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(Image Source: https://www.tacomalibrary.org/blogs/post/storytimes-have-started/)

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(Image Source: https://novakdjokovicfoundation.org/importance-music-early-childhood-development/)

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(Image Source: https://www.babycenter.com/0_toddler-milestone-writing-and-drawing_11744.bc)

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(Image Source: https://www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au/category/arts-lessons/media-arts/media-arts-lessons-year-3-and-4/)

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(Image Source: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/726064771145243727/)

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Making their own instrument percussions

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(Image Source: https://www.mrwolfkids.com.au/products/shh-we-have-a-plan-board-book-chris-haughton)

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Other provocations in the context of Drama activities that will become open ended situations

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Media Arts consist of different forms that include posters, videos, photography, and comics.

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Other provocations in the context of Dance activities.

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The Visual Arts environment between the educator and child, really embodies the significance in reflecting, reviewing and appreciating the child’s creations; under the responding strand of the Arts Curriculum. By educators creating environments that are conductive to learning, such a pedagogical approach like setting up the proper space for the toddlers to draw or paint, allows them to develop their creative imagination by exploring different mediums and textures with a provocation such as to observe their favourite item, to then expressing their ideas through line, shape and form. Another pedagogical approach would be where educators are engaged in intentional teaching that build on interactions that involve children in the process of decision-making and reflecting of their artworks. In the reflection of the Melbourne Declaration, this gives educators the ability to adhere to the goals of children becoming confident and creative individuals, where it is through the process and acknowledgement of significance of the child’s creation of work that become the learning basis for their agency. (Australian Education Ministers, 2008, p. 7)

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Media Arts is a combination of creating their own multi-media artworks in forms such as comics, posters, digital and photographic stories, videos and multimedia presentations. In reference to the Australian Curriculum for Media Arts for Years 3 & 4, students become aware of the structure, intent, character and setting ideas and stories – developing composition through such mediums and communicating by selecting elements and organising. (Australian Curriculum, n.d., para. 6) Activities such as gathering photos in a folio of a significant adult give opportunities for action and reflection between the teacher and the individual student, which is inclusive to all children, not just the talented. Children are connected with and connect to their world with this activity and who will feel valued, respected and happy in themselves for the process and outcome of their creation.

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Drama is a way of making meaning of the world around us. The value of Dramatic play allows a child to place themselves in another person’s shoes – an imaginative world to then explore that person’s way of thinking, feeling, acting, expressing and being. Engaging children to conceptualise, perform or make decisions to exercise a range of thinking strategies such as exploring, speculating, analysing or reacting develops agency as they explore their social, cultural and physical world. (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019) Children also gain an understanding between the fictional and the real; exploring and releasing the feelings associated with the different roles.

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Dance and music go hand in hand for children to explore the elements of tempo, rhythm and beat. Moving is a means to function, and with our body, we are able to express ourselves because not only is it fun, but it is just a natural thing to do. Through such Dance performances, a child is able to interpret concepts through body movements and sounds, translating scenes through costume dress-up, choreography or song. Movement in whatever form of dance is being active and allows children to develop their cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, control, poise and body awareness. For Babies, it is more of becoming aware of their bodies and developing their motor skills. A baby’s hearing develops before they are born and begins functioning about 20 weeks of gestation, so it is beneficial if they are able to learn and recognise sounds and music, and start developing feelings and reactions.

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Art is a way to creatively express oneself and ideas through such concepts of play, design, interpretation and many more. The Arts in Early Childhood refer to the term that encompasses the Five main Art Disciplines – Drama, Dance, Media Arts, Music-Sound Arts and Visual Arts. The Arts serve as a vital part in the growth of child during their early learning stages as they become innovative thinkers of our future exploring their creativity, imagination, self-expression and aesthetic awareness through various Art experiences.

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Music has been a universal language for all of us through the combination of sounds and lyrics, dating back throughout history and culture which has evolved with us as individuals and communities during the course of time. With the Australian Curriculum in mind in regard to Music, students become engaged through creative and purposeful play in structured musical activities, fostering a strong sense of wellbeing and developing their connection with and contribution to the world. (Australian Curriculum, n.d., para. 1) Through Music, students such as of the Foundation Years, are able to develop their interests and skills by exploring sounds, tones of words and elements with traditional or improvised percussion instruments that practice rhythm, pitch, dynamics and expression. Memorising and imitating these sounds through examples such as singing along to a song helps them practise their singing voice as well as body choreography, to which strengthens the connection of teamwork between the body and brain. (Steinhoff, 2016, para.2). As an educator, engaging in intentional teaching is important that young children have self-initiated opportunities to explore such music elements and meaning, as a means of the educator exploring holistic approaches.

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A plan for Year 3 students, can be to take and collect photographs of a significant adult in their life and organise these into a photo folder. By doing so they are free to explore the different types of mediums and develop skills in using digital cameras and software to edit, add sound recording and combining images and text to create a timeline and their own stories. Creativity is fostered through this exercise by giving the students the freedom of planning their folio in a manner that they desire, through themes or consecutive events.

To plan before and then to gather becomes an imaginative process as they begin to prepare and think about what they may want to use. Conventions, technical and symbolic codes become elements of Media Arts which are explored, and as Year 3 students, from past experiences may already have a sense of creativity, drawing or compositing of putting things together. Therefore, their creativity becomes enhanced to see things in fresh ways and relating to new situations by creating something unique and original. Self-expression also reflects their idea of meaning and becoming effective communicators through their own works. through the different mediums that media arts offer – for example understanding the relationship between images, facial expressions of images.

Their creations then also become a reflection of their aesthetic awareness as they begin to show and tell, share their creations to classmates and gain ideas from each other, however – be mindful of comparing, and for works to be judged and misinterpreted. By learning how to edit, make sound recording and combining images, sounds and text to tell stories. Through inclusive practices, educators adhering to a positive and supportive learning environment will ensure you are including and valuing a child with additional needs or a different cultural, socio-economic and linguistic background. Understanding and respecting each other’s artworks independently and collaboratively with their classmates and teachers they will experience artworks from a range of cultures, times and locations.

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To start the morning, a simple short exercise can be a book reading for 3-4-year olds there’s a book called, ‘SHH! We have a plan’ – where it starts off with four blue characters trying to chase a bird that keeps flying away. Each page you turn they try hiding behind bushes until one blue character makes too much noise the squirrel sees them and goes away. The children join in on with repetitive refrains – such as making ‘SHH’ noises, and imagining how we would keep quiet whilst trying to catch something? Towards the end of the book, the bird reunites with plenty of other birds which end up scaring off the blue characters and ending their chase.

The creativity in this activity allows for provocations to be implemented to form dramatic play experiences, such as alternative endings or short role-play of by following the book. However, the book itself is a drama story that has the children become engaged in this as a class, you read and recite the words together. Using their imagination, they become eager of the possible scenarios that each page may bring ‘– they become in character which is important for exploring different identities and points of view, including the notion of belonging to global communities. Simple phrases like ‘SHH! SHH! in quite tones already have the children reciprocating, with the impression of being quiet and slowly tiptoeing. The children start using their eyes to make sense of the story and their response becomes a sort of self-expression. Aesthetic awareness of the children will gain an understanding between the fictional and the real; explore the release feelings associated with characters in the book and the idea that humans are not actually blue. Making sure that the 3-4-year old’s are all included within the reading mat and are able to see, ensures inclusivity for all.

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Babies are both vulnerable and competent, pedagogical approaches for educators would be to be responsive to children and promote learning through play by interacting with babies to build attachment. With adhering to the EYLF, it is important to initiate one-on-one interactions between the educator and baby during daily routines (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019, p. 27). A simple exercise for babies would be for the parents or assistants to help the child move its body in time, to various music or lullabies. How the experience fosters creativity, between the parent and the child - opportunities to lie on the floor and freely move their limbs where recognise the beat developing agency, as they respond to the rhythm and tempo of the music and find it more engaging than speech. (Live Science Staff, 2010, para. 1).

Dancing with babies creates creativity and imagination – as they are provided with resources that offer challenge, intrigue and surprise, support their investigations and share their enjoyment. (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019, p. 38). Benefits of babies dancing allow them to discover their full range of motion, developing body awareness, and fine-tuning their balance, muscle strength, and coordination. Accompanying actions that involve every aspect of a child’s body and mind will nurture the child’s flair for language; their body’s urge to move; the brain’s attention to patterns; the ear’s lead in initiating communication and the voice’s response to sounds. (Huggies, n.d. para. 4) Self-expression for the baby means connecting with and contributing to their world by participating through smiling, crying, imitating, and making sounds to show their level of interest in relating to and with others. (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019, p. 28). Aesthetic awareness and inclusive practises include for those babies who have difficulty with movement, hand gesture or eye movements – to be guided and assisted with a certain alternative plan that adheres to inclusivity for all. A variety of movement patterns allows for fun and enlightenment which creates a positive connection between using their body, being healthy and happy.

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A simple activity for toddlers, with the guidance of supervisors, is to ask them to find their favourite toy or other meaningful items around them (natural and manufactured world), and then once selected, allow them to bring their object to a set of tables, with drawing equipment (paper, pencils, crayons or texters) to be used as a provocation for observational drawings.

In the Visual Arts, when drawing, toddlers are actually in the manipulative stages of development, where their early scribbles are the first artistic expressions of agency and are of little or no control with their motor activity. Meaning there is no connection between the scribbles and representation, they draw as freely as they wish by just trying to express themselves. However, this gives the toddler plenty of freedom to experiment and choose the different textures they like with the different mediums produced. As they interpret the object, drawing as a tool becomes something of the easiest form to master, and through the child’s creativity, they begin to theorise and tell a story or describe their item through the lines, shapes and their abstract forms.

For the educator, encouraging children’s engagement means reflecting and reviewing, and by asking questions the child begins to develop an interpretation and self-expression connecting them to current or previous experiences. A toddler’s imagination is theirs to explore, for example if they choose to draw a blue coloured apple instead of a red – as an educator you are to validate their response by first acknowledging their significance in their work and then by engaging the child can be a reflection of ‘what colour pencil do you think looks like the apple?’

As for inclusive practices, if the child has no favourite toy, assist in giving them options to choose from, which can reason and reflect their interpretation of aesthetic awareness, which comes from their perspective of the object and their encounters with art or the things around them. This will affect the child’s aesthetic self on how they want to respond to beauty in the world around them and by validating the child’s thinking – their sense of identity and ‘being’ is fostered when they are encouraged to develop and express their thoughts and ideas as opinions. (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019)

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An example of a Music activity for the Foundation years is that the children participate in creating their own instruments through rice bottles, then using their improvised percussions to begin playing with sound through a circle group formation. The empty bottles may be provided and with the assistance of supervisors, the child will then have the opportunity to decorate their bottles and pour in the rice pieces. Being able to do so, reflects the idea of self-expression for which the child gains a sense of responsibility and agency with the freedom to choose how they want to decorate – experimenting with colour and texture.

In a circle, these instruments become a tool, for which the Foundation students begin exploring musical elements of pitch patterns (melodies) and rhythm patterns created using body percussion and the shaking movement of the bottles. The children will develop skills such as by staying in tune and keeping in time with the educator’s beat; distinguishing the difference between the outcomes of shaking in soft-slow beats to gradually becoming louder. The students around the circle start foster creativity, by combining different sounds, tones, rhythms to practice beats and timing, whilst listening and imitating. Educators understanding the aspect of inclusive practices will include children who have mobility constraints to have an assistant join them in the group with the guidance of shaking the bottle and tapping along with them. We weary of children becoming distracted and creating too much noise, and with those children who do not like loud noises and find ways to calm down and control the environment and individual situations.

Children will take past or current experiences as a means to make sounds, whether you begin employing the sounds around them – such as the rustling of trees to the tapping of rain – they create a sense of imagination and ability to perceive those scenarios and apply it to the activity. This sensory play-based approach has no right or wrong way to play an instrument during these early stages – it is just a matter of the child feeling and discovering the different sounds to enhance their aesthetic awareness. They also gain knowledge of learning about recycling materials and becoming autonomous individuals, learning how to participate in responsibility as individuals in society.