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Above video is showing one of my artefacts, this short video (1min) I took from my visit to the creek. I spent almost 20 minutes there and I felt super close to nature, as you can see in the video, ducks, swans and small birds were swimming calmly, some of them swimming from one side of the water to the other, some were landing gently on the surface of the water, and some were walking on the grassy surface. Some birds were busy in searching for food from the ground and from the grass. I saw few birds were diving into the water from the edge of the creek. Some were flying high in the sky. I could hear the calming sound of water flowing, the wind was swooshing, and flowers and leaves were dancing in the breeze. I could hear a train passing quietly and footsteps of people walking on the nearby path of the creek. Dry leaves were crunching under shoes and sunlight made everything shiny and light golden, even I could see a little shadow on the leaves and in the water. I felt like nature was dancing around me, that creek as a stage, the birds, trees and flowers were the actors and the water, and wind created music. Every single moment of bird's wings, dancing leaves and movement of the water felt so connected and real. The sunlight added extra magical performance in the whole scenario.

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While I spent my time standing by the creek, I felt happiness and a sense of calmness and deep connectivity with the nature. Different sounds of the nature combined made a beautiful song, bird's noises, water splashing, the breeze of the wind and leaves rustling. Movements of the birds reminded me of dances I used to do as a child when playing outside, it reminded me of my childhood when I was pretending to be an animal and creating different sounds of animals, running behind my friends to catch them, holding sticks, hiding in bushes and creating stories and playing long hours. All the movements around me made me feel like I'm in my childhood and I forgot about my everyday busy schedule.

I strongly believe in Wilson (2007) as he said that nature gives open-ended play to children and lots of opportunities to create stories. I could see how children can come to this creek and create their own stories and memories and how they can explore freely and enjoy the nature and develop their creativity by making sounds and creating their own play.

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Music:

Standing by the creek, I heard music in different ways like the calls of birds, the crunching of leaves under shoes, the refreshing sound of water gently compressing against my ear, the soft whisper of the wind and the distant sounds of trains added as an extra layer of background music. I strongly believe Hanna (2014) which shows how music and visual arts connect through listening and through creative exploration and it opens children's imagination and creativity. Music is everywhere; we can feel through sounds.

If I want to create a game with the children, I would suggest them to make music by listening carefully to the surroundings, copy rhythms and even they can make their own songs from the environment. Children do not need a classroom or structured musical instrument, they can discover outside from their surroundings by their own.

Movement:

I felt movements around me by the dancing of trees and flowers in the wind, the birds flew and landed, diving into the water. So, children can create a game of movements by copying birds by running, jumping, skipping, pretending to fly like birds, staying still and swaying like trees and the movements of hands and fingers to show sunrise or make a circle or standing one by one showing the sunrise, finding food with their fingers and hooping like birds and walking on their feet and hands showing like a bird. With all these activities, they can build their body coordination, gross motor skills and even children's own play does not need any structured play while they are playing in the natural environment. Wilson (2012) explains that children's play natural environment does not need any instructions because nature itself gives countless opportunities to children to explore, move and create.

Drama:

As I was standing next to the creek, I noticed that birds acted in different roles, some diving, some looking for food and some flying into the clouds above. The sunlight made the different ''scenes'' stand out, the wind made the leaves and branches more into a swaying motion, making it look like they were dancing with each other. Ungunmerr-Baumann (2002) reminds us about Dadirri, about how nature can support children in slowing down, feeling nature and copying its movements into creative ways and creating dramas. Similarly, children can use open space as a stage and pretend like birds, wind, water, trees, leaves, flowers and the rising sun, and they can create their own imagination and story, by developing their story, dividing their roles like be a rising sun, blooming flowers with the hands, trees with swinging and creating different voices, from what they heard from their surroundings. This way they can create their drama.

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This experience shows how important nature and outdoor play for children's learning and development. They don't need toys or structured activities. If children are exploring natural environment, they can create their own play and they can use their own imagination to make their dramas. Wilson (2007) highlights about natural environment which helps children to grow, explore and develop their independence. Even in my childhood more are close to this scenario. As an ECT, I would love to provide children more outdoor play experiences, excursions to parks, gardens and outdoor environment to fulfill their needs of learning creativity and imagination and connect them to the nature.

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Hanna, W. (2014). A Reggio-inspired music atelier: Opening the door between visual arts and music. Early Childhood Education Journal, 42(4), 287–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-013-0610-9

ISSN: 10823301

Ungunmerr-Baumann, M.-R. (2002). Dadirri: Inner deep listening and quiet still awareness (pp. 1–4). Emmaus Productions. http://www.dadirri.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Dadirri-Inner-Deep-Listening-M-R-Ungunmerr-Bauman-Refl1.pdf

Wilson, R, 2007, Children, creative play, and the natural environment, in R. Wilson (edn) Nature and Young Children: Encouraging Creative Play and Learning in Natural Environments, Routledge. Ch 1, pp 1-18.

Wilson, R. A. (2018). Nature and young children: Encouraging creative play and learning in natural environments (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/vu.edu.au?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.taylorfrancis.com%2Fbooks%2Fmono%2F10.4324%2F9781315148533%2Fnature-young-children-ruth-wilson