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In this experience, children will imagine what it feels to be a butterfly or other insect in the garden. This activity is targeted towards 2-3 year olds.

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When I was doing AT2, I felt very connected to the grass and earth and insects flapping. Time slipped away from me, simply by being present and observing the garden. In particular, I saw butterflies and insectings flapping around and playing in the garden. I would like to bring this energy into my classroom by encouraging a connection to the outdoors while indoors. This experience heavily connected me to the Dadirri (Ungunmerr, 2022.), which explained that we must slow down and go at the pace of nature. You cannot rush a river. My aim for this lesson is to help children discover and experiment with different forms of movement and music and to demonstrate and exercise their findings to their classmates and educators. Students who participated in an environment as an integrating context (EIC) had fewer discipline problems and worked better than in traditional programs. (Wilson, 2018) Most importantly I would like the outcome of this lesson to be a memorable, immersive experience that builds upon itself, which is why the movement experience is first.

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Movement or Dance Experience:

Rationale: This activity aims to build a set of skills and then give children the opportunity to experiment with them: “When given the opportunity to play freely, children will test their limits physically” (Wilson, 2018, p. 1). At first, we give the children the tools they need to increasingly understand and move their body. Then, we let go more and more, letting the children experiment on their own. At the end, the children exercise their agency by creating their own movement to express themselves.

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Music Experience:

Rationale: In Victor Wooten (2013), he explained that music is like a language. You don't get taught your first language, you are immersed in it before birth. Children have an internal music inside of them, and giving them the tools to express it is paramount. In this activity, we do exactly that. Eventually, we give children more and more agency, resulting in letting them experiment freely with the materials. Using the natural music soundscape in this activity inspires a connection to nature, and “connections with nature often inspire a sense of wonder and awe” (Wilson, 2018, p 2)

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Drama Experience:

Rationale: Bringing an immersive experience to a classroom transforms the mood and space. Nature can be used as a main theme in indoor activities to connect to outdoors learning (Wilson, 2018) and by providing many elements to the experience, children can learn a lot by messing about with various materials (Wilson, 2018). Overall, this activity is designed to be fun and encourage knowledge gained from the other lessons whilst integrating an immersive and memorable learning experience about why garden creatures are important.

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Children will move (flap) their body according to direction before giving free reign to invent new movements in the pattern.

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1. Gather the children together in a circle or group. Make sure they can see the educator leading the activity.

2. Explain the action of flapping by demonstrating. Flap your arms in big, wide motions, like a bird would. Ask the children to copy you.

3. Vary the movements, first by moving slower or faster.

4. Vary the body part you use to “flap”. Use your arms, then your feet, try inventive parts like your tongue, or your ear. Try to get the children to suggest what to “flap”.

5. Ask the children to invent their own dance using the prompts given. Give each one a dedicated time to show their dance to their classmates.

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Calming music will play alongside children making music with tools given to them. Primarily these objects will be two of a flat object, almost like wings.

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1. Play some calming nature music, instrumental, preferably with bird noises or other nature sounds present.

2. Put out sets of materials in groups of two for the children to choose from. This can be things like cookie sheets, pieces of paper, lids from containers, shaker bottles, sticks, etc.

3. Model the activity by flapping and banging together the objects in different ways. This can be slow and rhythmic or chaotic.

4. Let the children pick over the objects and try it for themselves.

5. Encourage the children to swap materials and try different materials for different sounds. Try changing the music to a different instrumental as well.

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Summary: Children are enlisted by the garden creatures to help polinate the garden and grow flowers. This is done by transforming the room.

Educators make flowers appear more often as areas are “pollinated”.

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1. Lay out “rivers” using blankets, educators dress up as trees or fairies or insects to get in character. Lay out the “flowers” (could be baskets or blankets, be creative) with counters or other small objects inside.

2. The educators that are dressed up should be hiding until the activity starts. Change the lighting or mood in the room via music to denote a shift in routine. Encourage the children to dress up if they like.

3. Educators should introduce the activity and stay in character throughout the experience as not to break immersion. “The creatures in the garden need help to pollinate the flowers!”. Show an example counter and explain how to meet the “goal”.

4. Then, hand out baskets to children or otherwise prompt them to start spreading the counters around.

5. As the activity progresses, begin to spread fake flowers and encourage dramatic play and experiences between the children and between the educators.

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My “student” enjoyed the activity overall but was hesitant to follow the movements. After increasingly being silly by wiggling my tongue, he became more open to following the activity. At the end, the movement he came up with was flapping his eyelids (blinking). Overall the activity went quite well and is a very simple call and response will some extension at the end. In the future I would try to extend this learning further and try to embed natural materials in the lesson. I would also try to alter the mood by changing the lighting or adding some music in the background (nature sounds):“the environment is considered to be the “third teacher,” with parents and teachers as the other two” (Wilson, 2018 p. 34).

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My “student” enjoyed the experience of banging together the various materials but sort of ignored the music. After prompting, he tried moving the objects together more slowly by rubbing them together or shaking them. I think in the future I’d alter this activity to be slower paced and match more with Dadirri and my experience in AT2. I knew it might end being chaotic but I was still expecting less of a racket.

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My “student” might have been a bit old to get the magic of this activity but still found it fun. The shortcomings of this activity are fairly obvious, it should be less educator-led and focus more on children’s learning. A setup featuring loose parts and encouraging natural dramatic play rather than an explained activity would be better for future practice.

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Overall I felt that the given task (bring the outdoors indoors) fell a little short on my hands. I think with less restrictions I could have planned a lesson that incorporated all these elements whilst integrating more of an Indigenous People's perspective. Free of the confines of a rubric, in my ECE practice I will create lessons with this unit content in mind but without so many degrees of separation. I will be able to use intentional teaching strategies to let children explore these experiences more holistically and without so much teacher direction. More ideally, I will just take them outdoors, since that reflefts my pedagogy the best! Overall I really enjoyed this unit and with more time and thought I might have been able to explore these concepts in the lesson plan better. In particular I enjoyed the Dadirri resource.

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

Ungunmerr, M. R. (2022). DADIRRI. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pahz_WBSSdA.

Wilson, R. A. (2007). Nature and young children: Encouraging creative play and learning in natural environments (3rd ed.). Routledge.