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My digital visual journal is an inquiry into movement in Early Childhood from personal, social, and philosophical perspectives using different materials and music in my exploration experience. It is also related to the language of movement, dance, drama, and visual arts and the importance in Early Childhood Education. Teachers of young children use art to refer to spontaneous, open-ended, and often messy explorations of color, and texture, with little or no adult direction or involvement (Ann 2016, p.14).

Therefore, my session starts with collecting materials and extending my ideas of art, not just limited to traditional static objects or products like sculptures, a musical score, a poem, a play, but also collecting living textures, paper, a mix of colour from daily life, waste clothes and other loose parts marerials. I also assemblage the natural sounds into my play, which is an icing on the cake for visual art exploration.

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Dancing with threads while painting over the paper 

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Dancing with threads while painting over the paper 

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During my exploration of using threads to paint on the paper, I mixed all threads together in different ways, in different directions, and every time I moved it, the final painting artifacts will be different depending on how I moved the threads. Painting is one of the most creative ways to enable children to express and symbolize themselves in a non-linguistic and expressive way (Veronica, Sylvia & Laurie 2016). It is also a great way to explore children's motor skills and strengthen manual control. In the painting, children are fine to express themselves in an artistic way, to help them to create their own art and imaginations. The threads played an important role in developing their potential, it needs a grip, and different paint effects can be obtained depending on how the children assemblage those messy threads.  Children will be the admin to control those threads to help them complete their artwork, to make the complex threads into an easier way to help their painting is not an easy job, and requires patience,  but moving the thread in different directions might help children to observe something new every time.

Implication for practice

Art influences Early Learning Centre by changing opinions, instilling values, and translating experiences, across space and time, which might affect the fundamental sense of self. I am thinking to provide more colors and explicit directions for children to explore and encouraging them to try different textures in their daily life such as timber floor, their yard with grass, different paper, and interacting with their friends and family.

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Exploring light and dark art with different liquid 

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Exploring light and dark art with different liquid 

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Playing with light and dark creates a very enjoyable and magical experience for both children and adults, which holds fascination and intrigue, as well as an element of risk and the opportunity for young children to experience it(Linda & Pat 2010). In the dark, I used my candle as the light and chose a different shape of the glass to be filled out with water. However, I did not just observe the water flow in the light but also added other liquids to see the different water movements and colors in the light, including soy sauce, salt, milk, and whiskey wine. The color and the water floating change depending on what liquids I added in, and shows different visual art shade in the dark, which is very beautiful. Playing with light and water by putting different liquids would give the children the most obvious impression of the change, those daily materials that are used to explore light also promote aesthetic awareness and an appreciation of beauty.

Implications for practice

As a future early childhood educator, it is important to use interesting materials and resources to present to children with light play and movements so that they could develop their exploration and investigation at the max level. Using divided trays, boxes, or other loose parts to display light art could also be a great idea, such as cocktail stirrers, festival decorations or natural materials including cones, leaves, and flowers. There are plenty of ways to develop children's natural curiosity during light and shadow playing either with artificial light or natural light. Such opportunities allow educators and children to engage in sustained thinking and build up relationships where joys and fears are open for discussion.

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Music educators have identified several benefits of play-based learning including social, affective, and cognitive development, as well as gross and fine motor control and eye-hand coordination (Wendy 2017, p.15). Music is a universal spoken language, an easy language to narrow the gap between human beings and build up rapport shortly. I noticed that children usually become more relaxing and engaging when they heard music in my previous placement experience, so I started to collect bottles to make a musical instrument - a drum. However, playing the drum with the same rhythm could be boring, so I poured in different amounts of water to diverse the rhythm to make different sounds depending on how much water I poured in.

Implication for practice

Music is a basic language for children to speak and communicate with each, which allows children to explore more movements by listening to different music. I explore the possibilities to make various rhythms with household items and materials so that children can listen to different music, learn from them and extend their movement postures. On the other hand, if we could find a more spacious outdoor space, educators can encourage children to bring their hand-made instruments to play in a natural environment. With birds singing together, the wind blowing across leaves, and other noises from cars, this will be a symphony of nature.

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How paper changes into something meaningful by moving and folding it around 

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How paper changes into something meaningful by moving and folding it around 

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When teacher knows that when they come across matching parts of objects, children often see them as eyes (Cathy & Lella 1999). An interesting research has influenced me to start folding paper and shape them into different more meaningful subjects. The research asked children to experiment with changing the placement of a faical features before they offer them glue in order to extend the exploration and make the task more intriguing. When the paper changing its shapes, it turns into a small koala face which I have used as my artefact and decorate the house by hand-made artwork. The book also stated about the interaction of paper with water, floow and children bodies, there is a rhythm in the movement which can be seen with repetition of doing, folding, filling, emptying and covering.

Implication for pratice

Manipulating paper with their hands helps children learn concepts that may otherwise seem abstract. In addition, paper folding and movement allows children to create and manipulate basic geometic shaprs such as squares, rectangles, and triangles. A chiild must have find motor dexterity to pick up a piece of pepar, steady it to make a bend, and reinforce the bend into a fold, which also develops their ability to plan and control a two-handed moter act.

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Paper blocks are important for children art and craft 

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Paper blocks are important for children art and craft 

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Papercraft and assemblage is another type of art to dig out children's imagination and creation. Materials do not just feel or act differently from each other, or have different properties, or produce different forms and images, but also provoke different ways of thinking as a child engages and works with them (Veronica, Sylvia & Laurie 2016). So I started to seek some natural shapes of paper boxes and assemblage them in various ways to explore different combinations. Children can make a different type of craft with paper boxes movement like the model of a building as the photo shows above, a night lamp with a candle inside, or paper vast with some hand-painting.

Implication for practice

Paper crafts are a great at-home activity to spend time with family members and ignite children's imagination. It helps us slow down, work through a task step-by-step and reach a goal with a high sense of achievement. Beyond these benefits, engaging with children in a papercraft can spark joy and promote new concepts through creative learning.

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Embedding Indigenous map using watercolor as time goes by 

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Embedding Indigenous map using watercolor as time goes by 

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As working at University and other diverse organization for over 2 years, I can tell the importance of Indigenous culture in Australia, so I tried to embed aboriginal symbol into the play. I spread the painting watercolour on the paper. and observe its viscosity, as the liquid moving on paper and creating basic shape pf aboriginal pattern. Then I left the paper under the air for 24 hours and the colour has changed after 24 hours and the shape has been blowed away as well, which I think it looks more beautiful now. Watts (2013) mentioned that the implementation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures will enhance educational outcomes in a higher level, where to build on cultural awareness, understanding and bring changes for education journey.

Implication for practice

Embeding aboriginal culture is exceptional important in early childhood education in Australia, it can support aboriginal children's sense of identity and belonging, as well as promoting a culture of understanding and respect towards cultural diversity for all children. Imerging the concept of time into play is an icing on the cake, it easily to require children to pay more attention to the changes of the painting, the nature items and other items around their life. Innovative artistic activities are open, encourage critical thinking, and support the process with paying particular attention to the product.

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It is evident from the experimental inquiry and readings from the unit that art is very important for children to explore their potential and imaginative thinking. Children are curious from the moment they have control over their limbs, they go out into the world and see how everything works. Art forces children to engage in out of the box thinking and can help them hone their creative problem-solving skills.  Art also allows them to express their feelings and learn about the importance of various artefacts and art across cultures and times. Movement allows children to connect concepts to action and children can learn through trial and error.
Where art is connected, it is the process of creating, exploring, discovering and experimenting, that has the greatest value in early learning period. Through self-expression and creativity, children's skills will develop naturally, and their ability to create will soar.

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Ann, P 2016, The language of Art: Inquiry-Based Studio Practice in Early Childhood Settings, Redleaf Press.

Cathy, WT & Lella G 1999, Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials, lecture noes, Early Childhood Curriculum and Pedagogy: the Arts ECE6006, Victoria University, delivered 13 May 2022.

Linda, T & Pat, B 2010, Exploring Light and Dark with Early Years, Teaching Expertise, Worldpress, viewed 28 July 2021, https://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/exploring-light-and-dark-with-early.

Veronica, PK, Sylvia, K & Laurie, L, M, K 2016, Encounters with materials in early childhood education, Routledge.

Watts, V 2013, Indigenous place – thought & agency amongst human and non-human (First Woman and Sky Woman go on a European world tour), Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, Queen’s University, Canada, pp. 20-34, https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/19145/16234.

Wendell, H 2017, The Children’s Music Studio: A Reggio-Inspired Approach, Oxford University Press, USA.