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On Country Visit: Nature walks in Bayview Park

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On Country Visit: Nature walks in Bayview Park

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It was a sunny Tuesday afternoon; I took a nature walk in Bayview Park nearby my house. It was the first time I went there without my own children; I had valuable time to closely observe the place and give ear to the nature sound around.

The park was well facilitated with physical equipment, and a very beautiful view from the top of the pirate hill. There was a big pirate ship located on the hilltop and a giant slide to slide down to the playground.

As I was walking along the hilltop, I can hear wind blowing soundly around my ears, tree branches rustling in gusts and vibration, birds chirping happily when flying through the branches, metal clashing as children playing around the frame, ball bouncing from the basketball court and the car’s engine rumbling by the road. I climbed up the giant pirate ship and took a broad view of the whole park, an unprecedented feeling of relaxation and far look arose spontaneously, I can see houses standing tidily in rows, trees bracing the park closely, and children busily running up and down the hills with their friends. When I walked down the deck of the pirate ship, I noticed hordes of ants were moving in lines from one side of the board to the other.

The lively and vivid senesce made me feel like in a real pirate ship that was ready to go on another voyage journey and the sea chanty was ringing out beside my ears.

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Creative Response: Pirate walking and sing the sea chanty.

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Creative Response: Pirate walking and sing the sea chanty.

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There once was a ship that put to sea,

The name of the ship was Pirate O’ Tea;

The wind blew up, the sticks knocking down,

Oh blow, my pirate blow, blow (huh).

Soon may the sailors come,

To bring us pinecone, barks and leaves;

One day, when the winter is done,

We’ll take our leave and go!

This time, I was back to the pirate ship and ready to start a new voyage journey from the hilltop view. I was putting on a pirate hat, wearing a pirate turban, holding a pirate flag, and using a metal cup to knock the mast as the pirate drum before they set off the ship. All the props were putting myself as the role of a pirate ship captain. I started to sing the “Wellerman” sea chanty, I changed the word and make features of the place into the song, such as “Pirate O’ Tea”, “sticks knocking down”, “pinecone, barks and leaves”, “winter is done”. I walked around the pirate ship with cup knocking and waving hands and hat, the musical pattern, songs, body movements and connections with the natural environment and facilities were all trying to express a scene of a pirate parade.

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Analytical response: Music as a language---Natural sounds compose a new sea chanty

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Analytical response: Music as a language---Natural sounds compose a new sea chanty

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As I was standing at the hilltop and leaning against the handrail of the pirate ship, I heard the wind blowing and howling strongly beside my ears, the tree branches rustling and swaying in gusts and vibration, the car’s engine rumbling by the road. I felt I was sitting in a giant pirate ship that was ready for its adventure, the wind howling like waves roaring, the tree rustling like sea lapping, and the car rumbling like the ship engine booming.

A group of children were running up to the pirate ship, they were talking, chatting, clapping and stamping, they used fallen wigs to knock the handrail and made a sound pattern like “Da-da-da-da-da”. Mixed the far-off ball bouncing sound from the basketball court, a familiar melody came into my mind about the song, “There once was a ship that put to sea, the name of the ship was Billy O’ Tea”, I hummed this popular sea chanty and put everything I saw around the pirate ship into my singing, such as “sticks, pinecone, barks and leaves”. I felt I was like a little kid who was completely immersed in one’s favourite rhymes, singing, playing and imaginations.

Linking to my unite study of Victor Wooten’s perspectives in Tedtalk (2013), he mentioned “Listen to any child’s voice, listen to any body’s voice, there’s no pure music than that”. According to this, I believe that natural sounds are the original resources of music, such as wind blowing, tree rustling, engine rumbling and children’s voices, these elements intertwined together and formed a language to describe the busy scene on a pirate ship. Children like adventures, they are good at discovering sounds, living things and hiding pieces from nature and imitating with imagination.

Thinking of my future teaching practice, I recognized children’s enlightenment of music is not limited to the existing songs and rhymes, but origins from the natural environment, the sounds of nature, the sounds of living things and the voice of themselves. Encouraging children to listen to nature, listen to themselves, making connections between places and all senses, are the most effective way to inspire children’s perceptions of music and increase knowledge of the world around.

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Analytical response: Movement in the wild---Dancing and walking like a pirate

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Analytical response: Movement in the wild---Dancing and walking like a pirate

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When the sea chanty ringing out in my head, I couldn’t help to knock the ship handrail with a metal cup and walked my steps like a drunk sailor man. I stepped on the barks to feel the springy surface like the ship was sailing on waves, I waved my arms rhythmically to pretend like playing drums before the ship put out to sea, I took off my pirate hat to greet people like the ship had successfully returned with full of goods on the ship.

This dancing and body movement experience was quite different from the past, it happened in the natural environment, it was aiming to express the perceptions of place and feelings at that moment, and it was spontaneous without planning ahead. Just like the article “Movement in the wild: Nature as Dance Partner” tried to answer, “How can we develop this connection and join in the natural movement around us? You can start by feeling your sensory connection to a natural element and allowing that to expand into movement.” (Candell, 2017) I sensed the natural environment of the pirate ship, I perceived the unique features of the place, I used my temporal movements as medium to express my feelings and connections with all the elements.

The dancing and walking experience enlightened me the benefit of moving and playing in the natural environment. Children feel more relaxed and comfortable to move around freely in an open outdoor place, they are more confident and braver to express themselves through body gestures, movements, languages and using any nature goods they can find at hand. So, allowing children to play in nature, allowing children to make connections with nature in their own ways, are very important to keep children’s instinct of creativity and explorations.

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Analytical response: Drama---Pirate parade in the Pirate Ship

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Analytical response: Drama---Pirate parade in the Pirate Ship

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When I was standing in the pirate ship, I had a broad view of the whole park.  I saw the towering ship mast was standing above the trees, I saw the children were running and laughing around the pirate ship. I imagined I had a telescope in hand to stretch my eyesight, I had a wooden steering wheel to navigate the ship’s directions, I also imagined leading all the sailors’ men to have a parade around the big pirate ship.

Just like Wilson stated in his article “Children, creative play, and the natural environment”, he believed that “Creative play in natural environments allows the naturalistic intelligence to flourish.” (Wilson, 2007) On one hand, imaginations help children to perceive many critical concepts of the real world, such as ship and sea, sailors and captain, steering and navigating. On the other hand, the natural environment can foster children’ s creativity and imagination, and a sense of wonder.

The imaginary play experience in the pirate ship has inspired me to recognized that natural environments and children’s cognitions are closely connected and interacted. On one side, natural environment provide an open-ended, varied and abundant resources for children to explore and experiment; on the other side, children use their all senses, movements and relationships to impact and recreate the environment and places. It reminds me the importance to incorporate imaginary play, pretending game and drama play in my future teaching practice, make use of the unique features of places to inspire children’s capabilities, skills and development.

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Candell, A. (2017). Movement in the wild: Nature as Dance Partner. The Earthbody Institute. https://www.theearthbodyinstitute.com/2017/03/movement-in-the-wild-nature-as-dance-partner/

Wooten, V. (2013). Music as a Language: Victor Wooten at TEDxGabriolaIsland. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0

Wilson,R. (2007). Children, Creative play, and the natural environment. Nature and young children: encouraging creative play and learning in natural environments. Routledge. Ch1, pp 1-18.