Hiba Academy Shanghai strives to offer holistic learning to every child in our care. Throughout the day we support children to develop their Hiba Identity: to be Inspired, Intellectual, Independent, Individual, and Inclusive. The arts are a vital part of how we explore and develop children’s confidence in these areas. As part of our commitment to learning though play, Hiba Academy Shanghai ensures that opportunities for creativity, self-expression, sensory exploration, and imaginative play are at a child’s fingertips wherever they may be in the setting. The move our new permanent nursery facility in Autumn 2018 provided us an opportunity to further develop and expand our arts and music facilities.
Our purpose-built Music Space has become a favourite space for children and adults this term. Bright and warm, the room is inviting. It is filled with carefully selected age appropriate hand percussion instruments and dance props, an upright piano, a guitar, a built-in speaker system, a small quiet area filled with books, and a listening station for individual or small group work. The large cozy carpet has become the heart of the room, where children gather together for group singing, dancing, instrument explorations and musical stories. The addition of sound proofing now allows for truly joyful, energetic, and inevitably noisy musical play without the fear of disrupting learning in other classrooms.
As a bilingual nursery, exploring music also means exploring the sounds, stories, and instruments from Chinese and international traditions. The new Chinese learning space on the third floor is now home to our collection of traditional Chinese instruments including the guzheng, bamboo flutes, and several large Chinese drums. Although these instruments are on display, they are working instruments that are integrated into our music curriculum. Throughout the year the children have opportunities to experience Chinese traditional instruments through hands on exploration, listening to short performances, or as they accompany movement exploration, singing or whole year group performances.
The new Multimedia Room doubles as a performance space. It has already hosted a special opening ceremony for the nursery, as well as our monthly year group choirs, and a special visit by the UK storyteller Paul Jackson with his instruments. Our nursery community is now hard at work preparing for our first Chinese New Year performances, and we are excited by all the creative possibilities this new space offers for our celebrations this year.
Sounds exploration continues in other areas of the nursery as well. Every classroom has its own set of instruments to use in storytelling, project work, or during play. Music is often in the air outdoors as well as children explore the large tone bars and drums built into the playground, listen to the bamboo wind chimes installed in the outdoor learning areas, or discover the sounds of everyday objects in the Music Kitchen.
The outdoor learning spaces are also a wonderful place to explore visual and creative arts. Mark making materials are provided in every outdoor space, allowing children to create and explore in a wide variety of mediums – paint, chalk, clipboards with paper and pencils, sticks in sand trays, water and paint brushes, mops, brooms, and sponges… the opportunities to draw, write, doodle, record or design are endless both inside and out. In addition to well stocked creative arts corners in each classroom, shared spaces in each hallway now host new, age appropriate spaces for art exploration on every floor.
Our beautiful new Library has expanded its creative resources as well, allowing children to reflect their reading through art and design. Additions to our book collection this year have expanded the number of books that incorporate a music or fine arts theme, or offer CDs, DVDs, or digital content that integrate art and music into the storytelling process itself. These new resources support the work of our classroom teachers, offering more pathways to learning for children.
Hiba Academy Shanghai’s arts and music facilities are purposeful, developed to foster learning and creativity for every child. Throughout our classrooms and shared spaces, children have access to the resources they need to express themselves and explore learning through the creative process.
