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Music: Exploring and creating sounds of a wetland's environment using diverse sources

Movement: Developing an imaginary jungle trial, incorporating gross motor movements and imaginative play.

Drama: Role-playing as animals from nature fostering empathy and creativity.

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Connection to my country visit experience

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Connection to my country visit experience

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The lessons explore play, sound and storytelling with children using nature as an inspiration promoting confidence, creativity and active citizenship while acknowledging each child’s Belonging, Being and Becoming (Australian Government Department of Education [AGDE], 2022)

It invites children to engage with jungle, nature, wildlife, rhythm and imaginative storytelling connecting with EYLF Learning Outcomes 2,4 and 5 (AGDE, 2022).

All activities support creative thinking, nonverbal communication skills and collaborative play linking to VEYLDF outcomes and indigenous perspectives.

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Walk around Nunawading reserve from my last assessment

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Walk around Nunawading reserve from my last assessment

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Children explore the sounds of the natural environment by creating auditory experiences using diverse instruments.

Learning environment including physical, temporal, social and intellectual elements is collaboratively utilized to support exploration and engagement (AGDE, 2022).

This lesson is designed to foster social connection and encourage children to express themselves freely, without the fear of judgement from others (UNICEF, 2013).

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1. Settlings & Beginning: Begin with children closing their eyes and focusing their ears. Playing recording from recent country visit.

2. Exploration: Inviting them to mimic the sound they hear using voice, sources nearby like table, plates or everyday items not just musical instruments.

3. Layering sounds: Introduce layers as children take part e.g., one child plays air, another child imitates water, another bird. Blending them together to form an orchestra.

4. Reflection: Conclude with reflection: “How did it feel to explore these sounds? Will you be able to notice and pay attention to voices when you’re on walk with your mom and Dad?”

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Materials:

1. Audio recordings from At2

2. Wooden door, shoes

Reflection:

Participants were highly attentive to the audio recording

Attempted to mimic sounds, showed improvement, although certain sounds were challenging to replicate

In the future, incorporating a short story with children’s mimicking the sounds

As an educator, I can use this approach to help children explore traditional stories in class

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Overview: By using pillows and blankets to create an imaginary jungle environment, children will develop their gross motor skill as they jump, move and explore while engaging in an imaginative play.

The focus of this lesson is Transition, a crucial aspect of early childhood education. This lesson plan supports children in experiencing continuity, fostering smoother and positive transitions and promoting natural connection through Aboriginal perspectives (AGDE, 2022).

Drawing on Wilson (2018), this activity focuses less on direct teaching and more on children sharing their knowledge, creating an environment of active investigation and exploration.

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1. Setting the scene: Arrange the environment with pillows as “rocks”, a chair as a “log”.

2. Welcome: Introduce the Jungle adventure, “We’re in Jungle everyone! Guess which animal you might be today?”

3. Movement: As the scene goes on, children move through the obstacles with required guidance, imitate animals like frogs, monkeys and snakes.

4. Challenge: Play sound effects to change pace like rain and wind audio to speed up, birds chirping to slow them down.

5. Reflection: Ask children about their favorite movement, animals and weather experience.

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Materials:

1. Audio clips from At2

2. Pillows and chair

Reflection:

Participant followed instructions well, showing imagination and active listening

Their pace and movements changed with the sound, aligning with my intention for the activity

The space was bit smaller for this practice; in future, I will select larger area with more movement resources

In early childhood settings, I can use this activity to actively engage children, support their movement and develop their gross motor skills.

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Children role-play as animals from the wetlands, respond to interview-questions nonverbally such as gestures, sounds or movement. Rather than focusing on the result or product, this learning experience emphasizes active participation, shifting attention to motivation and self-expression, as each child engage through their individual learning strategies (Edwards et al., 2011)

This lesson aims to deliver the knowledge of respect for nature and support learning through linguistically diverse methods (AGDE, 2022)

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Engaging music, movement and drama enhanced my understanding of the importance of the natural environment in children’s learning. Each lesson was designed to support cognitive, socio-emotional, creativity, and sensory development which also revealed the value of holistic approach to teaching and learning. Guided by Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr’s philosophy of Dadirri, I focused to know children, listen to them and connect with them ((MiriamRoseFoundation, 2017). This process brought me closer to nature and encouraged deeper reflection on Indigenous perspectives. Through this process, I started to see the importance of music, movement and drama as a holistic approach to learning.

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Lesson 1: Music- wetlands Soundscape copy EB017FA5 1BFC 4760 A840 D77AE18DEF8C

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References

Australian Government Department of Education [AGDE] (2022). Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (V2.0). Australian Government Department of Education for the

Ministerial Council.

Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (Eds.). (2011). The hundred languages of children : The reggio emilia experience in transformation. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

MiriamRoseFoundation. (2017, June 1). Dadirri (official Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr video) :: 3 minute promo [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/tow2tR_ezL8

Wilson, R. (2018). Nature and Young Children: Encouraging Creative Play and Learning in Natural Environments (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315148533

UNICEF. (2013, June 13). [Title of video] [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/gIwhGbnY_uI?si=f7gbzBWCz6xYYsBG

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1. Introduction: Assign each child an animal role for the drama.

2. Interview: Ask Children about their animal’s favorite food, shelter, sound.

3. Children’s answer: Children respond through voice, imagination and movements.

4. Reflection: Ask children what they learnt and their favorite learning experience.

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Reflection:

Participant was more expressive than I expected.

They explained the animal’s nature verbally as well, going beyond expectations.

For future practice, cue cards with animal faces could be introduced for guessing games and role-play.

In early childhood settings, this activity could support children in developing imaginative nature stories with animals as characters

Materials

Questions only

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https://youtube.com/shorts/xxodNrarqR0

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Drama- Nonverbal answer-based animal interviews