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The ducks are having a race along the river, seeing who makes it to the garden bed first.

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The insects have marked their place on the dirt as they have gathered leaves, sticks and rocks.

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The brown leaves have fallen of the tree and became friends with the green leaves and grass. The yellow flower symbolises coming together and brightness.

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As the water falls from the sticks, it creates some bubbles of different sizes.

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The stick is used as a way to go across the rocks or to reach the other side of the river.

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"In a natural environment, sensory learning happens naturally"-Article Diann Gano, Sharron Krull | July 2020

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Each part of my dance included my interpretation of these sounds which I depicted through moving my body to express myself.

At the start of the video, I tried my best to dramatically create the action of the sun and wind, which seemed to appear and disappear quiet frequently during my nature visit. As I lifted my arms up and moved them around, I then did a quick movement of bending down to the ground and covering my face- as I thought about the quick transition of the weather changes.

I used hand and arm movement to pretend to be the different wildlife creatures- insects, ducks and birds. As I moved my arms and hands, I thought about the sounds of each of the animals as I maneourved my body around, to match the sounds of these creatures.

As I moved my body around to depict the water in the river flowing smoothly, I tried to relax as I imagined myself swimming in the river and going with the flow.

As I listened to the sound of the water dripping, I moved up and down using my fingers where I pretended to feel the texture of the water.

This bought me back to the Dardiri article Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Still Awareness as I highly resonated with the quote "We are River people. We cannot hurry the river. We have to move with its current and understand its ways"

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Gano, D. (n.d.). Natural Sensory learning. https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/natural-sensory-learning

National Film Board of Canada. (n.d.). Listen. https://www.nfb.ca/film/listen/

TEDx Talks. (n.d.). Movement, Sound, Play | Artifact Dance Project | TEDxTucson [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrgpeuPbp-I

Article-Dadirri, Inner Deep Listening & Quiet Still Awareness - Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr

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As I danced I felt a sense of freedom and peace. I thought back to the children in my service and how when they are engaging in dancing, they are also using their imagination as they move their bodies to pretend to be something. Eg- a princess as they spin around, a animal as they stomp their feet.

As I have been able to spend time out in nature and actually take the time to listen without any time restraints, I have realised how much we have a set routine with the children at my service.

Often the children do engage in dancing, which seems to be the same repetitive dance songs and ultimately the timing of this is controlled by educators.

This makes me think about how I could expose the children to the sounds of nature, instead of always playing the same music.

Similarly, when exposing children to sound, I have learnt to think outside the box as I have previously thought about the basic concept of musical instruments.

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For my creative response, I decided to do a dance which reflects my experience out in nature and also highlights the different things I heard, observed and felt as I sat down and reflected by a river.

At the start I was abit nervous about doing a dance, as I have never really thought of myself as the best dancer, which I why I wanted to challenge myself and give it ago.

The thought of dancing reminded me of the video Movement, Sound, Play- Artifact Dance project where it was discussed that moving is ultimately the same as dancing quoting “dance and movement are the same” which also eased my nerves a little bit.

Before I did my dance I thought about what stood out to me as I sat by the river and made a list of the different sounds that I could hear- the sound of the wind blowing, airplane flying by in the sky, sound of the water flowing through the river, dripping of the water, birds chirping, insects in the garden beds surrounding the river and ducks quacking in the distance.

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During my experience as I sat by the river, I felt relaxed and stress free as I closed my eyes and listened to the beautiful sounds. The sound that resonated with me and stood out was the sound of the water flowing through the river and the dripping sounds of the water falling from the rocks and leaves.

As a child and still to this day, I have always enjoyed visiting different waterfalls when I feel stressed or overwhelmed.