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Child sitting down, touching gravel as she meditates

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Quick Summary: This activity-based for children ages 3-5 uses mindful breathing techniques which can teach the children how to shift emotional sates. By using the concept of space, children can explore emotional regulation to help calm them down, or prepare them for a task where they need to focus.

STEP 1: In my activity, I will get children to gather in an open space, in this case the creek. I will then explain to them that they are going to explore ‘space’. I would pose some questions, and facilitate a discussion with the following I wonder statements: For example:

I wonder what space means.

I wonder what we might find in space.

I wonder what it might be like to be in space.

I wonder what words we could use to describe space/stars/the moon/planets.

I wonder what things about space you are most interested in.

Or simply, Why are we here?

STEP 2:

I will sit down with the children at the creek and explain why I call this part of the creek my ‘space’. I will also ask a question like:

What types of noises do you hear?

This will then facilitate the learning activity by me asking the children to close their eyes and listen closely to all the sounds around them. This will only go for a couple of minutes or so.

STEP 3: After they spend some time meditating, I would ask the children to open their eyes, and ask them to share all the different noises they heard when they were relaxed and had their eyes closed.

Spending more time with the children to share their experience of the activity, I would ask my students some questions like:

What did you like/not like about this activity?

Do you feel like you are more relaxed?

Would you like to do this again?

Would you come back to this place again or would you rather go somewhere else?

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Quick summary: Children explore the different types of animals that may live in this terrain. They will then be able to act out the movements of each of these animals. Children will also explore ways that animals might move throughout the course of the day at the creek through prompts from the educators.

STEP 1: Before Starting this activity, I would start by questioning the children about what kinds of animals they think to live here. Once they share their answers, I would show them photos of the different types of animals I think live around the creek.  I could prompt my children with the following:

I wonder how this animal moves.

I wonder what it is doing.

I wonder where it is going?

STEP 2: Diving deeper into the photos, I would explain the main features and characteristics of each animal. For example, a bird has big, long wings that stretch out when they fly.

STEP 3: The educator will read a bunch of prompts on an A4 piece of paper that will help facilitate the children to move and ‘act’ like the animal.

*Note, I can also incorporate costumes in this practice for children to fully embody the animal*

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Kids acting out an emu by balancing on log - this belongs to movement/dance i just couldn't fit it on the same padlet post-

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children engaging in dramatic play by pretending the stick is a cricket bat

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Quick summary: Children will be able to explore the dramatic arts through a walk in the nature. In their walk, children will pick up any object that catches their attention, which will lead them to use their creative imaginations to transform this object.

STEP 1:

Explain to the children that we will be walking near the creek and to keep their eyes peeled for any possible stick, rock, leaf or bark that captures their attention.

STEP 2:

Once all children have found an object, they will sit down, form a circle and place the object in the middle of the circle. One by one, students will pick up a DIFFERENT object from the pile and have 30 seconds to use their creative juices and turn this object into something else. For example, A long stick can become a flying broom, or a microphone stand or a paddle for a boat. To incorporate all children, the others can try and guess what the object is being turned into.

STEP 3:

After the activity, if students are very engaged, the educator may be able to get two students to interact their ‘imaginary’ objects with each other. This can promote more dramatic play through the use of interacting with their friends.

STEP 4: To summarise the activity, I could ask the children the following questions:

Did you think you would ever imagine *hold up object* as (whatever student imagined it) to be?

Do you feel like you could do this with any random object now?

Do you still think that we need toys to play? Or can we use so many different objects from nature?

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All of my three experiences were thought out very clearly to be closely related to the place I visited during my place thought to walk from assessment 2. In my last assessment, I emphasised how closely connected I felt to our first nation people past, present, and emerging. It was such a great feeling to enhance spiritual wellbeing that I could not resist but try to implement it in an engaging way for children to feel the same way I did. Many children may feel stressed and unable to regulate their emotions properly and by going out to the creek to do these types of activities may help their overall health and wellbeing. This is supported through “Walking with place: Storying Reconciliation Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education” by Catherine Hamm. This piece focuses on the aboriginal culture and why it is so important to acknowledge the land we are on. Reinforcing this to the children, even if they might not understand the concept of being on aboriginal land, to have that opportunity to be outside and connect to a place with only natural resources highly aligns with my emerging teaching philosophy. I find that it also gives them an opportunity to stop, look around and appreciate their surroundings. This to me, demonstrates a way of incorporating the concepts of acknowledging the land we are on. This further alludes in my first activity where I got the children to have time to stop and meditate at the creek. This activity was inspired by Pauline Oliveros Ted Talk ‘Hearing and Deep listening’ as Olivero explained that hearing enables perception, but listening involves paying attention both to what is heard and to what is felt. ‘the ear hears, the brain listens. Listening involves subjectivity. Listening can be not the same for everyone' (Oliveros, 2015). As the children were listening to the noises around them with their eyes opened, they communicated to me that all they could hear was ‘screaming birds’ and loud dogs barking from the pedestrians walking past. However, when they closed their eyes and sat in silence for a couple of minutes, they then began to realise all different kinds of sounds like the noise of the waterway, the water hitting the rocks, and the ‘baby birds’ chirping in the trees. Likewise, when I went to this place, I stated that I did not feel connected until I stood still and closed my eyes to fully gather my senses as the background noises of cars and birds were unbearable. As I slowly got lost in a trans, I started to notice all the small details such as the water crashing around. I must be completely honest, I was very stumped. Since I was a child, I have never been musically inclined nor have I ever been the one to do an activity based on sound/music, I’ve always been more of a sporty person. But I’ve realised how much this has changed through doing this 4 week's unit. I find that this is mainly influenced by ‘Music as a language’ By Victor Wooten as he makes you question how music makes you feel and how you can hear it. “When we see something bad or wrong in life maybe we are just seeing it in the wrong octave, maybe IF we could change our perspective, actually if you could see something wrong, you know that you're seeing it in the wrong octave and find a way to change your viewpoint” (Wooten, 2013). This quote stood out for me the most as it highly reflects my findings and understandings. For example, the ability for me to sit down and recognise that sound and music is so important shows an immense amount of personal growth. Before, if you were to ask me about music/sound I would have completely shut off and not have been able to explain how to implement this into a learning experience. This is why, I feel that my first activity of just sitting down and listening to the music of nature, is a vital experience that all children should engage in. The sociocultural theory, a theory that I believe aligns with my personal philosophy enabled me to think outside the box for the Movement experience. ‘Children are only shaped by their environment but also their educators’ (Nolan &Raban, 2015). This quote spoke high volumes to me as it almost gave me a lightbulb moment of realising that if I could add prompts for the children to go off, it can help them shape their own learning and even expand on their current knowledge with the help of the creek surrounding them and providing them fresh stimuli. I believe that no children are alike, they are all their own person and learn all differently. Being able to share these prompts in activity two goes way deeper than the socio-cultural theory, it leans into my own personal ethics as a teacher to give every child an opportunity to learn and interpret what I’m saying in whichever way they desire. The theory of the hundred languages, as proposed by Reggio Emilia states that  ‘Children are capable of learning at their own pace' (Edwards, Gandini & Forman 2011). This statement is just so true as I remember as a child, I would have loved the opportunity for an activity to be opened to your own interpretation, with no time limit, no stress, or pressure. Because I didn't get this as a child, I feel that it is almost necessary for me to implement this into my practice as an early childhood educator. The offering of a variety of learning activities allows for the exploration and strengthening of the children's potential. I find that this relates back to my assessment two through being able to interpret my space the way that I want and to be able to move and sway side to side with the leaves on the tree helped me fully embody and channel my inner thoughts and emotions. Through this, Dadirri influenced me by being able to connect with the theoretical and aesthetic-philosophical perspectives of my surroundings. I regard the animals to be very much a part of my surroundings at the creek as they are an important part of nature and the Aboriginal perspectives. The constructivist approach helped me understand how “Aboriginal people have many pieces of knowledge that shape how they view the world” (Saracho, 2021). This guided me as an emerging educator to create a learning activity that uses movement to incorporate historic memorabilia such as a dance about a kangaroo (Koomurri Aboriginal Kangaroo Dance, 2017.). Even for the children who are non-indigenous, it is great for them to also experience their culture as well, so all children are included and can learn through another lens. In my third activity, experiencing drama, I found it by far the most challenging. As a child, I was always very shy and reserved and would avoid drama class at all costs. I never really understood the purpose of it and thought it was such a waste of time. However, this activity made me really think and understand drama. I wanted this drama activity to be easy so the child would not feel the way I did when I was younger so I made sure it was very interactive at the start (walking around to find items) and let them ease themselves into dramatic play. My mind shifted on the thought of a drama activity when I realised Loris Malaguzzi describes that there are "infinite ways that children can express, explore, and connect their thoughts, feelings, and imaginings." This encouraged me and gave me a sense of reassurance to have faith that the children will love the activity and not shy away from it.  In session 7, an excerpt made me consider something I can use in my practice for the future. I feel like in my activities, I could have been allowed to view ‘each art form with different means of expression and communication’ (Hamilton, A 2015). However, I felt as though I only focused on one expression to receive a learning outcome rather than multiple expressions. So in my future teaching practices, I will allow myself to branch out, and allow children to express more than one thing at once.

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Anon 2017, Koomurri Kangaroo Dance, viewed 20th November 2022, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRJ_XMlnQjc>.

Hamm, C 2015, ‘Walking with place: storying reconciliation pedagogies in early childhood education’, Canadian Children, vol. 40, no. 2, Canadian Association for Young Children, pp. 56–66,  <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=117176256&site=eds-live&authtype=shib&custid=s1145751>.

Oliveros, P. 2015, The difference between hearing and listening: Pauline Oliveros, online video, YouTube, viewed 3 November 2022, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QHfOuRrJB8>.

Nolan, A & Raban, B 2015, Theories into Practice : Understanding and Rethinking Our Work with Young Children and the EYLF, Essential Resources Educational Publishers Ltd.

Olivia N. Saracho & Roy Evans (2021) Theorists and their developmental theories, Early Child Development and Care, 191:7-8, 993-100

Roy, D, Baker, W & Hamilton, A 2015, ‘What are the Arts and what do they “do”?’, Teaching the arts: early childhood and primary education, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, VIC, pp. 11–13.

Ungunmerr-Baumann, MR 2002, Dadirri: deep inner listening and quiet still awareness, Emmaus Productions, viewed 4th of November 2022, <http://www.dadirri.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Dadirri-Inner-Deep-Listening-M-R-Ungunmerr-Bauman-Refl1.pdf>.