Southern Utah University

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Southern Utah University
Southern Utah University
Fall Semester 2025

Child Development and the Arts: K-3 (Face-to-Face)

ECED 2930-01

Course: ECED 2930-01
Credits: 3
Term: Fall Semester 2025
Department: TED
CRN: 30419

Course Description

ECED 2930 - Child Development and the Arts: K-3
3 Credit(s)

Focuses on teaching strategies specific to the developmental needs of children from age four through eight that encourage children’s aesthetic development, physical abilities, and self-esteem through meaningful, integrated learning experiences in art, music, movement/dance, and drama. Lab fee required. 

Prerequisite(s): FLHD 1500 or PSY 1100 Min. Grade: C

Required Texts

Required Text: Isbell, R. T., & Yoshizawa, S. A. (2016). Nurturing creativity: an essential mindset for young children's learning. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

The text is an integral part of this class. It can be ordered through the SUU Bookstore by calling 435-586-7995 or through email at bookstore@suu.edu 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate understanding of basic vocabulary used in PreK-3 activities for music, visual arts, drama/theater, and movement/dance and use this vocabulary to teach simple arts concepts to children.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of creative development by planning appropriate creative activities for young students.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of integration of the fine arts into other areas of the curriculum by planning and teaching integrated curriculum.

Utah Effective Teaching Standards
The following standards will be emphasized in this course:
1.1 Creates developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences based on each learner’s strengths, interests, and needs.
6.2 Integrates cross- disciplinary skills into instruction to purposefully engage learners in applying content knowledge.

Course Requirements

Class Attendance || 25% of Final Grade
You are registered for a Face-to-Face course and attendance is required. Classes are held at 10 am on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays in room ED 105. Please strive to attend every class and be on time and to participate in ways that are appropriate for each day’s goal: by actively listening, taking notes, asking questions, offering comments, and actively participating in in-class arts activities. Points are assigned for each day in class. Up to 3 "free" absences per student are allowed, no questions asked. Attendance points will be adjusted at the end of the semester.

Arts Activities || 23 % of Final Grade
You will write four arts activity reviews. You will present one of these activities as an in-class presentation to your peers.

Create Playdate || 20% of Final Grade
You will work with in groups to present two Create Playdate event at the Southern Utah Museum of art to young children and their parents. You will also observe and take notes about five Create Playdate events that are taught by other classmates and use these notes in a reflection assignment at the end of the semester.

Readings (Quizzes/Sketchnotes) || 20% of Final Grade
You will read one chapter of our textbook per week during the first nine weeks of the semester and each week you will choose to either take an open book quiz on Canvas, or complete a sketch note activity, where you create detailed notes and simple drawings relevant to the ideas in the chapter.

Choice Assignments (complete 3) || 7% of Final Grade
There are 3 choice assignments which let you dive deeper into topics we have discussed in class. For each assignment you will have a few options to choose from based on your own interests.

Course Final || 5% of Final Grade
The course final will not be a test. Instead it will be an activity planning project where you can put into action many of the ideas that you learned throughout the course.

Grading Policy

ASSIGNMENT WEIGHTS:  Although most assignments are graded on a 5 point scale, each assignment group is weighted differently. You can refer to the course schedule, the syllabus, or the Assignments page in Canvas to see how each assignment is weighted. 
SCORING: A few assignments will be assessed as complete/incomplete but most assignments will be assessed on the following 5 point scale:
5 Point Scoring Rubric
  • 5 POINTS: A MODEL Product | All of the requirements are evident and exceeded.The product is very neatly done and extremely well organizedThe product is complete, detailed, and analyticalCompleted on time
  • 4 POINTS: What Is EXPECTED | All of the requirements are evident and met.The product is very neatly done and well organizedThe product is complete and detailed
  • 3 POINTS: ALMOST What Is EXPECTED | Almost all requirements are evident (maybe 1 or 2 are missing)The product is neatly done and organizedThe product is complete but may lack detail
  • 2 POINTS: SORT of What Is EXPECTED | Most requirements are evident (maybe 3 or 4 are missing)The product is done and sort of organizedThe product is incomplete but attempts at completion are clear
  • 1 POINT: NOT what is expected | Many of the requirements are NOT PRESENTThe product is very poorly done and/or poorly organizedThe product is incomplete
  • 0 POINTS: Does NOT Meet Standards | Cannot be scored or no product

Instructor's policies on late assignments and/or makeup work

LATE POLICY All assignment descriptions and due dates are listed in Canvas. If you submit work by the due date and receive a score lower than a 4, you may revise and resubmit it without penalty. All revisions must be submitted before the last week of class. If you submit work after the due date, you may not resubmit it and you might not receive written feedback.

Instructor Feedback

Feedback is an important part of learning.  Please look for feedback on your assignments in the speed grader. It is my goal to:
  • Respond to student messages within 1 business day
  • Provide grades and feedback within 5 - 7 days from the due date

Course Outline

Module 1: Introductions
This week we will get to know each other and the syllabus. 

Module 2: Creative Thinking
This week we are going to become familiar with a definition of creativity that we will use throughout the semester. We will learn why creativity is so important and discuss why several people think that we are in a creativity crisis. 

Module 3: The Creative Process
This week we will discuss the components of the creative process.

Module 4: A Look at Creative Environments
We will discuss how to plan creative activities and how to assess them for quality. We will also read and talk about how to set up an environment to foster creativity.

Module 5: Characteristics of Creative Children and Adults
This week we will discuss the characteristics of creative people and learn ways that you can help children develop these characteristics.

Module 6: The Teacher's Role
This week we will explore the role a teacher (parent, caregiver, etc) can play to help children practice and develop their creative capacities. We will also begin learning about theatre, also known as drama, and how to develop creative theatre activities for young children. We will also talk about why imagination and play are so important for young .

Module 7: The Role of Play in Creativity
We will continue our unit on theatre and play this week as we learn about storytelling and tinkering and experience student theatre presentations. 

Module 8: Extending Thinking with Materials
We will begin our unit on visual art this week. We will talk about the visual art core standards, explore drawing, and use a variety of art materials that work well for young children. We will also learn about the stages of development in art that children progress through as they grow.

Module 9: Displaying and Documenting Student Work
This week we will finish exploring visual art by experimenting with a variety of art materials and discussing loose parts play.

Module 10: Expanding the Community of Support
This week we will finish our visual art unit, discuss community resources to support art education, and begin learning about music. We will learn about the music national standards and explore a variety of online music education resources.

Module 11: Music
This week you will experiment with several hands-on instruments that are commonly used with children. We will also explore body percussion.

Module 12: Pitched Percussion
We will finish our music unit this week by experimenting with pitched percussion instruments.

Module 13: Movement
This week we will end our music movement by discussing how to add music to picture book read-alouds and we will begin learning about movement.

Module 14: Movement and The Senses
This week we will finish our movement unit and explore sensory activities

Attendance Policy

You are registered for a Face-to-Face course and attendance is required. Classes are held at 10 am on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays in room ED 105. Please strive to attend every class and be on time and to participate in ways that are appropriate for each day’s goal: by actively listening, taking notes, asking questions, offering comments, and actively participating in in-class arts activities. Points are assigned for each day in class. Up to 3 "free" absences per student are allowed, no questions asked. Attendance points will be adjusted at the end of the semester.

Course Fees

Program and Course Fees

Additional Course Policies and Resources

Artificial Intelligence
If you wish to use ChatGPT (or other similar tools that generate text) for any part of a graded assignment (from idea generation to text creation to text editing), you must first ask for permission and explain how you plan to use the tool. In addition, you must properly cite ChatGPT. Failure to cite ChatGPT is considered a violation of the plagiarism standard of the SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2Links to an external site.). Violations could result in failure of the assignment or failure of the course.

Campus Resources and Services
SUU has several resources and services available to support you during your time here at SUU, please review this list of SUU Campus Resources and Services and the Student Code of Conduct. For more information on Canvas and other technologies, and their statements on Accessibility and Privacy statements please review our Vendor Resources page.Canvas Information
Canvas is  where course content, grades, and communication will reside for this course.
For Passwords or any other computer-related technical support:
For Canvas help:

ADA Statement

Students with medical, psychological, learning, or other disabilities desiring academic adjustments, accommodations, or auxiliary aids will need to contact the Disability Resource Center, located in Room 206F of the Sharwan Smith Center or by phone at (435) 865-8042. The Disability Resource Center determines eligibility for and authorizes the provision of services.

If your instructor requires attendance, you may need to seek an ADA accommodation to request an exception to this attendance policy. Please contact the Disability Resource Center to determine what, if any, ADA accommodations are reasonable and appropriate.

Academic Credit

According to the federal definition of a Carnegie credit hour: A credit hour of work is the equivalent of approximately 60 minutes of class time or independent study work. A minimum of 45 hours of work by each student is required for each unit of credit. Credit is earned only when course requirements are met. One (1) credit hour is equivalent to 15 contact hours of lecture, discussion, testing, evaluation, or seminar, as well as 30 hours of student homework. An equivalent amount of work is expected for laboratory work, internships, practica, studio, and other academic work leading to the awarding of credit hours. Credit granted for individual courses, labs, or studio classes ranges from 0.5 to 15 credit hours per semester.

Academic Freedom

SUU is operated for the common good of the greater community it serves. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Academic Freedom is the right of faculty to study, discuss, investigate, teach, and publish. Academic Freedom is essential to these purposes and applies to both teaching and research.

Academic Freedom in the realm of teaching is fundamental for the protection of the rights of the faculty member and of you, the student, with respect to the free pursuit of learning and discovery. Faculty members possess the right to full freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects. They may present any controversial material relevant to their courses and their intended learning outcomes, but they shall take care not to introduce into their teaching controversial materials which have no relation to the subject being taught or the intended learning outcomes for the course.

As such, students enrolled in any course at SUU may encounter topics, perspectives, and ideas that are unfamiliar or controversial, with the educational intent of providing a meaningful learning environment that fosters your growth and development. These parameters related to Academic Freedom are included in SUU Policy 6.6.

Academic Misconduct

Scholastic honesty is expected of all students. Dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent (see SUU Policy 6.33). You are expected to have read and understood the current SUU student conduct code (SUU Policy 11.2) regarding student responsibilities and rights, the intellectual property policy (SUU Policy 5.52), information about procedures, and what constitutes acceptable behavior.

Please Note: The use of websites or services that sell essays is a violation of these policies; likewise, the use of websites or services that provide answers to assignments, quizzes, or tests is also a violation of these policies. Regarding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), you should check with your individual course instructor.

Emergency Management Statement

In case of an emergency, the University's Emergency Notification System (ENS) will be activated. Students are encouraged to maintain updated contact information using the link on the homepage of the mySUU portal. In addition, students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Emergency Response Protocols posted in each classroom. Detailed information about the University's emergency management plan can be found at https://www.suu.edu/emergency.

HEOA Compliance Statement

For a full set of Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) compliance statements, please visit https://www.suu.edu/heoa. The sharing of copyrighted material through peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, except as provided under U.S. copyright law, is prohibited by law; additional information can be found at https://my.suu.edu/help/article/1096/heoa-compliance-plan.

You are also expected to comply with policies regarding intellectual property (SUU Policy 5.52) and copyright (SUU Policy 5.54).

Mandatory Reporting

University policy (SUU Policy 5.60) requires instructors to report disclosures received from students that indicate they have been subjected to sexual misconduct/harassment. The University defines sexual harassment consistent with Federal Regulations (34 C.F.R. Part 106, Subpart D) to include quid pro quo, hostile environment harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking. When students communicate this information to an instructor in-person, by email, or within writing assignments, the instructor will report that to the Title IX Coordinator to ensure students receive support from the Title IX Office. A reporting form is available at https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?SouthernUtahUniv

Non-Discrimination Statement

SUU is committed to fostering an inclusive community of lifelong learners and believes our university's encompassing of different views, beliefs, and identities makes us stronger, more innovative, and better prepared for the global society.

SUU does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex (including sex discrimination and sexual harassment), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, ancestry, disability status, pregnancy, pregnancy-related conditions, genetic information, military status, veteran status, or other bases protected by applicable law in employment, treatment, admission, access to educational programs and activities, or other University benefits or services.

SUU strives to cultivate a campus environment that encourages freedom of expression from diverse viewpoints. We encourage all to dialogue within a spirit of respect, civility, and decency.

For additional information on non-discrimination, please see SUU Policy 5.27 and/or visit https://www.suu.edu/nondiscrimination.

Pregnancy

Students who are or become pregnant during this course may receive reasonable modifications to facilitate continued access and participation in the course. Pregnancy and related conditions are broadly defined to include pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, and recovery. To obtain reasonable modifications, please make a request to title9@suu.edu. To learn more visit: https://www.suu.edu/titleix/pregnancy.html.

Disclaimer Statement

Information contained in this syllabus, other than the grading, late assignments, makeup work, and attendance policies, may be subject to change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.