Hives Bee-School program is really something unique in terms of early childhood education. With a primary focus on the creative arts, it’s our aim to nurture creative thinking and develop talent in Art, Musicianship and Performance.
Building creativity in the early years develops skills to becoming truely innovative, with agile minds and the ability to solve problems through multiple solutions.
This will give children the fundamentals to meet the challenges of remaking, reinventing and adapting in our constantly shifting world.
If these creative thinking fundamentals are practiced through the schooling years, it will produce far more flexible thinkers with a higher emotional intelligence – a big advantage future education.
Creativity is especially nurtured in social environments and our teachers guide students into wider explorations, generating new options for what ‘could be’ in their world and take chances without penalty. A safe space with no judgement plus opportunity for self expression and risk taking, provides kids with confidence, curiosity and limitless imagination. A fantastic preparation for their formative school years.
So how does the Hive program foster Creativity in our Bee-School Program?
Our Bee-School Basics (entry level 3-6 Yrs) program is a half day class that takes students through lessons of Art, Drama and Music. To ensure the content is age-appropriate, we further divide the classes into a 3-4 Yrs and 4-6 Yrs.
BEE-SCHOOL BASICS PROGRAM:
Visual Arts not only assists in students fine motor skills and sensory experiences, but also their cognitive thinking and expression. In our visual art classes, we encourage children to approach art media as a way to communicate and connect to the world, independently building upon their knowledge and constructing their own theories (Knight, 2009).
Often focusing on a known illustrator or theme, students are challenged to utilise the fundamentals of remaking, reinventing and adapting to take what has been already done as a framework and create their own version.
Skill development is equally important in approaching creative challenges. Our teachers mentor through a process of planning, practice and execution, providing tools for students to explore new materials, different art forms and techniques to produce a range of unique artistic solutions throughout the term.
Drama is structured to provide students with opportunities that explore and challenge familiarities in their lives through dramatic play. The activities are designed to increase their cognitive, social and emotional skills simultaneously while developing new capabilities in meaningful vocabulary, independent thinking and self regulation.
Drama assists in growing confidence and we guide students in their understanding of interpreting body language, social interaction & role play which aid in their emotional intelligence as they approach school age.
We predominantly nurture the art of storytelling. This is a fantastic practice to enhance students imagination and knowledge of their world.
Children create stories from their own knowledge base, but what we encourage is for students to expand what they know and accept new ideas, concepts and possibilities.
These will be proposed to them both by their teachers and their peers from which we provide meaningful exchanges through dramatic play.
Spanish is offered for students as an alternative to Drama. Research shows that children proficient in other languages also show signs of enhanced creativity, mental flexibility and has a direct impact on academic achievement. It also improves listening skills, memory and multitasking (www.leadwithlanguages.org)
The experience of learning a language introduces students to the world in ways they might otherwise have not experienced. The best time to learn is before the age of 5 as students use the same part of the brain to acquire a second language that they use to learn their mother toungue.
Music provides creative learning that ignites all areas of childhood development as the mind and the body work together.
Children who study music before school are proven to accelerate in areas of reading, writing and mathematics throughout their school years as they have already established the neural pathways necessary for these tasks to be easily executed.
Our Bee-Schoolers explore instruments such as the ukulele, drums and xylophone and gain import skills such as
• Listening
• Memorisation
• Counting
• Communication
• Improvisation
• Coordination
• Sequencing
Hive Bee-School also provides extension programs for children wanting a full day of creative learning. These include;
EXTENSION PROGRAM: CREATIVE PERFORMERS
Taking Dramatic play to the next level, Creative Performers is a further half day program that focuses on developing confidence and communication skills through performance-based activities such as Musical Theatre, dance and Mini Makers. Students in this program will participate in a term performance at the Hive to showcase their new skills and talents.
EXTENSION PROGRAM: CREATIVE THINKERS
Creative Thinkers further enhances creative problem solving through development of a more diverse skill set including Piano Prep, Art Design and Creative Art Science. Students in this program will participate in a term performance at the Hive to showcase their new skills and talents.
The creative arts is proven to feed intelligence, promote flexible thinking, emotional intelligence and develop a love of learning that students will take with them into adulthood. Our Hive Bee-School program provides all the important aspects of creative learning in one place. Come and see what the buzz is all about!