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This journal is a mix of my reflections, pedagogical applications, as well as documentations of my play and encounters with materials. It shines the light on how children are capable of initiating their own learning and encourages multimodal ways of expression.

Children are capable and learn through various ways, and are especially absorbent with the arts, storytelling, music, dance, and movement. These modes that are exciting to children, are often taken for granted by adults, which sometimes lead to cutting off the 99 languages at the head (Edwards et al., 2011).

Therefore, this journal is an open exploration and a series of what-ifs and 'I wonder's that will bring some clarity on how educators and children can learn, investigate, and document their learning.

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As I wandered around the Burwood Library, which is located across a public school, I see signs of children crossing, and a stop sign. As I enter the library there are large text signs saying ‘Children’ and ‘Picture Books’. The books also have large stickers with the author’s last name initial on it.

I looked through 4 picture books:

Shapes of Australia by Bronwyn Bancroft

The Truth About Dragons by Jaime Zollars

The Day We Built The Bridge by Samantha Tidy and Fiona Burrows

I Don’t Like Koala by Sean Ferrell

Through the following books, the illustrations were robust and highly descriptive of the words on the page. Each book has a unique concept of illustration. The book ‘I Don’t Like Koala’, for instance, focuses on more white space and only about the koala, and the little boy. This book specifically talks about having a night routine, not liking the koala such that he wants to go 'away’ (and this concept is very well illustrated by showing how the little boy hides the koala in many different places). Additionally, the illustration shows clearly what ‘don’t like’ means, with many negative emotions portrayed on the boy’s face. The colours on the book are muted, and grey, further adding to the negative connotation of not liking koala.

The Day We Built The Bridge had a very interesting infusion of colours, showing mostly sketches in black and white, however, where the environment, children, books, are present, those illustrations are vibrant and colourful. It explains the history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and has time stamps of when each event occurred, and hindrances to building the bridge. The perspective of the illustration was mostly third person. At the end of the story, when the bridge was built and they celebrated, all the illustrations were colorful. Most of all, the characters and the situation look real and allows children to reflect on their family.

The book Shapes of Australia embeds many brilliant concepts such as the use of simile and personification to bring the elements of land to life. This very colourful book consists of shapes and patterns inspired by Aboriginal culture and describes how natural elements such as mountains and boulders are an integral part of our land. Although it has little text, the verbs are well described in the illustrations. On the page where Bronwyn writes ‘Big boulders withstand the fast-flowing creek’, we see that there are blue lines with dots flowing through the oval shapes meant to be boulders.

Finally, the book The Truth About Dragons carries a mystical aura with its character groups, which are the children and the dragons. It initially describes dragons as fierce, loud, and illustrations support each of the sounds they make, with curled lines enveloping the dragon’s mouth as it mentions them roaring. It is unique how they blend the children and the dragons together such that readers can slowly come to the realisation that children and dragons have similarities, which was what the author had intended, as revealed at the end of the book. There was a specific illustration whereby a dragon and a child are on opposite ends of the bridge, holding a fighting stance. On the next page, the dragon has turned into the child, and vice versa, their apparel and colour tone indicating they are the same entity/character.

Picture books provide beautiful context and encourage readers to build on existing connections and meanings of the real world.

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(Ungunmerr, 1988)

In the heaviest of storms

When the thunder forms

I bend my knees and

Become so still

I listen to the water

I am made whole

Respect is everlasting

From me to all

In prayer, in speech

My senses are opened

I’ll tune in to this world

I can give and receive

From when I was young

I blabbed and I cried

But now I am older

I will pass down my knowledge

In space, and in silence

Our stories exist

We know we are present

We listen and learn

An ode to our ancestors

Those who have come before us

And to us now, and in the future

May stillness make us wiser

Reflection:
In my pedagogy, I think it would be beneficial for children if we could allocate a few minutes to be still and show respect to our thoughts, our heritage, and our stories. We could also embed deep listening in a sensory corner, for instance, when children are trying to emotionally regulate and are needing to have their time away from the class/group.

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I was inspired by how digital media has caused the popularity of the song 'Green Green Grass' and the corresponding dance move trending on TikTok.

I think this really shows how dancing and music go hand in hand and can not only fine-tune children's balance and motor skills, it also exposes them to concepts such as rhythm, and pitch, as well as stimulate their curiosity in musical instruments such as the ukulele, other percussion instruments that they can makeshift, as well as ignite a passion for singing. This also correlates to Outcome 5 of the EYLF, whereby one of the descriptors states children use music to project meaning (Department of Education, 2022).

Additionally, the lyric and song was inspired by a celebration of life (instead of a funeral) and can raise awareness for concepts of the inevitability of death.

When I was working in vacation care and after-school hours care, this song was most replayed, and I wonder if it's because of its catchy tune and upbeat vibe, but the children seemed to know all of the lyrics. The gap between the musical elements and how they connect, as has been said by Leonard Bernstein, gives way to metaphors, which are essential for humans in making meaning through connections (Neely, 2018).

An implication in early childhood settings could be that children could choose and identify different songs to express their different moods and help them regulate their emotions. Another instance would also be that children join movement and traditional/contemporary music as per Outcome 3 of the EYLF, to promote a strong sense of wellbeing (Department of Education, 2022).

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The TikTok trend that grasped the hearts of parents and children worldwide, and has now taken over speakers in the classroom during play time.

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Green Green Grass (Dance Attachment, Part 2)

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Green Green Grass (Dance Attachment, Part 2)

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My movement with paper launched me into a new way of thinking. I was constrained initially to the potential of paper, but after interrupting its flow, I was caught in the continuous movement and finally understood how materials can pull individuals to join in an exchange of gestures (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2016). We are never solely imposing our will onto a material, but we are caught up with the possibilities and rhythms of making. This made me wonder about the potential of different materials in an ECE setting. Maybe, if I laid out a table with all sorts of materials and invited children to make meaning and move with the materials to their pleasure, both educators and children will be able to celebrate the 100 languages of children, uninhibited.

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Dinosaurs Love Underpants picture book (Freedman, 2011)

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As an educator in Outside of School Hours Care (OSH), I exercise active supervision and constantly interact with children to facilitate play. This day, I was in a public school doing after school hours care, I noticed that as less of their friends were present, some children chose to stay inside by the reading corner, which consisted of a bookshelf and some beanbag chairs.

I saw 2 boys perched on a beanbag, trying to read the words of the picture book. I offered my help to read to them, hoping that they could make linkages between words and pictures. I read with expression, my intonation rising and falling, to bring excitement and suspense to every sentence.

Midway through the book, we encountered the word ‘plight’. I asked them if they knew what it meant. One of the boys responded, “Yes, it is polite, I know what it means.”

This reminded me of when I myself was a child and in my early years, I was reading ‘palace’ as ‘place’, thinking they had the same meaning.

So we started to unpack the word plight, going through similar words (synonyms) such as problem, issue, trouble, difficulty, and moved on.

They had a lot of commentary throughout the book, mostly hypothesising on why dinosaurs were extinct. Was it the volcanoes? Was it the lava? As an educator, I tried to progress the conversation by following the lack of instruction and more question-led approach as shown in the Observing Practice Series Fishing video (ECA Learning Hub, 2012).

They were then fixated on the volcanoes, and this led us to looking at a book on their layers.

I thought that this was an appropriate exercise in intentional teaching with the use of open questioning and engaging in shared thinking (Department of Education, 2022).

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Inspired by the Charlotte's Webb Conceptual PlayWorld, it is very interesting that we are letting children enact risky scenes in a safe environment through sociodramatic play (Monash Education, 2019).

It made me wonder what other stories could potentially lead to 'projects' as explained by the Reggio Emilia perspective, and what kind of discourse and questions this may lead to. It might very well lead to various opportunities for scaffolding and introducing to children to new concepts in nature.

I devised a treasure map with icons/symbols that ascertain different places in the backyard of an early childhood centre containing a sand pit, small pond, and treehouse. I think this play would be very well continued in an early childhood setting by pretending that educators and children are play partners assuming the role of pirates out for a treasure hunt. We could arrive on a 'boat' made out of large recycled cardboard boxes, bring our 'equipment' and follow the map to find the treasure.

Along the way, children will add their own commentary and are capable of adding drama and 'obstacles' in the way, and educators will ask open-ended questions and let the children lead the play.

An even better upgrade to this would be to replace the treasure map symbols with specific animal tokens/traditional objects that serve as a landmark so that children can learn to identify them as well.

Along the way, educators can document that we are combining interactions with the non-human entity alongside this imaginative play to encourage exploration in children.

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Throughout the three weeks of constant learning, a great journey has been embarked upon. I have explored paper as a dynamic material, and how paper has been a vital verb in how I move and make with material (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al., 2016).

I also had a look at how heritage is shared and preserved, especially through music, storytelling, and text. Some practices have been adopted from Indigenous tribes and are applicable in pedagogical settings, such as Daddiri (Ungunmerr, 1988).

Music and dance are also key elements in children's learning as it embeds play and promotes making neural connections and developing motor skills. Overall, my explorations with the hundred languages of children show that as educators become more open to children's potential and flair for invention, more emergent teaching opportunities arise.

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In the book The Hundred Languages of Children, I couldn't help but notice that the book includes a lot of the children's documentation, specifically as I was looking at how a 5-year-old interpreted the system of ballot voting through sketching (Edwards et al., 2012).

In my own experience, I had a child at the outside-of-school-hours centre hand me a piece of paper with her sketch on it. It had two characters on it as well as a 5 tier cake. She built on it by telling more of her story. It was her way of documenting her birthday experience and it led to a conversation on birthdays. She was fully grasping the concept of size, doing comparisons of her own, recalling the cherished memory of her birthday.

"I draw 5 triple layer cake, but my birthday has 3 triple layer cake"

This inspired me to do my own sketch of a recent birthday party I had, which was fun and an amazing way to document how I felt during the occasion. It was fresh in my memory, and I sketched out major points of the birthday, including food and gifts I had received, and a unicorn pinata I had duct-taped to the ceiling of my home. In my opinion, children are able to put a lot of detail as they communicate through drawing. It made me reflect on how as adults, we are often looking just at the big picture of things that happen, but children often are immersed in the place, and they would be fascinated by their surroundings. Many things that for us have only a specific use, have endless possibilities for children.

I also saw that some children were using marks/drawings to communicate with their parents during Mother's Day. On a table laid out where there were some pieces of paper and markers present, some bound the paper into a little booklet, some mixed it with other materials such as fuzzy pipe cleaners as well as glued makeshift paper pockets onto the front page of their card.

This really shows that through children's encounters with materials, they can use it to become effective communicators.