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[Creative Response] Dance with Nature: The Life Cycle of a Plant

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[Creative Response] Dance with Nature: The Life Cycle of a Plant

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Link Address

https://youtube.com/shorts/idWYF4U_-3o

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Dancing with Nature: The Life Cycle of a Plant

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[Analytical Response]-How this experience would affect my future early childhood education settings

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[Analytical Response]-How this experience would affect my future early childhood education settings

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By creating my movement piece based on the video and voice recordings from my country visit, I came to realise that observation and documentation are essential for deeper interpretation, meaningful learning, and as a stimulus for creative activity (Gandini, 2012).

Inspired by the concept of the atelierista as an educator, I view my role as offering children rich opportunities to explore visual, musical, and other expressive languages. This can be as simple as spending more time outdoors or bringing natural loose parts (such as acorns, pinecones, and leaves) into the classroom. These materials are often gender-neutral and offer greater affordance than conventional toys, as they are open-ended and invite imagination (The Importance of Pretend Play in Natural Settings, 2019).

Engaging in activities such as watching musicals, creating stories together, participating in role play, and reflecting as a group on how the experience made them feel or shifted their thinking can further deepen children's understanding and emotional connection to learning.

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The sense of openness, the fresh air, and the aromatic scent of phytoncides immediately made me feel relaxed and free as I immersed myself in nature. These were elements that indoor classrooms could never offer (Wilson, 2018). The healing power of nature drew me back repeatedly, seeking a deeper connection. With each visit to the park, I discovered smaller details; delicate flowers that were easily missed when walking too quickly. The enormous, deeply stretching roots of the towering trees left me in awe. Different coloured leaves were falling from them, rolling on the ground blown by the wind, which made me wonder how many seasons these trees have had. This is how I created my dance.

Starting with the image of a sprouting seed, I found myself asking a multitude of questions: "How could I make myself as small as possible?" "How can I best express the wonder of plants blooming through music?" This journey led me to discover a piece that embodies these ideas "Discovery," with its soft, soothing rhythm, flowing continuous sounds, and medium-paced beats that mirror the natural, gradual process of growth (AK, 2017). I learned how spending time in nature and private speech would help my problem-solving and challenging my limit of physical abilities (Brooker et al., 2014). By dancing repeatedly in nature, I realised how much more challenging it was with the uneven ground. I tumbled and fell a few times, but it didn’t hurt at all, as the grass provided a natural cushion, nothing like the hard concrete floors of classrooms. After some experiments, my body got used and I could concentrate more on moving as I imagine.

I began by slowly extending my feet, calves, and legs in vertical, diagonal, and horizontal directions, symbolising how sprouts grow from a seed. As the sprouts reach upward, the roots spread deeper into the soil. I lowered my body to the ground, spreading my legs (roots) and arms (leaves) in various directions, mirroring how a plant adjusts its growth in response to sunlight. I twisted my ankles, wrists, hands, fingers, neck, and waist, reflecting the way tree trunks are shaped by twisting stems and branches.

As the seasons change, the music grows louder, mirroring the transition to summer. When autumn and winter come, the music softens. From the tips of my toes and the stretch of my arms and chest upward, I gradually lower my body parts one by one, representing falling leaves. I fold and roll my body on the ground, with my movements growing smaller and heavier, eventually forming a seed, waiting for the next life cycle to begin.

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Another inspiration for my drama came from the possum habitat (the holes in trees) and the tiny fruits scattered around. As a child, I often lost track of time chasing frogs, dragonflies, and collecting little natural loose parts, which used to worry my parents when I came home late. Eventually, they made up a story: if someone didn’t return home before sunset, a ghost would take them away to the ghost world. That story stayed with me and made me rush home whenever I saw the sun beginning to set.

Reflecting on this memory, I imagined a story about a lost baby possum who wandered too far from home while playing with birds and smelling fragrant flowers. The baby possum was suddenly chased by a fox, and the mother possum, worried and searching, eventually saved her baby by confronting the fox.

Since dramatic storytelling supports children’s development of self-regulation, stories like these can help children understand the consequences of their actions and learn to make more responsible decisions (Brooker et al., 2014).

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AK. (2017, March 17). AK - Discovery. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyVfXzDrssw

Brooker, L., Blaise, M., & Edwards, S. (2014). The SAGE Handbook of Play and Learning in Early Childhood. In SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks. SAGE Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473907850

Gandini, L. (2012). The atelier: A conversation with Vea Vecchi. C. Edwards, L. Gandini, & G. Forman (Eds.), The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia experience in transformation (3rd ed., pp. 303–316). ABC-CLIO, LLC. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/reader.action?docID=820317&ppg=330

The Importance of Pretend Play in Natural Settings. (2019). Communityplaythings.com. https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/the-importance-of-pretend-play-in-natural-settings

The Importance of Pretend Play in Natural Settings. (n.d.). Www.communityplaythings.com. https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/the-importance-of-pretend-play-in-natural-settings

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