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In my first experience “The Whispering Forest”, I invited the children to sit quietly and listen to the natural sounds around them. They heard birds, trees rustling in the wind and the sound of cars driving by. I asked them to recreate the sounds in a whispered voice. Some whispered bird sounds, while others whispered the sound of the wind. When a strong gust of wind blew through, the children’s whispered sound got increasingly louder, matching the intensity of their environment. At one point, a child said “It sounds creepy”. When the children heard the call of an unusual sounding bird, they began to guess what animal the sound belonged to. Some children suggested it could be a frog, while another child said they thought it sounded like a dinosaur. These ideas inspired the children to create whispered frog croaks and dinosaur roars.

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Movement/Dance "Creatures of the Forest"

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Movement/Dance "Creatures of the Forest"

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In the second experience, Creatures of the Forest, the children used their bodies to move like animals that might be hiding or hunting in the forest. The children quickly made connections to the sounds they explored in the sound/music experience and decided to move like those animals. They hopped like frogs, flapped their arms like birds and even stomped like dinosaurs. Some children chose to move like the wind, flowing their arms and body back and forth. While I had initially suggested exploring how animals might move in a dangerous forest, the children didn’t want to extend upon their initial movements in that way. Instead, the children remained engaged in the movements of the sounds explored in the sound/music experience. This demonstrated how closely the sound and movement experiences merged together.

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For this experience, I guided the children to walk along a nature rich path in the yard. As we were walking I whispered “Did you hear that? I think someone’s following us. Let’s hide”. I crouched down behind a bush and the children immediately crouched down around me. When I asked “Do you think we’re safe?” one of the children slowly stood up and looked over the bush and said “No not safe” After a few seconds, the same child looked over the bush again and said “They’re gone run away” and all the children instantly started running. When we got to the end of the path one of the children said “We’re safe” and all the children began to cheer. After my initial prompt, the children began to direct the drama themselves, encouraging each other to hide, run and cheer. This showed strong child agency as they took ownership of the story and decided how to respond together.

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This experience came directly from my creative response in assessment two, where the trees whispered words of warning, transforming a peaceful space into one full of suspense. I was inspired by Schafer’s idea of the world as a continuous composition (New, 2009) and Oliveros’s concept of deep listening (TEDx Talks, 2015), which reminded me how powerful sound can be in shaping experiences. The experience showed children that sound doesn’t always need to be musical to be expressive, even whispers and natural noises can tell a story. MiriamRoseFoundation’s (2017) teaching of Dadirri also influenced me as her idea encouraging the practice of deep, still listening connects with how I will encourage the children to slow down and notice the whispers of the environment. Wilson (2018) highlights that natural environments have a special quality that promotes imaginative and symbolic play, where children can create rules, meaning and stories from open ended materials and sensory input. By turning natural sounds into whispers, the children were practicing symbolic thinking and creativity. This relates to Australian Government Department of Education [AGDE] (2022) outcome 5.2, as children expressed ideas and made meaning using a range of media, exploring natural sounds and their own whispers to communicate story and emotion.

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For this experience, I drew upon the movements of the creative experience in assessment task two, where crouching, hiding and running shaped a sense of danger in the story. I was inspired by the way Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Mutton Bird (2015) performance uses the body as a storytelling instrument. I wanted the children to feel how animals in the forest might move and how these movements could shift mood and meaning. This relates to AGDE (2022) outcome 3.2, as children became strong in their physical learning and wellbeing by exploring, coordination and spatial awareness through imaginative movement in the forest.

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For this experience, I built on the sound and movement experiences by creating a narrative for the children to follow that linked everything together. Like my creative response that was inspired by place, the children’s dramatic story was influenced by the surroundings. The bushes and pathways became props that gave meaning to the story. This relates to AGDE (2022) outcome 5.1 as children interacted verbally and non verbally with others for a range of purposes as the children used both speech and actions to collaborate in the story telling. This relates to research showing that pretend play in natural settings strengthens creativity, problem solving and language development (Wallin, 2019).

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Materials: Outdoor Space

Steps:

1. Gather children in a quiet outdoor space.

2. Invite them to listen silently for 30 seconds.

3. Ask children what sounds they noticed.

4. Introduce the idea of “forest whispers” and model soft, whispering sounds.

5. Encourage children to make their own whispers and layer them together.

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Materials: Open space, outdoors or indoors

Steps:

1. Invite children to imagine they are animals in a dangerous forest

2. Suggest some starting movements (tiptoing like prey, crouching like crocodiles, stretching like birds)

3. Encourage children to invent their own animal moves

4. Shift between slow, sneaky movements and fast, dramatic movements

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Materials: Outdoor space

Steps:

1. Begin walking together through the outdoor space.

2. Set the stage by encouraging children to imagine they’re walking through a forest.

3. Prompt the children by saying lines like “Someone’s following us” or “I think there a dragons in the sky”

4. Encourage the children to respond to the prompts

5. Continue to build tension in the story with various movements and sounds

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The children were deeply engaged in listening to and recreating sounds. They altered their whispers to match the changing strength of the blowing wind. Their imaginary responses to unknown sounds enhanced the experience. The wind often overpowered the quieter sounds which made it difficult to hear a variety of different sounds. Next time I could incorporate different instruments or encourage body percussion to give children more ways to express what they are hearing. The experience showed me how sounds can support imaginative thinking and connection to the environment. It links to research on pretend play in nature which shows that nature supports cognitive and linguistic development (Wallin, 2019).

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The children’s movements were creative and strongly connected to the sounds they heard in the sound/music experience. They used their bodies to express animals and wind movements. The children resisted extending upon their initial movements into moving as if they were those animals in a dangerous forest. Next time I would use a drum to set and change the tempo of movements so that children could experiment with moving slowly to slow beats or quickly to fast beats. Through this experience, I saw how movement emerges naturally from sound exploration. It reminds me of Allara’s (2018) Walla Is Life, where rhythm and movement express connection to Country. The children moving like wind, frogs or birds showed how movement can be a way of connecting to place and story through the body.

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The children embraced the suspense and built the drama themselves after my first prompt. Their collaboration showed strong verbal and non verbal communication. I had anticipated needing to give them prompts to guide the story, but the children led it almost immediately. Next time, I would give the children the lead more earlier on. This could be done by asking the children to decide the ‘safe places’ in the yard or to create their own story twists. Kilby’s (2017) idea of shifting perspective in The Parallaxis aligns with the children's dramatic play. Through pretending the environment was dangerous, they changed their perspective of a familiar path to something exciting and new. Drama became a way of transforming place and trying out new ways of experiencing it.

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Although I implemented the three experiences separately, they often merged together as the children made links between sound, movement and drama. For example, sound from the first experience inspired animal movements in the second which related to the narrative in the third. This showed me the value of viewing the temporal arts as connected ways of expression.

My perspective of sound, movement and drama has grown through this process. I now see how each one allows children to explore differently. Sound heightens listening, movement carries meaning and drama creates shared stories. Together, they give children the ability to express meaning in rich, playful ways. Wilson (2018) also reminds us that nature play is not just about being outdoors but about actively engaging with nature in ways that promote empathy, imagination and resilience. This reinforces the importance of giving children freedom in natural spaces to co-create, experiment and take ownership of their learning. In my future practices, I will design experiences that allow the arts to blend together, supporting children’s creativity, physical wellbeing and sense of connection to their environment.

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Child looking around the yard to locate where a sound came from and what the sound was

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Evidence of the Movement/Dance Experience

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Evidence of the Movement/Dance Experience

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The children were moving together in a circle so it was difficult to take a photo while maintaining confidentiality.

Some of the child's voice heard throughout this experience include:

"I move my arms like a big wind" Child's movement after hearing a big gust of wind

"I'm fast like my daddy's racecar" Child's movement after hearing the sound of a loud car driving past

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Children on their dramatic walk through the scary forest

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Allara. (2018, November 14). Walla Is Life [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XACgej9L80

Australian Government Department of Education. (2022). Belonging, Being and Becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia (Version V2.0). Australian Government Department of Education. https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf

Bangarra Dance Theatre. (2015, May 20). Bangarra Education Resources Mutton Bird [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-PV98Oshkc

Kilby, J. (2017, April 8). The Parallaxis - A game of walking between worlds. The Parallaxis. https://www.the-parallaxis.com/

MiriamRoseFoundation. (2017, November 29). DADIRRI (Official Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr Video) :: 3 minute promo [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow2tR_ezL8&t=2s

New, D. (2009). Listen [Video]. NFB. https://www.nfb.ca/film/listen/

TEDx Talks. (2015, November 13). The difference between hearing and listening | Pauline Oliveros | TEDxIndianaplois [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QHfOuRrJB8

Wallin, M.L. (2019, June). The Importance of Pretend Play in Natural Settings. Community Playthings. https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/the-importance-of-pretend-play-in-natural-settings#:~:text=When%20children%20are%20given%20the%20time%20and%20space%20to%20play,to%20cognitive%20and%20linguistic%20growth.

Wilson, R.A. (2018). Nature and young children: Encouraging creative play and learning in natural environments (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315148533