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The enchanted garden free dance | Dance & Movement

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The enchanted garden free dance | Dance & Movement

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For this micro experience, I popped on background music which was themed, ‘fairy and pixie village’. It had enchanted sounds, and magical tones, it felt motivating and uplifting. I explained to my children that the room is now an enchanted garden and you could be anything they wanted to be. I mentioned a few ideas, fairies, elves, pixies, hunters and just being yourself exploring through the garden letting the music guide you into your imagination. Music was on, no words just music and I let them dance around the room in their characters. Some embrace it more than others. Some turned into superheros' as of course that is the interest of the boys at that moment, none the less they still embraced the dramatic music and moved to it. Some went on big walks through the enchanted garden/forest and others were flying and twirling as fairies. We had unicorns, we had mermaids and we had superheroes (Now that’s an enchanted garden if I’ve ever seen one). This linking to my A2 as it was staged/based in the Flagstaff gardens. How the enchated garden came to life.

This is a group of children coming together to get important ideas across as technical foundations are discovered through a group when it comes to dance and movement (TEDX Talks, 2018). This relates to my experience as there is so much movement and dance that does not get recognised intestinally.

The kids loved the enchanted garden and danced the session away as their magical charters with such purpose. Sometimes making me laugh and sometimes surprising me with their actions and moves. Overall, it worked perfectly because it was up to them with the theme, I gave them the to interpret however they imagined.

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Being in my own enchanted garden | Sound & Music 

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Being in my own enchanted garden | Sound & Music 

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This micro experience was done outside, amongst the elements. We normally do music, and dance parties inside but I wanted to take them outside for this experience.  As we have speakers outside, we could be as loud as we wanted. Linking this to my creative response it was out in a garden. Which is why I wanted to take this ecoeince outside in our own garden. We go under the trees and we collected things that could make sounds. I told the children my favourite quote by Victor Wooten. You are born musical (TEDx Talks, 2013) to get the children motivated and give some positive confidence. Then said to the children to pick up an item around the yard that they think can make sounds. They all came back and sat with the items they had collected. Then we popped ourselves amongst the trees and grass and popped a song of their choice, as I didn’t want to be running the show too much, I wanted the children to have a say for themselves. They picked this rock song with a heavy and fun beat. As we sat in our ‘enchanted garden’ playing rock music we were making music with our ‘instruments’ (the items collected from the yard). We had Tyers, we had paint brushes, we had measuring cups, we had test tubes, we had water cans, we had tables and lots more. The children used their bodies to make sound and music through these everyday items.

After a little bit of them just enjoying banging together, playing the drums, and air guitars, I turned the music down and almost off to see if they would notice. They didn’t,  they just loved making their beats and sounds and songs through their instruments of imaginative play. This quote seen in Dadirri captures the essence and importance of the experience at hand. “We don’t like to hurry. There is nothing more important than what we are attending to. There is nothing more urgent that we must hurry away for” (Ungunmerr, 1988).

It was a lovely and loud experience and something that I let the children just explore and take time with. Victor Wooten once said; That we try and teach our children instruments first before teaching them music (TEDx Talks, 2013). This experience lets children explore the language of music on their own time. I had never tried this experience before, and it turned out better than I could have imagined. The children didn’t want to stop!

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Little Mae’s enchanted garden Story Time | Dramatic Arts/ Drama

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Little Mae’s enchanted garden Story Time | Dramatic Arts/ Drama

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For this little micro experience, I read aloud the dramatic story that I submitted for my creative response. I submitted it as a YouTube video with my voiceover but I thought for the children it would be a great experience for them to hear me read it aloud.

To do this I printed off my story, page by page, and stapled it together. Then I read it aloud to my wonderful class. I added all sound effects and different voices and tones used to show different emotions.

They were just as captivated by this story as they were if it were any other storybook. I enjoyed seeing their faces and when they got shocked, by the bee when it got a hold of little Mae. Their facial expressions are just the best. You can tell if they are interested or not.

How much attention do we give ordinary moments in our programs for young children? Cooper, M. (2011) This question evokes that simple things are just as important as dramatic storytelling. it is an essential part of children’s learning in ECE.

The children then went and told me their favourite things about the story and explained what it was all about lastly that they liked the book and my storytelling. (Basically, I’m now a children’s Author, well it’s nice to feel like one for the day).

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The things I learnt, and thought I knew or had an idea about but when entering this world deeper I came to learn more about:

- The topic of music and movement is a rich beautiful experience for children to learn and grow through.

-  Can be a planned experience but most of the time spontaneous.

- I learnt about the temporal arts, meaning temporal isn’t permanent. For example, singing a song with your kinder class is only a temporary moment in time that was experienced then and there.

- This unit relates to Kinetic languages as children learn through carrying out physical activities.

- Music is a language.

Which resources resonated with you the most and why?

- Music as Language – Victor Wooten. I absolutely loved this video, and victors explanation on music, instruments,playing, speaking and interpretation from birth to grown adult. He speaks so effortfully and has real passion for music. It opened my eyes and expanded on my ways of thinking on seeing music as a language. I already am a lover of music but seeing how we can treat it in ECE, really sparks something in me to run with and further my knowledge in.

How might you use this growth in your future practice of early childhood education?

- To understand music and to teach it and demonstrate it in the right ways so children can explore music freely first without predetermined thoughts from others. Using their minds to learn music in the way they want to learn it.

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The things I learnt, and thought I knew or had an idea about but when entering this world deeper I came to learn more about:

-We touched on movement and temporal art. How the two links. We touched on hearing and listening and contemporary aboriginality of movement and dance.

-We watched a YouTube clip on movement and dance from a TEDx Talk. Called Movement sound and play. They played with the ideas of how people interpret dance and movement and the meaning that comes along with it. Opens another perspective.

- “Our body speaks volumes, but do we always hear it, do we take the time to listen?” We listened to two resources that were on sound, hearing and listening. Pauline Oliveros and Murray Schafer, both had interesting things to say and to make people aware of. I had never taken hearing and listening so deep, and serious before this session. It really makes you stop and listen and become aware.

- We were shown Mutton Bird, a beautiful performance art piece by Indigenous theatre company. Powerful messages passed through movement, music, and dramatic arts all in one.

- Wrong Skin, singing in the rain also performed but an Indigenous community. Took a white man’s piece and flipped the script. Again, no words needed to convey a message through the arts. It chnages how we should view things.

Which resources resonated with you the most and why?

- Murray Shafer’s video “Listen” about the soundscape he was in, all the sounds he heard while taking the moment to do so. He says “I think if you listen carefully your life is enhanced, and that quote gave me shivers as I do truly believe that but it just resonated with me on another level and I loved it.

How might you use this growth in your future practice of early childhood education?

- For myself it is important to be culturally respectful and represent the Indigenous culture as much as possible through my practices and my service. Doing nothing because we might be worried about miscommunicating the wrong thing shouldn’t be our excuse we should always attempt to try and its always going to be a work in progress in representing our first nations people. Its something I must expand my knowledge on further as I become a Kinder teacher.

-       Also, to introduce, deep listening into my practices. Love this concept and way of living and enhancing our sense. Super powerful and will be amazing to encounter with children.

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The things I learnt, and I thought I knew or had an idea about but when entering this world deeper I came to learn more about:

-       Drama. Drama of place and dramatic story telling.

-       First researching what is drama on google.

-       Then connecting with our senses. All 5 senses, We created a mind map on paper called “Drama of my senses”. In my room on zoom, what I feel? What I hear? What I see? What I smell? And what I taste? All for 60 seconds each. Makes you think how much we miss when we don’t focus on our senses.

-       Being affected by place. This was interesting as we were bought back to being children and what we remembered about a certain space in our play memories.

-       We read the resource Is beauty a way of knowing. Hard to understand at first but after a couple goes reading it and googling Atelier, I got it.

Which resources resonated with you the most and why?

-       This might not be a resource, but I am using it as once as it was my favourite. I loved participating in the last activity for the night which was the story telling. I was worried at first thinking I wouldn’t like it being with a different group of students but the girls I had were lovely. We worked well as a team to produce a dramatic story from four pictures provided in the session. It made me think creatively which I think I already do but I had to share that creative thinking which isn’t my strong suit I am more of an independent girly, but I think it went well. We wrote a script and audio recorded.

How might you use this growth in your future practice of early childhood education?

-       To remember the importance of storytelling, reading books to young children and what comes from it. The dramatic behind it and how it is performed all goes into reading it aloud to children and how they learn emotions, and words.

-       Not only that but the importance of place and environment and our surroundings when educating our children there is so much to be said about environment and resources in ECE.

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The things I learnt, and I thought I knew or had an idea about but when entering this world deeper I came to learn more about:

-       Connection through place, playing music.

-       Music with children, playing a lullaby for a baby is super calming as it slows down their heartbeat therefore music is very important in our lives as babies.

-       Music has a role in development before birth, I found scarily interesting in the “Is your baby getting enough music?”

-      I wasn't engaged as much in session 4.
-      Went over it again to try again and read over it.

Which resources resonated with you the most and why?

-       Watershed. As this soundscape was creepy, I remember now as I’m writing this I had to turn it off it took me to a scary, uneasy place that I didn’t like. The sounds weren’t nice and that’s why the piece stood out to me.

How might you use this growth in your future practice of early childhood education?

-       Being aware of how music has such an impact on our brain development as a child.

-       Implementing positive music influence with children as they grow.

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The things I learnt, and I thought I knew or had an idea about but when entering this world deeper I came to learn more about:

-       We started off the class with Inanay. Which thankfully I knew, we all sat around in a circle and sang and acted out dance moves to go along with it. I think I was the only one with different moves to some of the others.

-       Also starting off the session with welcome to county. By Joe Murphy.

-       Did breathing exercises, as a group to start our session. First on country visit with Kat myself.

-       Connecting with place: playing with music, movement, and drama. We listened to Allara: Walla is Life. This video was interesting to listen to, it had so many sounds and background noise. I have attached a picture of my notes taken while listening to this.

-       We got back up and did a drama and movement experience, I had never done this before. It was starting as a seed and we grew from the root up. Acting out each stage. I would like to do this with my kids.

-       Went on our exploration to flagstaff gardens to tackle my A2.

-       Going into session 6 we read two readings and answered as a group after the questions that followed the readings.

-       With Kat we did “cool cats” song where we all got up and people got in the middle to do a dance move and we would all go “COOL CATS” that made me laugh but something I hadn’t known or learnt before but now I can do with my children at my service.

Which resources resonated with you the most and why?

-      Creative Dance – Play for Early Childhood.

-      What stood out to me the most was that dancing activities encourage young children to practice balance and motor skills while stretching their imagination. Dancing is something children can always do, lots of materials can be incorporated and I think this reading resonates with me because I love a good dance party and letting myself and my children be free in exploring that. Dance your heart out!

How might you use this growth in your future practice of early childhood education?

-       To use the outdoor space as a second classroom. Remembering environment for children is everything and if I can adapt my intentional teaching practices for them to benefit their development I will.

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The things I learnt, and thought I knew or had an idea about but when entering this world deeper I came to learn more about:

-       Playing is drama!!

-       Reading “Let's play outside”. Reading this and answering the questions, such as what loose parts do children play with In this article and all those materials were natural and from outdoor spaces. The question also asks how we provide children with these if they don’t have outdoor space. Because not all services provide the outdoor space required for children.

-       We connected with the Raising children network. I adore this website and have used it many times before. This part spoke on imaginary friends and the pros and cons. Now I had never encountered children with imaginary friends or myself I don’t personally remember having one. This topic was new and intriguing to me. Researching and reading further about it on the website and answered the padelt questions. I am glad, I read this for future practice if I ever have children with imaginary friends.

-       Watched the monkey business illusion. Missed everything, I don’t know what that says about me but I was so hyper-focused on counting and still got it wrong. Too much going on!!

Which resources resonated with you the most and why?

-        Love the reading “Let’s play outside”. It highlighted the importance of pretend play in natural settings. Pretend play is a sacred part of childhood. It has been proven to aid children’s development in many areas. I loved reading as well that it is so crucial for the development of their cognitive and physical strength areas. Children expand and learn how to regulate their emotions through imaginative play. It just reminded me about natural outdoor play and how it is so vital for young children.

How might you use this growth in your future practice of early childhood education?

-       To keep my open mind. When it comes to imaginary friends as this was a new thing I learnt in this session.

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The things I learnt, and I thought I knew or had an idea about but when entering this world deeper I came to learn more about:

-       Learning out play and all its languages, music, drama & movement.

-       We watched body percussions. We broke out into breakout rooms and made our own. Felt a little silly but it was good.

-       Learn how to create Foley art! Enjoyed this video as it was very funny watching this guy speak on how he makes sound effects. Attached is some notes taken from this!

-       We watched mimes in silent storytelling. How they portray a message through silence but powerful actions and effects like their makeup and outfits and body movements.

-       We then worked on our assessments for A2 and A3! Short session but great resources were attached.

Which resources resonated with you the most and why?

-       I resonated with Foley art the most as, we can make so many sounds with normal day-to-day objects around our spaces. Therefore, children are always creating their own sounds when it comes to imaginative play or dance or music. I liked how he really had a passion for this and had the best enthusiasm as we should have as kindergarten teachers.

How might you use this growth in your future practice of early childhood education?

-       To not always intervene with children’s play and if its to loud or not going maybe the way I like. If its safe, then I need to step back and let the magic happen. Let the sounds be made, however they need or want to be made.

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This is not how I actually write, this is messy quick notes!

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Cooper, M. (2011). Chapter 16: Is Beauty a Way of Knowing? . In C. Edwards, L. Gandini, G. Forman, & R. C. S.R.L., The Hundred Languages of Children: the Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation, 3rd Edition : The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation (pp. 295-302). ABC-CLIO, LLC.

TEDx Talks . (2013). Youtube: Music as a Language: Victor Wooten at TEDxGabriolaIsland. Retrieved February 20, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0

TEDx Talks. (2018, May 20). Movement, Sound, Play | Artifact Dance Project | TEDxTucson. Tucson, Arizona, United States of America.

Ungunmerr, M.-R. (1988). Dadirri Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Still Awareness. Retrieved from Miriam Rose Foundation : https://www.miriamrosefoundation.org.au/dadirri/