{"id":9922,"date":"2012-02-04T18:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-02-05T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=9922"},"modified":"2012-02-04T16:48:52","modified_gmt":"2012-02-04T22:48:52","slug":"austin-peay-state-university-has-new-program-that-brings-arts-and-music-activities-to-preschool-aged-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2012\/02\/04\/austin-peay-state-university-has-new-program-that-brings-arts-and-music-activities-to-preschool-aged-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Peay State University has new program that brings Arts and Music activities to Preschool-aged Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – It isn\u2019t unusual to find a preschool-age child singing aloud or coloring a picture he or she painted. That\u2019s how young children have acted for centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, children are innately musical and artistic at that age,\u201d Eric Branscome, assistant professor and coordinator of music education at Austin Peay State University, said. \u201cThey love drawing, they love coloring, they love singing, they love painting.\u201dBut with several preschools and child care centers doing away with music and arts programs, today\u2019s youngsters aren\u2019t getting much of an opportunity to delve into creative activities. A new APSU-sponsored program is looking to remedy this problem.<\/p>\n

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Beginning at 4:30pm on February 7th, APSU faculty and students will host the Children\u2019s Arts InterAction Program in the Children\u2019s Library of the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library. The program, which is free and open to all pre-school and early elementary aged children, will continue on the first Tuesday of each month throughout the semester.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program is basically targeting younger children, preschool-aged children, early elementary school-age children,\u201d Branscome said. \u201cIt will have music, singing time, music activities. A lot of our student organizations will be going over to perform for the kids. And at the end of the time, the (APSU) art education students will lead a craft or related art activity for the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

The activities will all be focused around literacy concepts developed by the library staff.<\/p>\n

In addition to providing a valuable service for the community, the Children\u2019s Arts InterAction program will also help prepare APSU students for their future careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the main reasons we wanted to start this, in addition to community outreach, was so that our students in music education and art education could get extra experience working with these young kids before they go out and do student teaching,\u201d Branscome said.<\/p>\n

The program will meet at 4:30pm at the library on the following days:<\/h3>\n