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For me, each material has its special use for teaching practice. And they support different aspects of children's development and can be used in different scenarios and stages.

Paper is easy to access and use. I think it’s the most popular material for handicrafts for teachers and children. I like junk and I think junk can provide children with a dynamic place to take a challenge and be creative. Clay helps children learn about places, nonhuman and the environment. Light is so special and it can inspire  us to think of a deeper feeling of our life and to learn about the endless universe.

As a teacher, it's necessary to learn and have a deep understanding of these materials.

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Light is natural energy that makes us see and things are visible (Vucollabrate 2019). Not like paper, junk and clay that we can touch it, feel it and smell it, light is a material that we may not regard it as a material.  It's intangible and will appear or disappear in a second. We’re surrounded by it but most of the time don’t realize it. Light will become magical with the support of other materials and have more meanings by working with other materials.

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We can’t live without light. It’s the most important energy in the earth. Light is anywhere and nowhere. Sometimes we just can’t hold the light as we want. Light is a material that becomes more meaning and interesting with the support of other materials.

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I look at the shadows projected by the projector in the classroom. They are so mysterious and magical.  Light always gives me a warm and bright feeling. Light and shadow they make a perfect couple. Sometimes shadows make us realize the existing of light. They provide us with an opportunity to sit down and listen to the voice from our deep heart when light works with shadow.

My son likes to play the shadow game with me before going to bed. Sometimes we use shadow to tell a story. Light and shadow game is also a good and safe way to lead children to open their minds and share their feeling about happiness or sadness. I think this is the way we listen with light.

When I did my placement, I noticed there was some stained glass at the corner of the classroom. Children seldom to play with it. I feel like light is an abstractive material and has to be work with other materials. But it's a great way to give children space by using light and shadow to help them open their minds and share their feeling. Light is also a material that can inspire young children to think of science and explore their interests in the endless universe.

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There are some pieces of clay sitting on the classroom's floor, some are soft and have been rub into different shapes, some look like hard brick. I grab a piece of soft clay and feel it carefully. It seems like playdough but much resilience than playdough. And it's flavourless. I check the definition of clay from the dictionary. It shows that clay is a stiff, sticky fine-grained earth that can be moulded when wet, and is dried and baked to make bricks, pottery, and ceramics (The Dictionary 2019).

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I rub and poke the clay. My hands become yellow.  I remember I went to the Melbourne Museum last school holiday with my son. We experienced the painting by using Aboriginal paints. The paints made from some kind of rocks with red, yellow and brown colour. We added some water and rubbed the rock on a stone to make paints. I've been told the rocks belong to the land and were not allowed to take away from the land by Aboriginal culture.

Clay looks similar to the rocks. It becomes soft and pinchable after putting water in. I study the clay on my hands, it's clean and has no residues on it.  I'm wondering where these clays come from and what were their initial states on the land? Does it belong anywhere and what will be different if the clays still stay on the land?

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In the first week, we explored paper in class. Paper is one of my favourite materials to make handicrafts. It is easy to access and use. We can see the paper in different states in our life, such as books, newspapers, catalogues, boxes, toilet paper, cardboard, etc.  Paper is important to human life even though some papers have been replaced by electronic paper now. From the dictionary, I know paper is a material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances (The Dictionary 2019).  Paper is thin, foldable, white, colourful, bright, crunch, flexible. We can cut it, pinch it, poke it, press it, fold it, craft it, throw it, burn it, drop it, float it, soak it, etc.

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Some people think junk is useless and of little value. We produce different kinds of junk every day of our life. For example, boxes, bottles, bags, old iron, glass, wood, metal and other waste. Junk can be found everywhere, such as at home, at school, at the office, in the street, at shops, etc. Some of them have risks for human being and can’t be used anymore. Some of them can still be recycled and used in different ways.

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I learned about the history of paper when I was at primary school. Paper, as we know today, was first made by Cai Lun, a Chinese court official in the 2nd century BCE in China. Cai mixed mulberry bark, hemp and rags with water, mashed it into pulp, pressed out the liquid and hung the thin mat to dry in the sun (Paperrecycles 2019). Today paper is made from trees mostly grown on working forests and from recovered paper. Recycling has always been a part of papermaking.

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I see lots of paper handicrafts in the classroom, such as tower, fan and chimney. They are not complex but look cute. Paper is a popular material that has been used into artworks by many artists. It’s been transformed into something truly astonishing by those artists.

I like to use paper to make my handicrafts. Children also love paper handicrafts. When I did my placement, children loved to explore paper and paper relevant stuff. The elder children love to make a crown or a mask with paper. We drew some pictures on the paper, coloured in and cut the shapes off.

Papers bring children an opportunity to put their imagination actually into tangible work. Paper is also a good material to help children build up their aesthetic dimensions. In the words of Gregory Bateson, aesthetics is a sensibility for “the patterns which connect”( Lella et al. 2015)  that helps young children to start to think of the materials in their life and construct knowledge of how to build up their aesthetic about life by using different materials.

However, paper handicrafts and paper artworks do have some limitations. Paper is easy to break. Paper artworks have to be treated very gently. And they can't last long in the outside areas and have to protect from water and rain. As a preservice teacher,  I think paper will be my first introducing material to young children for my teaching practice.

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I love the feeling of kneading the clay. Not like playing with playdough, I have to use my strength and try hard to make the piece of clay into what I want. I make a basket full of fruits.

For young children, it may be not easy for them to use clay to make something.  Instead of making something with clay, children may more enjoy playing clay under its other clay ecologies, such as in a river or a forest. Clay has been encountered as ' a site of invention' (Pacini 2016),  what children can get are not only to learn to make something with clays but also to think about the nature, the environment, the place and the life/connections of human being and others. We will experience a different feeling of learning by understanding the different places.

As a teacher, it's important to help children build up the connection with places. Playing with clays can provide an opportunity for children to learn about the relationship with the land, how human interaction with nonhumans and thinking differently about the land and nonhumans. I think clays is a material that offers us an opportunity to better understand the nature and the place we live in.

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Some work players change the destination of junk totally into amazing valuable things to children which are called the loose parts. In a play, loose parts are materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in multiple ways ( Readingplay 2019)

The video ' The land' reminds me of how I played when I was a little girl. At that time my friends and I didn't have lots of exquisite and high technology toys. We found and made our toys by using something from our place or something was thrown by the adults. We were so creative. We designed games and set up the rules for different games. Every game seemed so interesting. When I look at my son now, he has lots of Lego, cars and digital toys, but none of them can bring the 'Wow' to him.

The playground reminds me of how we can use junk. Children have their opportunities to play, try, explore and enjoy at the adventure playground.  Even I want to play inside. Junk in the playground becomes valuable toys for the children and have perfect matching with the place. I watched the children try something that parents wouldn't let them do outside the playground and the children handled this pretty good.

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The photo is from Playgroundfinder.com

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Sometime I will use junk to make some toys for my son and my students. My dad once made a train for my son by using some DHL boxes. My son loves it. Loose parks provide me completely new and deep thinking of using junk and letting children taking risks. I feel it's great if we can build up a small place where children can explore the junk by themselves, even a small corner in the classroom.

Playing with junk allows children to explore the materials in their way in a dynamic environment and encourage children to take risks. As a parent, I want my child to be neat, clean and safe, but sometimes it's good to let children play in a way which is full of unlimited possibility and enjoy themselves without any boundaries.

As a teacher, I think it's important to let young children explore their knowledge and encourage them to be creative and to take challenges. As Lady Allen said: " Better a broken bone than a broken spirit (Play and Playground Encyclopedia 2019). To better utilize junk playing, I think some questions need to be thought carefully before designing junk playing. For example, what does the material bring to the earth or our life and what will affect the children? What we should let children know about the junk before playing with it? Is there any risk or do we as a teacher take away all the risks?