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In assessment 3 activities, I would like to focus more on communication, as mentioned in EYLF Outcome 5: Children interact verbally and non-verbally with others for a range of purposes.

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In Session 4, our class went to the studio to explore more about the topic of music. In the studio, we gather in the middle of the room and make a circle with a ukulele. We then play it as a class and individually. As Wooten mentions, “they’re [children] playing because it feels right.” (TEDx Talks, 2013, 8:57) The way we play the ukulele in the studio is free because the main reason for us playing it is to explore how ukulele works and how we use ukulele to express ourselves’ feelings, especially when we play it individually. I see some of my peers really enjoy playing ukulele, for example they just strum the string however they like and produce different rhythms, because no one in the class judges them or asks them to play it ’properly’. After the session in the studio, in the classroom we create a soundscape. Some of my peers use cloth to pretend as a fish swimming in the lake, others including myself use paper then keep waving to produce the wind blowing sound, while other peers portray as other natural background sounds to finish up of class.

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In my assessment 2, I mostly focus on natural sounds and using my senses to connect with country. This idea came from the soundscape we did in class. As Schafer (New, 2009) states, “music composition that’s going on all the time”. When I listen carefully, I can hear more ‘music’ than what I know and allow me to get deeper to understand the world or the environment around me. In the same time, I realised that I didn’t mention much about music itself. Therefore, in my assessment 3 music activity, I would like to challenge it and create more music in the activity.

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Music lesson plan (Loose parts orchestra) 🪇🥁

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Music lesson plan (Loose parts orchestra) 🪇🥁

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Setting: An outdoor and safe space

Set up: Putting on some loose parts for children to create their own instruments on the ground

Steps:

1. Children can walk around the local area/ park and use senses to discover what is happening around them and what are some natural sounds they can hear

2. After the walk, educator will ask children about their experiences. For example, did you notice anything surprising or unexpected?

3. At an outdoor and safe space, children use loose parts to create their own instruments (as many as they want). For example, pouring different volumes of water into a glass to create a xylophone

4. Share their instruments with the group

5. Children then can explore it for a while then start to play it freely and enjoy the moment of playing the ‘orchestra’

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Instruments that my 'children' (friends) create ❤️

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Instruments that my 'children' (friends) create ❤️

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Left to right

1. Maracas

2. Xylophone

3. Drum

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Reflection in Music (Loose parts orchestra)

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Reflection in Music (Loose parts orchestra)

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During the activity, I was really happy to see that my ‘children’ (friends) are cooperating with my activity. They are using lots of creative ideas to make out their loose parts instruments, for example the xylophone. Before the filming, they fill it up into different volumes and start to play with it. When I was allowing my ‘children’ to explore with the instruments, I saw one of the ‘child’ pick up one part (cup) of the xylophone first and start to play with it, she then picks up another one afterwards. This reminds about the freedom of choice for children to play, and the idea from Wooten where he states, “allow the student to keep the freedom” (TEDx Talks, 2013, 10:05).

In the future, I would like to bring more loose parts for children to explore, and by using it, children have more creativity to build out their creation. For example, I just realised plastic can be part of the instrument too, when a child scrunches or shakes it, it turns out to be a guitar! In my future practice in ECE, I would like to give more freedom of choice to children, especially in play and exploration. I love to see how children can create and change things differently in their game.

My perspective of me viewing music before and after the unit is totally changed. Before I was introduced to this topic-music, I thought it is about instruments, singing and knowing musical notes. But, it is more than what I thought. I didn’t realise natural sounds counted as music too. This is a new idea for me to learn and know. To conclude, music isn’t just about instruments, it is about what you hear around you and how it can evoke our feelings.

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Session 5 in the studio, we explored movement. The first activity, we gather in up and create a circle, then music starts to play. As the music plays, we need to move our body and observe who is copying each other’s movement in the circle. Then, we move to another activity where some of peers use green cloth and exhaust duct to pretend a dragon is flying and puffing out smoke. Where 3 of our peers and myself pretend as a dragon and start to walk, jump around the studio. The last activity is to look outside the window, see how the clouds move in the sky and then use our imagination to think what does the cloud looks like. Some of my peers say one of the clouds looks like a drumstick, while others say it looks like a broccoli, but I think it looks like an umbrella. In The Atlier’s video, it claims that “every such experience allow for creativity expression and imaginative thinking”. (The Atelier, 2018, 1:02) This demonstrates that through movement children able to use their imagination to see things differently and think things differently compared to our adult perspectives.

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In my creative response, I focus a little bit on how the characters’ body movement as Banerjee (2021) claims “it [movement] involves the limit of stability of our body and lots of reach out”. This idea comes from the ‘dragon’ where I think through movement and sound, it can attract children. But, the movement in my assessment 2 is limited, where both imagery friends and I use a small action to present our drama. Meanwhile, I also didn’t express enough feelings throughout the film, especially facial expression. In assessment 3, I would like to add more facial expression in movement activity, so that children can see more richer facial expression rather than just the tone or the small amount of body language.

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Movement lesson plan (Guess my feelings) 🤔

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Movement lesson plan (Guess my feelings) 🤔

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Setting: An outdoor and safe space

Steps:

1.  2 people per group, then one person will be the ‘performer’ and other will be the ‘guesser’

2. 2 people will be standing opposite each other

3. The ‘performer’ will then be told the word about facial expression, for example happy, grumpy

4. The ‘performer’ then ONLY can use body movement to present the word (no verbal expression) and let the ‘guesser’ guess what the word is

5. As the ‘guesser’ got the word correctly, he/she need to share when do they feel that expression, for instance the word is HAPPY, I feel HAPPY when I got a new shoes!

6. After sharing it, both ‘performer’ and ‘guesser’ swap side and position (‘performer’ to ‘guesser’ , ‘guesser’ to ‘performer’)

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The words that the 'guesser' need to guess 🤭

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The words that the 'guesser' need to guess 🤭

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Educators will randomly choose the word for the 'performer'

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Reflection in Movement (Guess my feelings)

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Reflection in Movement (Guess my feelings)

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In the game, I was surprised that my ‘children’ (friends) can fully use their body movement to show out the word about expressions. They did follow the rule of not using verbal expression throughout the play, except when I ask them when they will feel this expression. This links to Motten Bird (bangarradance theatre, 2015), where dancers only focus on their body movement to perform on stage and do not speak in their dance.

Next time, I would like to think and bring more words for children to guess and perform. For instance, using sounds or facial expressions to perform. In my future teaching, I want utilise this game because it is not just about learning vocabulary, most importantly it is about having fun with peers and building up children’s social skills too.

The very first time I heard ‘movement’, I thought it was dancing. But, it is more about dancing. It is about imagination, play, experience and having fun by moving our body. For example, in the studio, we turn up music and create the ‘disco’ scene just to dance or even move our body however we like.

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Session 6 in the studio, we learned about drama using imagery friends. We use different types of loose parts to pretend as our ‘best friend’ and play in a small group and individually. In Raising Children’s article (2024) mentions, “imagery friends allow children to explore a make-believe world that they create all by themselves”. In the group play, we create a ‘restaurant’ scene and use yarn to pretend as noodles, then add different types of animal toys to represent the ‘meat’. During the play, we all laugh really hard because we think the ‘meat’ in the noodles is not making scene. The ‘meat’ is made by tiger, elephant and lizard. But this is how children will do; they will use different materials to make up their play and enjoy it.

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The main language I choose for assessment 2 is drama, where I use 2 imagery friends to create a story. As Raising Children (2024) states “children with make-believe friends might be more imaginative and more likely to enjoy fantasy play and magical stories”. When I was filming the play, I was feeling myself is in the scene with them and ‘eating’, ‘talking’ with them, looks like a real world to me. To make my drama more creative, in assessment 3, I would like to use real people in the play, I wonder what it will be like if an actual person goes into the drama and how they use their imaginations to complete the play.

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Setting: A cave scene, using natural resources (leaves, grass, branches to represent the food)

Steps:

1. Educator will be telling a story about the rabbit and the bear, then children can choose which character they want to portray

2. Later, educator and children then pick up some natural resources to pretend it as food

3. In an outdoor space, children choose where they want their ‘cave’ will be]

4. Educator then read out the story and based on the story, children can start to create their drama

5. After the drama, educator will then ask children what they learn from the story and what their natural resources is about (grass means noodles?)

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The Lazy Rabbit and The Hardworking Bear 🐰🐻 

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The Lazy Rabbit and The Hardworking Bear 🐰🐻 

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Reflection in Drama (The Lazy Rabbit and The Hardworking Bear)

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Reflection in Drama (The Lazy Rabbit and The Hardworking Bear)

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In my game, I create a short story about not being lazy and using outdoor space to perform the play. The main reason of me choosing outdoor is to let children to brings in the idea of using natural resources into their game, Willian (2019) claims that “when allowed more flexibility with materials in spaces with more affordance (i.e in natural outdoor spaces), children tend to engage in more complex pretend play”. This means that through outdoor play, children can have more problem-solving skills and collaboration with their peers. Overall, the play went smoothly. Where my ‘children’ (friends) do express themselves and they choose a bench to pretend as their ‘cave’. What didn’t go well is I forgot to record the moment where my ‘children’ (friends) collect the natural resources together and why they choose the bench as a ‘cave’.

Next time, I will try and record the process of how we create the scene as detail as I can so that it is clearer to understand. In my future practice in ECE, I would like to create more storytelling play for children to explore and perform the game outdoors. Because it allows them to connect with county in the meantime it allows them to use natural resources and imagines it as one of their props, so that the play doesn’t always have to be toys or other human made resources.

The word-drama, the very first thing I remember, is my Year 7 drama class, where my classmates and I need to perform in front of the school. I will never forget how nervous we are in the backstage, all of us just standing straight and still, having lots of deep breath. After the performance, most of us choose not to think back on that awful experience. Until session 6 where I met ‘drama’ again. This time it is more fun and comfortable, where my class creates a safe space for me to express myself. For example, in the imagery friends play, I can play with different peers, and I do enjoy it. This drama experience do change my perspective of knowing drama isn’t that scary but to express yourself, like a child or the ‘young’ Xiao.

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Banerjee, S. (2021). The environment as a tool for patient-centred care: a bridge between physiotherapy and Dance Movement Therapy. https://environmentalphysio.com/2021/08/18/the-environment-as-a-tool-for-patient-centred-care-a-bridge-between-physiotherapy-and-dance-movement-therapy/

Bangarradance theatre. (2015, May 20). Bangarra Education Resources Mutton Bird [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-PV98Oshkc&t=115s

New, D. (2009). Listen. [Documentary]. National Film Board of Canada. https://www.nfb.ca/film/listen/

Raising Children. (2024). Imaginary friends. https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/behaviour/friends-siblings/imaginary-friends

TEDx Talks. (2013, May 30). Music as a language: Victor Wooten at TEDxGabriolalsland [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0

The Atelier. (2018, January 8). The Atelier- The school without walls [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNAKhgATlAo

The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. (2022). Belonging, Being & Becoming. https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf

Wallin, M.L. (2019). Let’s Play Outside: The Importance of Pretend Play in Natural Settings. https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/the-importance-of-pretend-play-in-natural-settings#:~:text=When%20children%20are%20given%20the%20time%20and%20space%20to%20play,to%20cognitive%20and%20linguistic%20growth.