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Temporal Language: Music/Sound

VEYLDF Outcomes:

Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators

Summary:

Children listen deeply to natural wind sounds and use natural materials (leaves, bark, and seed pods) to create their own “wind songs.” This activity encourages children to imagine what the Earth might be saying through the wind and to explore sound as a form of storytelling.

Materials:

Natural materials: leaves, seed pods, bark, small sticks

Quiet indoor or outdoor space

Steps:

1. Gather children and show video from your on-country visit

2. Invite children to close their eyes and listen in to the sounds that they can hear outside/on Country.
Ask children: “Listen with your whole body, not just your ears. What do you feel?” (Drawing on Dadirri, the practice of deep listening.)

3. Whole-group discussion
Ask the prompt:
“What story do you think the wind is telling?”

4. After the discussion, introduce children to select a natural item or instrument and explore how to use it to recreate wind sounds; soft rustling, tapping, whooshing.

5. Guide the children to create a collaborative soundscape, layering their wind sounds gently.

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Temporal Language: Dance/Movement

VEYLDF Outcomes:

Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity

Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

Summary:

Children explore how their bodies can express what wind feels like, using movement to embody different wind movements using scarves and flowing movement. Through guided imaginative prompts, they explore how the wind moves through nature and how their bodies can reflect those rhythms.

Materials:

Scarves

On-country visit video/soundscape (Ass 2)

Outdoor space

Steps:

1. Show children the on-country visit video.
Ask: “What do you think the wind is saying to the trees? What stories might it be carrying?

2. Hand out scarves and invite children to feel how they move like the wind. Children can watch the scarves’ dance as they blow in the wind and replicate those movements. Encourage children to close their eyes briefly while holding their scarf and imagine they are the wind.

3. After a few minutes of watching the scarves’ movements in the wind, ask the children to give them back. They will now begin with their own movements.

4. Instruct the children that we will be using our bodies like they are the scarves blowing in the wind. Ask the children:
“How can we move our bodies  in the wind?”
“How did the scarves move?”

Encourage children to use their whole-body.

5. Begin with guided movement:

“Can you move like a gentle breeze?”
“Now try a strong gust of wind”

6. Lead children through a “wind journey”:
“Now we have become the wind, we will travel around and see Country”

. Over mountains
. Through trees
. Across rivers

7. After this, gather in a yarning circle to reflect.

Ask:
“How did moving like the wind make you feel?”
“Where did you travel/what places on Country did you visit?”

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Temporal Language: Drama

VEYLDF Outcomes:

Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world

Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners

Summary:

Inspired by Aboriginal Ways of Knowing through oral storytelling and the belief that land holds memory and voice, children take part in a dramatic storytelling, imagining what secrets the wind might whisper across the land. Through props and roleplay, they become elements of nature such as trees, rocks, animals, and create their own short stories inspired by what they hear and feel in the wind.

Materials:

Large cloth (to represent “The Wind”)

On country visit video from Ass 2

Indoor or outdoor space

Props (try to use natural items found outside; leaves, sticks, rocks etc.)

Steps:

1. Find a clear space outside where you and the children can sit down.

2. Gather children in the outdoor space.
“Today, we’re going to hear a story carried by the wind. Aboriginal people believe the land is full of stories and nature has a lot of sounds. If we listen to these, we can be closer with nature (Dadirri). Let’s listen closely.”

3. Play the on-country visit video and invite quiet listening.

4. Begin a group storytelling session with this prompt:
“The wind told me a secret today...”
Pass the cloth (the “wind”) around the circle.

5. Guide dramatic responses with prompts like:

“What did the wind whisper to you?”
“What would you like to whisper back to the wind?”

6. As a group, build a short performance story inspired by the children’s responses. Use props and costumes made from natural items found outside such as leaves, branches and rocks etc.

7. End with a reflective yarning circle:

Discuss:

"What we did in this activity was practice something called Daddiri. Dadirri means to listen in to Country. We also shared stories from this. Aboriginal people have been doing this for years. It is how they learn about things."

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The learning experiences I created build on the sensory-rich storytelling in Assessment Two by offering children opportunities to respond to Country through sound, movement, and drama. Inspired by a windy on-Country visit, I designed outdoor, play-based experiences that deepen children’s relationship with the land. Drawing on Reggio Emilia principles (Edwards et al., 2011), I view children as capable, expressive learners who communicate through many languages. Bond (2013) and Niland (2009) both highlight the value of music and sound as natural extensions of children’s curiosity and creativity.

Each experience draws on each of the temporal languages, for sound; I encouraged deep listening to natural soundscapes and musical play inspired by Niland’s (2009) work. Movement experiences connected with Wilson’s (2007) insights into how the natural environment invites creativity and embodied exploration. Dramatic play encouraged narrative-building and expression, aligning with the Reggio Emilia approach that emphasises on multifaceted meaning-making.

Aboriginal perspectives are central to these experiences, particularly in Activity 3, where children engage in dramatic storytelling through the concept of Dadirri; deep, reflective listening to Country (Ungunmerr, n.d.). Children imagine what the wind might whisper, using cloth and movement to become elements of the land. This honours Aboriginal understandings of Country as living, with memory and voice.

These experiences align with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) (VCAA, 2016) particularly in supporting children’s identity, wellbeing, and communication. Children are active participants in their learning as they engage with nature and express their understandings through creative and sensory experiences.

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Activity 1 photo: Listening in to the outdoor soundscape. 

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Activity 1 photo: Listening in to the outdoor soundscape. 

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Activity 1 photo: Using leaves from the outdoor environment to recreate the sounds of the wind.

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Activity 1 photo: Using leaves from the outdoor environment to recreate the sounds of the wind.

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Activity 2 photo: Watching the scarf's movements as it dances in the wind.

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Activity 2 photo: Watching the scarf's movements as it dances in the wind.

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Activity 2 photo: Dance like the wind - gentle breeze

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Activity 2 photo: Dance like the wind - gentle breeze

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Activity 2 photo: Dance like the wind - strong gust.

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Activity 2 photo: Dance like the wind - strong gust.

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Activity 3 photo: Passing the cloth (wind) as we respond with what the wind whispered to us.

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Activity 3 photo: Passing the cloth (wind) as we respond with what the wind whispered to us.

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Activity 3 photo: Lilian said "the wind told me that the great kookaburra is coming to visit us today".

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Activity 3 photo: Lilian said "the wind told me that the great kookaburra is coming to visit us today".

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Activity 3 photo: We used natural props such as large palm leaves on Country to be the wings of our kookaburra costume.

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Activity 3 photo: We used natural props such as large palm leaves on Country to be the wings of our kookaburra costume.

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Activity 3 photo: Our performance was about a kookaburra coming to visit us from far away and telling us of the places he visited along the way.

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Activity 3 photo: Our performance was about a kookaburra coming to visit us from far away and telling us of the places he visited along the way.

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Overall, I feel the activities went fairly well, but not having access to children made a big difference. These experiences really rely on the natural imagination, curiosity, and spontaneous responses that children bring and without that, something was missing. I kept imagining how much richer the moments would have been with their input, ideas, and energy. I genuinely believe that if I had the chance to do these with a group of children, they would be meaningful, engaging, and full of learning. One thing I might rethink is Activity Two, as it depends on a windy day to fully come to life. That kind of moment can’t always be planned, so I would either prepare a flexible backup or adjust it slightly to suit what the weather offers.

This experience has helped me realise how much I value child-led, sensory-based learning, and how essential children’s presence is in bringing these ideas to life. In future practice, I will be more intentional about creating open-ended, temporal experiences that allow children to express themselves in ways that feel natural to them, whether that is through sound, movement or drama, I now see music, movement, and drama not just as “activities,” but as powerful languages children use to connect with place, community, and themselves.

Resources like ‘Dadirri’ (Ungunmerr, n.d.) reminded me of the importance of deep listening, not just to sound, but to silence and presence. ‘Wala is Life’ (2018) showed me that music can be a conversation with Country. ‘The Parallaxis’ (Kilby, n.d.) inspired me to be imaginative and see things from a child’s perspective in drama, and ‘Listen’ (Schafer, 2009) made me reconsider the everyday soundscape as a space for learning.

This unit shifted my thinking about the temporal languages. Music, movement, and drama are not just creative arts; they are essential ways of communicating, knowing and being. I am excited to carry this perspective into my future classrooms, where children can lead with their bodies, voices, and stories.