Southern Nevada Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts, a program of The Smith Center Education and Outreach Department, is an affiliate of the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts™. The Wolf Trap Institute is an internationally respected program that provides innovative arts-based teaching strategies and services to early childhood educators, through the disciplines of drama, music, and movement. Southern Nevada Wolf Trap places professional teaching artists in classroom residencies to partner with early childhood educators of children ages three to five years old.
A Southern Nevada Wolf Trap artist residency is a partnership between a teaching artist and a preschool educator. The multiple week residency structure consists of twice weekly 30-minute visits through which artist and teacher work together to provide children with developmentally appropriate arts experiences that are linked to early childhood curriculum and learning guidelines. Together they create arts-based experiences fostering skills and concepts critical to literacy, language development and long-term success in school.
Research has shown that the collaborative use of the performing arts techniques and strategies can enhance young children’s developmental skills and improves outcomes in key areas including:
-
Emergent literacy and language development
-
Comprehension and verbal skills
-
Problem solving and critical thinking skills
-
Self-awareness and self-confidence
-
Social and emotional development
-
Creativity
-
Motivation and enthusiasm for learning
Southern Nevada Wolf Trap (SNWT) is a program of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts and has been serving early childhood educators and students ages 3 -5 years old since 2009. As funding is available, SNWT residencies are offered in eligible community preschools and CCSD early childhood classrooms.
