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Before this unit, I was not considering music, movement and drama in early childhood education significantly linking to outside environments. I didn’t think about the effectiveness of exploring these learning in outside.

Through my experiences with children mostly outside, I have witnessed their enthusiastic responses to music and drama in a nature. This made me reflect on my current practices in outdoor settings and gain insight into how the rich natural environment can enhance children's learning in music, movement, and drama while fostering sense of place and wonder of nature. I would like to pay more attention to the outside learning space to be flexible to rearrange and recreate with natural resources and sound-making materials to accommodate child-led play, which offers endless opportunities for sensory experiences, imaginative play, and the interweaving of music, movement, and drama into their learning journeys (Wilson, 2018).

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The power point presentation by Yumi Password: Nadia@VU2023

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In this activity, children will guess the sounds of different creatures or plants. Once guessed, I will demonstrate a related yoga pose for each creature or plant, and the children will copy my pose.

During the activity, when we make the pose of a tree, rain sounds will be created with drumming, and the children will move their bodies according to the rain sounds.

Preparation: inside

The power point presentation

Smart TV

Drum with drumsticks

Learning outcome: To use their auditory sense and body movement to explore nature.

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While in the wetland, I observed the movements of birds, trees and water. I felt a sense of belonging, being a part of this nature. This feeling of belonging is fundamental for children to establish a connection with their community. To reconcile with the aboriginal community, children need to first understand own community. Then, we can connect with each other while respecting our differences (Hamm, 2015).

This experience led me to consider: can children wonder at nature by recognising the sounds of nature and moving as nature does?

This activity encourages children to learn about the nature around them by listening carefully and creating the movements of the nature. Children can express their understanding and learning through physical movement. This experiential approach is relating to the concept of the sense of place, where young children develop emotional connections to the people and environment around them (Wilson, 2018). By engaging with nature through sound and movement, children can deepen their connection to their environment, raising a sense of belonging and appreciation for the natural world.

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Children actively participated in the activity, engaging with guessing the nature around them. They made efforts to imitate the yoga poses, displaying their stability skills which is one of fundamental movement skills.

Interestingly, the response of children moving freely as a tree in various rain condition was diverse. Some children actively moved around. some children simply stood still, as they might have a different idea of how a tree behaves.

Next time, it would be beneficial to try it outside, allowing the children to have a direct sensory experience of nature. By moving the activity outdoors, we can create a more authentic connection to the natural environment.

In the future, I would like to regularly challenge children a range of yoga poses that are associated with the natural world as I have found the benefits of this activity in fostering a connection to the environment through the engagement of the whole body.

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Children can use drumming techniques to imitate the sound of raindrops. They can demonstrate the rain falling softly as a gentle drizzle, and a wild storm with more energetic and rapid drumming patterns.

Preparation: outside
Handmade drums
(Buckets and packaging tape)
Drumsticks
Learning outcome: To express nature around with sound.

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During my first visit to the wetland, I noticed that raindrops were creating a strange sound on the metal roof above me. The rhythmic pattern of these raindrops merged with my childhood memories of drumming sounds. This experience led me to consider how children could connect with nature by expressing the sound of rain through drumming. Connecting with nature surrounding is meaningful way to start thinking about the relationship with the land and aboriginal people, the land is alive and it is interacting with us (Hamm, 2015).

Through this activity, children are encouraged to express themselves through dramatical music play. They are given the opportunity to explore sound-making using drumming. Drumming sound is inviting and attracting to anyone, and drums are perfect instruments to play outside, allowing children to be as wild and energetic as they want. I have linked this approach to the idea of how we adapt children's play-based learning and nurture their innate musicality. (Niland,2009)

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After listening to my drumming as raindrops, the children took a lead in the drama, creating a range of sounds from the gentleness of a soft rain, making their body smaller, or the intensity of a stormy rain through their drumming rhythms, with dynamic body movement.

Unfortunately, lots of children had to wait for their turn for drumming.

Next time, I will prepare more drums for more children so that each child can participate and collaborate.

In the future, I would like to incorporate percussion instruments regularly into our outdoor play, as it will provide children with more opportunities to engage in diverse and dramatic musical play.

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Guessing what is inside a shaker and creating one's own shaker using natural materials.

Preparation: outside
Paper cups and masking tapes
Natural materials including acorns.
Learning outcome: To explore the sound experience while investigating natural materials.

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While in the wetland, I listened to sounds coming from nowhere and attempted to guess the source without any visual clues. All sounds were existing in one place and made collaborative work. This deep listening experience offered me a sense of learning of place which links to the aboriginal perspective of listening without hurrying, which is the essential life skill for them to understand the land and people (Ungunmerr-Baumann, 2022). It inspired me to engage in a similar activity of guessing sounds using natural materials found around the yard.

Additionally, this guessing sound play comes with the concept of "sound possibility". Children can discover new sounds based on their prior knowledge. This approach aligns with the Reggio Emilia Approach, which recognizes children as capable individuals with innate abilities and prior learning. (Bond, 2013). Children are encouraged to explore their prior experience with natural materials.

This activity also led to a holistic learning experience, including aspects of sound, volume, weight, numbers, and fine motor skills. These learnings were strongly explored through children's auditory, visual, and tactile sensory experiences as young children fundamentally learn from their senses. (Gano & Krull, 2020).

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Children engaged with the sounds and make guesses about what was inside a shaker. They participated in the mystery shaker activity by creating their own mystery shakers to "trick" me. I used various descriptive words in a different language to describe the sounds, including terms like "tiny," "heavy," and "powdery."

Interestingly, the play unexpectedly evolved into a mathematical concept as the children began to question how many acorns were inside the shakers. We made guesses based on the density of sound and the weight of the shakers.

Next time, I will ask family to bring used boxes for a shaker for sustainability practice.

In my future practice, I would like to prepare a variety of descriptive words in a different language to describe sounds, sensory conditions, and mathematical concepts. This descriptive languages will enrich what they are learning.