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Bond, V. L. (2013) Follow and Facilitate: What Music Educators Can Learn from the Reggio Emilia Approach, General Music Today, Volume 27 n1 pp. 24-28, DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1048371313480798

Katharine, G.  (2013). ClickView. Boday Percussion. https://online.clickview.com.au/libraries/series/7766/music-moves/videos/7767/body-percussion

Slater, O.J.E. (2020) Storying: A Reflection on Entanglements with Indigenous Australian Methodology, Cambridge Educational Research e-Journal, Volume 7, pp. 9-17, DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.58324

Stevens, K. (2022). Creative Dance for Early Childhood |. Dance Teaching Ideas. https://danceteachingideas.com/creative-dance-movement-for-toddlers/

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Plan for a Drama / Story-telling activity

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Plan for a Drama / Story-telling activity

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I planned the puppet story-telling activity based on my creative response to my recent country walk through Royal Botanic gardens Victoria---Melbourne Gardens.

This puppet story-telling activity is based on the dream time story of a black swan. I used several props in this activity, such as, wooden puppets (white swan and black swan), blue ribbons created as the waterhole, and the fierce eagle and black crow printable puppets.

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I planned a movement and dance activity for a small group of children, and this dance activity is related to my creative response to my country walk to the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria---Melbourne Gardens. I was so inspired by seeing the beautiful black swan, the way it was swimming in the river is so elegant; the way it was flying away from the river is so graceful. I shared the video of the black swan swimming in the river with the children. And I helped the children put on the Tutus which they chose for themselves. Then I played the Swan Lake piano music composed by Tchaikovsky on the iPad. I encouraged children to think of themselves as the beautiful swan, as it swims and dances around the river gracefully. Then the children started to dance with me expressively and freely while they listened to the beautiful piano music of Swan Lake.

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I planned a Body Percussion activity as a music and sound learning experience related to my creative response to my county walk through Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria---Melbourne Gardens. I remembered walking through the Royal Melbourne Gardens I saw that beautiful black swan swimming in the river, my brain started to play the piano music---Swan Lake composed by Tchaikovsky. Then I felt it was a very interesting concept to use the Swan Lake Melody in my music activity plan. Also, I was inspired by the video of the Body Percussion (Katharine, 2013), which I watched during class time. Therefore, combined with these two concepts, I had planned this Body percussion music and sound activity accompanied by the Swan Lake melody. I started this music activity by singing the Swan Lake Melody and clapping my hands together. My demonstration stimulated children to listen to the melody I sang while clapping their hands to go with the rhythms.

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Reflection about the story-telling activity

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Reflection about the story-telling activity

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Children were very engaged in the puppet story-telling activity. The wooden swan puppets, the printable eagle and crow puppets got their full attention, the vivid ribbons created relevant waterhole for children to see and stretch their imaginations as active listening to my active telling about the story of black swan. Through this learning experience, children practiced their sensory skills, built up children’ vocabulary, cognitive skills and sympathy, and strengthened their imagination. Everything went well. Children were very engaged, and learning outcomes were reached. The only thing that wasn’t perfect was I did not provide an ample time for children to use these puppets in their own play.

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Why do I plan Body Percussion with the Swan lake Melody music and sound activity for the children?

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Why do I plan Body Percussion with the Swan lake Melody music and sound activity for the children?

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As I believe children are capable and born musical, through my daily observation of children, I found children are really interested in music and sound, they can find and explore sounds around themselves. As soon as they heard sound, they stop what they are doing at that moment. For example, during the group time, when I started to sing “make a circle, make a circle, big and round, big and round…”, most of the children stopped their own activities and came to join with me. Another example is children like to create their own music. I noticed a few children used shuffles to knock the fence when they were playing outdoors.

Before this session, I never thought Clapping hands can be classified as a concept of Body percussion. I never though Body Percussion is a great way to explore sounds and create music. As Bond (2013) cited from Berger and Cooper that the children should be a key factor to be encouraged to lead the music play. Educators should always be a facilitator, partner and explorer alongside the children thought the process of children’s music play. Furthermore, as music is often listed as one of the hundred languages for children to express and communicate with the world around them. I think it is necessary to plan some fun music activities to help children engaging in music and sound play.

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Reflection about Body Percussion music and sound activity

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Reflection about Body Percussion music and sound activity

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Children showed great interests and joy to participate in this music and sound activity. They listened actively to my voice when I song Swan Lake Melody and followed my instructions to clap hands with the rhymes. Through this learning experience, it extends children’s interest in music, and helps children building their confidence, and practicing their listening skills and rhythm and tempo exercises. But I also realized only showing the video of my county walk and the black swan swimming in the river to the children are not enough. I should introduce the original piano music of the Swan Lake to children first, not the melody from my singing. Then the children can experience the true beauty of the piano music of the Swan Lake. I will involve more listening and musicking play activities in my daily practice.

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Why do I plan this movement and dance activity for children?

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Why do I plan this movement and dance activity for children?

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As I believe the children are full of potentials and capable beings, and they are natural wigglers. According to the statement from the article Creative dance for early childhood (Stevens, 2022). Children can benefit a lot from dance-play activities. Dance can help children with developing their balance and motor skills, strengthening their concentration and attentiveness, promoting spatial awareness and developing and stretching their imagination and creativity. All these benefits lay the foundation for the accumulation of the basic skills for successful life in the future. Therefore, based on these benefits from dance activity, and children love playing with dress-ups, I set up this dance activity to extend their interest, encourage children’s pretend play and movement.

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The dance activity went very well. Children really enjoyed dressing up and dancing freely as a swan. It is the first-time the children wore dress-up outdoors, normally we encouraged children to keep the dress-ups indoors. They were so excited to dance outdoors too. I will plan more learning experiences for children to dress-up and dancing and moving outdoors.

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Why do I plan this story-telling activity for children?

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Why do I plan this story-telling activity for children?

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I created this puppet story-telling activity based on the reading I read from learning this unit. Slater is a First Nations PhD student, her article Storying: A Reflection on Entanglements with Indigenous Australian Methodology (Slater, 2020) introduced she that First Nations used storying as a methodology to share their history and culture. This story-based pedagogical practice is not new, such as Yarning circle Approach is an important process within Aboriginal culture and Torres Strait Islander culture. From her personal experience, she stated that her grandmother shared stories to generations and generations, stretching back to the year of 1908.  In addition, story-telling pedagogy encourages active listening and active telling, which paves the way to facilitate with the contemporary education, a flow of knowledge between students and teachers, and between students themselves. Furthermore, sharing Aboriginal dreamtime stories is an easy, valuable, creative and fun way to talk about Aboriginal culture. I believe all Australian children deserve to learn about these rich and diverse cultures of Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. It helps promoting understanding and respect towards cultural diversity for all children.