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1. Sound activity - listening with eyes open and closed. Children in this activity will listen to the video recording from my experience in assessment 2. First, they will listen to the sound with their eyes closed, and after that, they will listen to and watch the video. We will spend 5 minutes on each part, and after each one, we will talk about what we heard and how it made us feel. Did we hear something different when our eyes were closed? Where did our imagination take us? What stories did we create in our minds?

2. Movement activity – children in this activity will listen to the sounds from the first activity, and I will tell a little story that will follow the sound. Children will be encouraged to if they like to listen to their body and move if they will like too. Through this activity, children will explore  (Ungunmerr-Baumann 2002) Dadirri: inner deep listening and quiet still awareness. After, we will discuss the sound impact on our emotions and why are body has moved in that particular way. Where did our thoughts take us? What has our imagination created?

3. Sound & movement activity – In this activity, children will listen to the sounds with a story from activity two. When listening to the sound, children will be encouraged to pick an object in the room and use it in whatever way they like following the emotion and sound they are listening to. After each, we will analyse what they felt or imagined when listening to the recording.

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1.       Video with sound of the nature

A child aged 5. In the first part, the child lay on the floor with closed eyes, and I played the video; the child first just spent a few minutes listening to the nature sounds from my recording. After the recording, I asked, how do you feel? He replied I feel calm; I almost fell asleep.

A: Can you tell me what did you hear?

W: I heard the wind, water and birds.

A: Can you tell me where your imagination took you?

W: I thought we were in nature somewhere where is water and we were going for a swim. It reminded me of when we went camping.

A: Let's now try with our eyes open and find something you didn't notice when listening.

After watching and listening to the same recording, William explained that this time he heard footsteps and saw a lake and a small waterfall. He thought about magic woods and how he will like to jump over those rocks and maybe jump in the water if it was clean.

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Sound and words

While playing the same recording, I have also told a little story.

You are a river, flowing down slowly; be like a flowing river. Sun reflects on your surface and warms up your shallow shore.

You are strong and silent at night; if stars are in the sky, you reflect them back. The sound of the river became louder, and the water started rippling over the rocks. As flowing water rushes over and around the rocks, air bubbles become mixed, and you can feel the water rise and slowly cover your feet.

In the beginning, William was sitting peacefully on the floor with his legs crossed, listening to the recording as I started to tell the story; he started moving his body from left to right. He then stood up, took his socks off, and started jumping up and down.

After we finish with the recording, I ask him, William, how do you feel now?

W: Funny!

A: what made you feel funny?

W: I don't know, it just did; I thought about jumping in the water when you said that water would cover my feet.

A: Where did your imagination take you?

W: I didn't want to be river as I am scared of deep water. But I wanted to jump in the puddles and spray water all around.

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In this activity, I had four children aged 4-5. Children were listening to the sound recording; some decided to sit, some to lie down. After a few minutes, one child got up and started walking around the chair slowly and speeding up with wide arms open. The second child took a toy aeroplane and started mimicking an aeroplane flight.

After we listen to the recording, ask children, can you tell me a story that your imagination created while listening to the recording.

Child 1: Once upon a time, there was a river, long and still, but one day there was a storm, and the water started rising and rising, and the flood came to the city because people didn't look after the planet.

A: How did this make you feel?

Child 1: I was afraid a little bit and thought that something would happen?

A: Do you think that is why your imagination created that story about the flood?

Child 1: Yes, I think so, and I was running around the chair as I was scared and looking place to climb up.

A: Child 2, why did you decide to take a plane and pretend you are flying?

Child 2: I thought I was on the plane and looking down on that river.

A: How did you feel?

Child 2: I'm not sure; I think I was a bit scared as I was in the plain high in the sky.

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The experience that I had when connecting with nature surprised me and took me on a personal path, and it triggered some deep thinking reflected in the dramatical way of telling a personal story.

I wanted to see if children could experience something like this; I wanted to see where their imagination would take them and also can nature influence their emotions?

At the beginning of this unit, I wasn't sure what we would learn about, and my mind was focused on the general music and movement, like songs and dances and the benefits of it and how to incorporate them into the daily routines, but now when I am almost on the end of this unit I see that I want to explore more, this unit took me out of my comfortability and made me think out of the box. I have realised that this creative work doesn't have a right and wrong answer and the way you must follow it. It allowed me to look deep into my feelings and thoughts and see and understand the connection with a place on a different level.

I now understand how to open a different perspective, show children another way to connect with a place and land, listen to their imagination, understand that their surroundings impact their individual thoughts, and how we all see and experience our surroundings differently.

In all three activities, sound influenced children's emotions, and they could recognise and describe how and what made them feel like that, according to (Hanna 2014). Combining art and music may also build a "whole mind" learning through complex connections of social, emotional, and cultural meanings.

Teaching children and opening their minds to the ability to just sit and listen to the sound of nature is essential for Aboriginal teaching to learn and to find inner peace even in the most stressful times in their life. The contemplative way of Dadirri spreads over our whole life. It renews us and brings us peace. It makes us feel whole again… (Baumann, 2002)

Children in these activities express themselves in many languages. As per Reggio Emilia's theory "The Hundred Languages of Children" Children experiment and develop competencies in using spoken language, gestures, drawing, painting, building, clay and wire sculpture, shadow play, collage, dramatic play, music, and emerging writing (The Hundred Languages of Children: the Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation 2011)

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Hanna, W 2014, 'A Reggio-inspired music atelier: opening the door between visual arts and music', Early Childhood Education Journal, vol. 42, no. 4, Springer Netherlands, pp. 287–294, viewed <https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1036230&authtype=shib&custid=s1145751>.

ISSN: 10823301

Ungunmerr-Baumann, MR 2002, Dadirri: inner deep listening and quiet still awareness, Emmaus Productions, pp. 1–4, accessed from http://www.dadirri.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Dadirri-Inner-Deep-Listening-M-R-Ungunmerr-Bauman-Refl1.pdf.

The Hundred Languages of Children: the Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation, 3rd Edition : The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation, edited by Carolyn Edwards, et al., ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/detail.action?docID=820317.
Created from vu on 2022-06-16 12:02:04.