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Movement and dance—Making wind with parachute and scraves

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Movement and dance—Making wind with parachute and scraves

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I will use parachute and juggle scrafs to create wind. The parachute is big encough for a big gorup of children to be involved and the juggle scarves provides individual opporutnity to create wind on their own. The eduacator will play youtube video Blowing in the Wind: A Scarf Song when the children are using the scarf.

The 16 children are aged from 18 months to 2 years. All children are invited to join the experience. The experience take place on the mat in front of book corner which is big enough for all the children to engage in the experience.

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The children were curious about what’s the parachute when the educator first opened it. But I was making wind with the parachute going up and down, the childnen became uncertain and some children were a bit scared when the parachute was on top of them. So I took out the scrafs staright away and the children picked up the scareves on their own. They love playing juggle scarves. They liked waving it in the air, or hiding their faces under the scarves. When I rolled the scarves into the balls while listening to the lyrics, the children carefully watched what they’re doing and some attemtped to copy my action.

The parachute is a new experience for the children and I will slowly introuce what we can do with the parachute so the children become familiar with this resouce. Because the scareves are popular among witht the children I have been providing scarves for children to explore duirng group time since then.

After this experience I want to be creative and flexible when it comes to music time. Incorporated different props and songs, puppets to extend children’s concentraion span such as ducklings finger puppets when sining Five Little Ducks.

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During my on country walk, I could hear and feel the wind and see the wind blowing on the leaves. As the season changes, I would like children to develop better understanding of the change of our natural enviornment. Through the experience the children can learn that the wind is the result of air movement.

The stimulus objects such as scarfs and blankets encourge children to learn through dance-play as they choose what interests them not just what you want to “teach” them.(Dance Teaching Ideas, n.d.) This is exactly what happened during my movement and dance activity. The children choose what they prefer to use to initial their dancing and movement. After learning that I decide to provide a range of objects for the chilren to explore as the children have their individual preferences regarding to objects’s texures, lengths and color choices.

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Sound—Create the sound of walking on gravel

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Sound—Create the sound of walking on gravel

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I will provide a range of shakers such as wooden shakers and egg shakers for the children to create the sound of gravel. Before that experience, the children are encouraged to feel the texure of the fake grass. They could walk on the fake grass if that’ s what they prefer. I will also provide a sensory play mat for the children to explore which includes tiles, concrete path and stones so the children can feel the differen texures of each resouces. All the resouces will set up in a large play mat so the children to explore and move around freely.

There are 16 children ages from 18 months to 2 yeards old in my room. They are encouraged to join in the activites.

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Few children felt the playmat and fake grass with their fingers when they saw the resouces are on the mat which was something I expected. The children are familair with the textures of the concrete and fake grass because half of our yard is covered by fake grass and the other half is concrete path.

To porvide a stimulating sensory experience for the children next time I will bring in real grass for the children to touch, grab, hold and smell the real grass so they can connect to the nature. The real grass is something lacking in our yard and I believe the children will like walking on the grass which also gives the children a sense of different texture.

The shakers were a hit for the children which proves the children like creating sounds. In the future I would like to create a outdoor music instrucment area using saucers, pot, bamboos, pines, sticks and spoons for the children to explore which can stimulate children’s five sense.

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I was facinated by the sound of my footsteps during my country walk. I could tell the difference of the sound when walking on the concrete and grass. Therefore I would like to set up a listening to walk experience to encourage children to focus on the what’s happening right now.

Diann Gano and Sharron Krull(2020) emphysis the importance of natual play through discussing the benefits to the children’s five senses. The article taught me that sensory play is crucial for the children’s brain development which encouragew me to set up music and movement actvities in the natural world so the children can smell, feel, touch, taste and hear the natural world at the same time. I believe through this practice the children are able to build connection to the place, care for the nature and help children listen more carefully and intently.

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We will read two kangaroos books The kangaroo and the Porpoise and How the Kangaroos Got Their Tails to build the children’s knowledge of kangaroos. After the book the educaor play the youtube video Do the kangaroo Kids Animals Dance song to encourage role play and get the children body moving.

There are 13 children who are aged from 18 months to 2 years old in the room and they’re encouaged to all join. The experience will be set up in the yard so the children can jump and dance freely which also provides an opportunity for the childrento emerge their senses in the nature around us.

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The children listened to the book for a short period of time and some children walked away. One child took the book from me and began to read on her own. I played the youtue video Do the Kangaroo with sound only (no screen time), the children came back to the mat on their own. Some started to jump like kangaroos and laughed with their peers. Some observed what others were doing quietly. The children stayed for the whole song until it finished.

I think after the unit materiels my view regarding to drama changes. I used to consider drama as only pretend play, dress-up experience. Now I understand music movements and books reading can provide different opportunties for children to engage into drama play. The children are encouraged to use their imagation and fantasy to be the characters and animals they want to be during music time and book reading.

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When I saw the kangaroos hopping around, I think of how much our children love the song Sleeping Bunnies. Action songs always caputre the children’s attention so I think it’s a great idea to introduce a new action song to the children. I find a great action song Do the Kangaroos online which I decide to use it for my experience.

To make story telling interesting, I will bring in props linking to the reading materials. When reading books about kangaroos, I will show the children with kangaroos toys( preferbally soft toys if I can find some) which allows the children to feel the texutre of their skins and develop better understanding of what does kangaroo look like compared to other animals. The video Sensory Storytelling Guide: A Webinar for Teachers and Parents (Sensorium Theater, 2016) inspires me to be a better story teller. The video is a great resouce for teachers and parents. It’s not just useful for stories reading to the children with disabilities, it also gives me a great idea to engage young children especially toddlers during group time. The young children have short attention span. With differnt props to attract their attention, I believe the story telling will be a fun and interesting hands-on experience for them.