesture and voice projection.
• Create sound effects to accompany stories told by the teacher
Visual Arts
• Respond to, and articulates what the student observes, experiences and understand in his/her own natural
• Attempt to draw from observations (participate sin still life drawing activities with interest)
• Use language to describe drawings
• Use symbols in drawings (for example, uses a cross t indicate a drawing of a hospital, or dark colours to depict night time and bright colours to depict day time.)
• Display emerging awareness to composition and space
Music
• Display emerging interest in specific genre of music and names favourite singing characters or children’s artists.
• Attempt to differentiate between different genres of music
• Play simple percussion instruments such as a tambourine, a drum or a maracas
• Develop a preference and liking for specific types of songs and musical ctivities.
• Accept and display readiness in taking on different performing roles
• Acquire vocal strengths and attempts to increase singing range to Page | 22
• Learn to improvise lyrics to a song (substituting made up lyrics for actual lyrics in a song) during presentations and performances encompass very low and high notes.
Dance
• Attempt to use ‘shape flow’- using the body in various ways to
• Suggest ways to use various movement and dance to represent an awareness of ‘kinesphere’: responds to movement instructions that cover space without bumping or hurting others when moving forwards and backwards.
• Resemble shapes to represent an idea. This may include actions such as amoebic movement (imitating stretching out or caving in) or simple dramatic actions such as shivering etc.
• Corresponding musical concepts (for example, galloping to represent a fast tempo and crawling slowly to represent a slow tempo, or; stamping feet to represent a low pitch and tip toeing to represent a high pitch and so forth)
