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Ruth Wilson (2007) highlights how creative play in natural settings nurtures children’s holistic development cognitive, emotional, physical, social, and aesthetic. What struck me most is how the natural environment itself becomes a stage, inviting children to improvise with light, shadow, leaves, water, stones, and wind. This directly relates to the temporal arts languages of music, movement, and drama. Nature offers its own symphony of sound birdsong, rustling leaves, flowing water that children can listen to deeply and re-create as soundscapes with sticks, stones, or leaf percussion. Their movements in nature climbing trees, jumping puddles, swaying with branches become dance, graceful, improvised, and rooted in rhythm. Natural spaces also spark drama and storytelling, where sticks become wands and logs become castles, allowing children to create narratives shaped by their surroundings. Reading this made me reflect on my own childhood, making “drums” from logs, dancing barefoot on grass, and pretending tree branches were broomsticks in enchanted forests. It reminded me that nature is not just a backdrop but a collaborator in creative play. For teaching practice, I see possibilities in creating sensory nature sessions where children compose “nature songs,” dance with natural sounds, and dramatize stories about the land. Using Wilson’s ideas, the temporal arts can emerge organically in nature, helping children to connect more deeply with the environment through sound, movement, and story.

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Being outside slowed me down in ways I did not expect. At first, I was simply marking the rustle of the leaves, the twirl of light on the branches, and the distant boom of cars. But the longer I allowed myself to remain stationary, the more deeply I listened. The birdsong sounded more like a tune, and the wind alternated from soft murmurs to powerful gusts as if between beats. I watched how my body responded automatically my breathing reduced, my shoulders relaxed, and I began to sway gently with the trees.

This recalled memories of playing in the backyard as a child: sticks were equipment, stones were jewels, and trees were characters in fantasy plays. Stepping into the area today, I felt that same wide-eyed wonder, but with a little background knowledge about how sound, motion, and narrative were converging in front of me. It wasn't necessarily that I was developing a game, and more that I was entering into a production that nature was already staging.

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I went to the Pose Reserve Park in Noble Park, Melbourne, which is more than just a green space, it is a place of connection. It holds a sense of memory through its natural elements, offering opportunities to reflect on how landscapes shape our experiences. As I walk, I recorded wind, bird and movement sounds and photographed natural textures that caught my eye. This moment of noticing situates me in a reciprocal relationship with the space, where I am not only observing but also being shaped by what I encounter.

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I created a soundscape out of the natural sounds from my trip like wind, birds, and footsteps and layered over them some soft tapping, rustling leaves, and humming. It was like I was joining in with nature's rhythms, creating music out of the mundane. This soundscape is my trying to illustrate how nature is already singing, and how we can listen and play along.

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“The trees sway like dancers, whispering their stories in the wind.”

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“The trees sway like dancers, whispering their stories in the wind.”

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This photo is the motion that the branches and trees sway to with the wind, as though they are participating in some quiet dance. The image, even though it doesn't move, carries with it a sense of movement and rhythm, much in the same way as natural choreography that occurs outside. I can imagine the rustling of the leaves as music, blended with birdsong to create a soundscape that is alive. From a philosophical perspective, this resonates with Wilson's (2007) idea that nature is employed as a play partner in creativity—children can find rhythm, drama, and imagination by simply being and doing. It also ensnares Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr's Dadirri pedagogy of profound listening and attentiveness to the subtle spirit of place. In Reggio Emilia terms, this environment is a "third teacher" (Gandini, 2012), offering limitless scope for children to read by sound, movement, and storytelling. To me, the photograph is not a mere snap of trees—it is an offer to listen, to move, and to dream.

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“Every sound and movement in this space feels like part of nature’s orchestra.”

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“Every sound and movement in this space feels like part of nature’s orchestra.”

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This video animates the environment. The wind is front and center, conducting the dance of leaves and branches into fluid movement, and the natural soundscape provides a sustained beat in the background. Seeing this made me recall Victor Wooten's idea that music is a language, where any sound is capable of being part of an ongoing conversation. It also reminded me of Oliveros' concept of Deep Listening, as I could understand how small variations in sound communicated meaning when listened to intently. Philosophically, this moment freezes aesthetics in the beauty of nature rhythm and poetics in the way that movement and sound told a wordless story. To child, such a moment can be a rich stimulus to creative response: they can retell the sweeping trees through dance, overlay natural noises on a group soundscape, or imagine the branches as actors in a play. The movie teaches me that nature does not stop; it keeps performing, inviting us to join in using our own bodies, voices, and imaginations.

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Oliveros, P. (2009). Listen [Video]. National Film Board of Canada. https://www.nfb.ca/film/listen/

Ungunmerr, M.-R. (2017). Dadirri: Inner deep listening and quiet still awareness [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow2tR_ezL8

UNICEF. (n.d.). How music affects your baby’s brain: Mini parenting master class [Video]. UNICEF Parenting. https://www.unicef.org/parenting/child-development/how-music-affects-your-babys-brain-class

UNICEF. (n.d.). Is your baby getting enough music? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_HOBr8H9EM

UNICEF. (n.d.). Baby music: The soundtrack to your child's development [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNAKhgATlAo

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

Wallin, M. L. (n.d.). The importance of pretend play in natural settings. Community Playthings. https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/the-importance-of-pretend-play-in-natural-settings

Wilson, R. (2007). Children, creative play, and the natural environment. In R. Wilson (Ed.), Nature and young children: Encouraging creative play and learning in natural environments (pp. 1–18). Routledge. https://vucollaborate.vu.edu.au/content/enforced/1816406-ECE2008-1-2023-HWB-151670/Nature_and_Young_Children_Encouraging_Creative_Pla..._----_(Chpater_1_Children_creative_play_and_the_natural_environment)2.pdf?ou=2253553