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Carter, J. (1998). M., Communication Unwin Hyman. Cutis, D. (2007). as culture: Learning Essays on together media with and young society. New children: A York, NY: Curriculum framework for refective teachers . St. Paul, MN: Redleaf.

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V, Kind, S 7 Kocher, LLM 2016, Encounters with materials in early childhood education, Routledge

Pelo, A 2016, The language of art: inquiry-based studio practices in early childhood settings, Readleaf Press.

Topal, CW & Gandini, L 1999, 'Connections' , Beautifulstuff: learning with found materials, Davis Publications, Worcester, pp. 49-66

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Children can benefit greatly from the wide range of interactions with peers and adults that natural materials facilitate, which in turn helps them learn and build their sense of social and cultural identity. In addition to encouraging their linguistic, social, and emotional growth, giving children the freedom to pursue their passions and express themselves in a variety of artistic mediums (including but not limited to music, visual art, assemblage, and writing) is invaluable (Pelo, 2007). Through their artistic experiments with various natural materials, children engage in an active learning process in which they make human and nonhuman connections with their immediate surroundings, learn about those surroundings, and grow as a result of facing and overcoming new challenges and discovering previously unknown information (Pacini - Ketchabaw, 2010).  It's important to organise and promote outdoor play for a variety of reasons. We're well aware of how much it inspires originality and curiosity in them.
Our role as early childhood educators calls for a greater focus on outdoor activities that provide children a chance to learn about and connect with the natural world in freeform ways.

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Allowing my fingertips to feel the weight of the rock was an interesting sensation. The irregular striations of the rock. The sound proclaimed as my fingertips touched the piano's keys.
With the rock in hand, I couldn't help but dab into the colour. There was a movement happening in me towards a connection with nature. In reference to the paint's freshness. I rubbed the rock onto the sheet. I began to move freely, like a dancer, dipping rocks into various colours of paint and letting them blend to a warm brown.
The rock experiments were starting to make an impact on my perception of how the paint assembly had been disturbed. When I started blending and dabbing into the strokes made from the bark, it seemed like everything was coming together. These connections between the cycles of nature, though, made me receptive to the creative process.

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Experimenting with light/ Shadow was a really fun activity.  When i was putting things on paper i saw the shadow and therefore, after watching their shadow i decided to this activity. I simply create a shadow with a light source and an object in front of it. I can experience the environment around me.

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I was curious about the texture of wet sand. I saw that sand and water combined really smoothly. Almost immediately, it dawned on me that this chaotic activity had resulted in the formation of a stunning assemblage.
Also, I decided to do something with sand after seeing it in the playground. Even so, at first I didn't understand. But as I looked at the sand closely, I noticed that it had a variety of textures and footprints. To try it out, I dumped the sand onto the table and began making a flower. It's a sensory exercise that allows one to concentrate less on the end result and more on the process. Making a flower in the sand allows me to experience the sand's texture.

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With dried leaves, I decided to paint leaves on tree. While using paint with dried leaves i can sense the lightness of the dried leaves. The rustling sound of air flow as they pass through the tangles. These sensory experiences prompted my creative self to paint by stroking the paint across the paper. Allowing this collaboration to make its way to the paper and giving rise to a variety of strokes and scratches.
As I put my mind in touch with the dried leaves, I splattered the paper with a mixture of yellow and green paint.

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Letting the combinations of colours provide fresh intensity. Thick and thin brushstrokes are the result of the tango. These constraints proved useful in considering the manner in which the paint interacted with the materials, the paper and the environment (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Kind and Kocher, 2016, p.54).
As an ECE, I will introduced various activities that can be done with dried leaves to the children. Children may learn a great deal about the differences in smoothness, roughness, softness, and crunchiness via the activity of playing with dried leaves. Children will put their abilities to judge how tightly or loosely they need to grab the leaves to transport them from one location to another to the test as they go from one place to another.

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I was exploring and wondering what I might create with a branch. I made a decision to make a tree. I took a branch and began painting a tree with a brown colour. When I first started building a tree on a piece of paper with a branch, the sound of painting with the branch helped the flow of paint assemblages. I also used drips of water when painting. When I spray water on a tree with a branch stick, the water appears to dance. This dance depicts thickness and thinness, as well as heavy and light strokes. These limits become a way of thinking about how the paint could interact and interfere with one another. I sought to feel the merging of myself with nonhuman components throughout this process by removing the distinctions between order and perfection.

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A child's play should inevitably include natural materials. A child's early experiences benefit from the creative and imaginative stimulation provided by loose objects like twigs, leaves, shells, and sand. Children are more likely to be interested in learning about nature as they have access to natural resources that are not difficult to obtain. With a wide variety of natural and manmade playthings, the outdoor play helps children develop a sense of who they are, what the world is like, where they fit in it, and how they can make a difference (Gandini & Toppal, 1999).
The use of natural materials offers a pleasant experience to the senses. They differ in terms of their sizes, colours, fragrances, and overall textures. Children benefit from increased tactile stimulation offered by these items, which in turn helps them enhance their hand- and finger-awareness as well as their coordination. Natural resources are readily accessible.
The natural material that i will be using for experimenting is branches, dried leaves, rocks, shells, sand and water.

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Shadow play also allows children to understand the basics of cause and effect as they watch what makes a shadow and where the light has to be for a shadow to be cast. They can look at different shapes and sizes by moving their shadows around. Playing with shadows is a great way to improve their gross motor skills and learn to control their body. Children also need a fair amount of focus and self-control to move and hold their shadows in new shapes.

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As an ECE, I will introduce activities that can be done with dried leaves. I will be using dried leaves with different texture, size and colour. The rustling of the leaves is not only an enjoyable exercise for children, but it also helps them refine their listening abilities and potentially figure out why various leaves could sound different. Children can mash up some leaves and listen to the different noises that are made. After that, try to get them to slow down, remain calm, and listen to the sound of the wind rustling the leaves. The practise of mindfulness can be greatly improved by doing so. Children can used these natural leaves for painting activities too.

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Branches from trees are a great natural resource, and children may learn about their unique character and texture just by touching them and playing with them. It can helps children make a link between themselves and the world outside, which can lead to sensory play (Gandini & Topal, 1999). Children's sensory and fine motor skills will develop and be challenged by this fun tree branch activity.

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Playing in the sand and feeling its different textures is a great way for children to learn about the world around them. It can helps children make a link between themselves and the world outside, which can lead to sensory play (Gandini & Topal, 1999). A child's movement and the development of their gross motor skills are emphasised as they use water to make fingerprints in the sand (Pelo,2016). A child's social interaction and problem-solving abilities are fostered, and their cognitive development is strengthened.

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Children benefit from the physical and mental exploration of their environment that a natural substance like rock provides . Preschools can consider include materials like rocks in their outside play areas. Such unfinished pieces are sometimes referred to as "loose components." Children's fine and gross motor abilities might benefit from playing with rocks that include removable pieces. Also, they are able to put into practise several concepts from the fields of art, science, and technology. Reggio-inspired pedagogy puts an emphasis on material use, referring to it as the "bone of curriculum" (Carter & Curtis, 2007).

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As an early childhood educator (ECE), I want to use a tree branch in a variety of ways to engage children in fun and educational play. The children may paint the branches, or they can use the branches to paint with. In addition, I will investigate more child activities that may be completed with the assistance of branch. Including a branch into the games teaches children that they can find inspiration in nature as well as in man-made objects.

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As an early childhood educator i will introduce sand activities to the children. Sand and water play has a surprising number of positive effects on development of children, including the improvement of language and speech, the stimulation of creative thought, and the growth of an understanding of mathematical and scientific ideas.

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As an educator i will be doing this fun learning activity with children in the centre. Through the activities children explore a wide variety of ideas via experiments with light and shadow. Children may learn a great deal from this, from reflection to perspective to size to transparency to colour to placement to interaction to forms. Physical coordination and motor skill development can both benefit from playing with shadows. Even for young children, it takes a fair amount of concentration and self-control to successfully manipulate their shadows into novel forms.

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As an ECE, I will introduce the activities that include the usage of rocks. Children will love the experience of picking up and handling different rocks because to the wide diversity of colours, shapes, patterns, and textures that rocks may have. Playing with rocks  build children's fine motor skills, strength and dexterity. Building up these small muscles also supports independence in 'life' skills like.