# data[].attributes.body
Ariana. (2017, April 10). Movement in the Wild: Nature as Dance Partner - The Earthbody Institute. The Earthbody Institute. https://www.theearthbodyinstitute.com/2017/03/movement-in-the-wild-nature-as-dance-partner/

Edwards, C., Gandini, L., Forman, G., & Reggio, C. S. (Eds.). (2011). The hundred languages of children : The reggio emilia experience in transformation. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Gluschankof, C. (2002). The local musical style of kindergarten children: A description and analysis of its natural variables. Music Education Research, 4(1), 37-50.

Niland, A. (2009). The Power of Musical Play: The Value of Play-Based, Child-Centered Curriculum in Early Childhood Music Education. General Music Today, ²³(1), 17–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048371309335625

Super Simple Songs - Kids Songs. (2016, July 2). Flap Your Wings Together | Kids Song from Super Simple Songs[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaARSaHa5GA

UNICEF, & Baltagi, Dr. I. (2019, June 12). Is your baby getting enough music? | UNICEF [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIwhGbnY_uI

Wilson, R. (2018). Nature and Young Children: Encouraging Creative Play and
Learning in Natural Environments (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315148533

# data[].attributes.body
Due to the age group of the children, I felt confident creating this experience with them, as they were engaging and able to express their thoughts at the end of the experience. During this activity, the children were excited to pretend and imagine that they were a bird. As a future early childhood educator, I think this was an excellent activity for the children as it gives them a chance to enhance their imaginative skills by acting and pretending to be a bird. Moreover, props were a good addition to the experience. To simulate being on the river, the buckets were used, while the balace beam was used to simulate being on a tree brunch. I believe that It's important for children to express their feelings in a healthy way, to develop a creative imagination, to think and express themselves independently, and to develop their social awareness and cooperative behavior.

# data[].attributes.body
When I was on my country visit, my experience was influenced by my observation of the movement of the flocks of birds when they were walking and flying on the ground, and they were also gliding on the water when they were on the river, as well as watching them as they crossed it. When a child engages in drama, they engage nearly every part of their brain, helping them to develop a wide range of vital skills, including creativity. Children's imagination is unleashed through dramatic play. By using props and tools, they create a setting for their play and act out a different role from what they are used to. This experience here will not only helps children express themselves creatively, but can also help them develop real life skills and social skills that can help them throughout their lives, from playtime in toddlers' classrooms to playtime in preschool classrooms.

Wilson (2007) stresses the importance of children’s play being part of their learning and meaning-making of their world. Moreover, Wilson (2007) notes that, while we should instill a sense of environmental responsibility and a love for nature in children from a young age, bombarding them with harsh and overwhelming realities could provoke the opposite. Children who experience nature and our earth with a sense of wonder and awe can develop a long-lasting respect for it. Through drama, children are able to explore and express themselves using their facial expressions, voices, and tones, as well as their body language. As well as helping children learn languages, drama is also an effective way to empower them to communicate condently. As a final benefit, children gain land ownership and cultural awareness while retaining links to indigenous cultures.

# data[].attributes.body
During this drama experience, children are encouraged to use their imaginations and ideas throughout the experience, which is about a bird's life. It is a drama experience created and designed to teach children how to live the life of a bird. As the first part of the lesson, the children are asked to utilize their cognition skills by giving me their ideas and feedback about how birds live. After I have given them a story line, they are expected to act out the story. They would first take a stroll along the river foliage before they heard the sound of home and called it quits for the evening. To engage children in this story line, they need to visualize, act out, and connect with the environment.

# data[].attributes.body
In order to give children a sense of connection to the environment and to be able to connect with nature and to their surroundings, this experience was done to give the children an opportunity to express themselves as well as to show their thoughts and emotions when moving. I wish the time planned out for this experience had been longer as I observed that the children enjoyed connecting with their surroundings and wanted to continue this activity for a longer period of time, therefore I will plan out properly when creating an experience for the children in the future.

I believe that providing children with safe and creative ways to express themselves is essential to their physical and emotional well-being. Movement enables children to be able to express feelings and thoughts. Children gain greaterunderstanding of their bodies and how they move. Aside from this, children learn new and creative ways to move their bodies. This means that both their small and big muscles are developed throughout the process. Students stretch, bend over, and jump to develop their gross motor skills.

# data[].attributes.body
During my recent country visit, I was in awe of the flock of birds as they moved so freely and flew so freely in the air, while they were just expressing themselves and connecting with nature, for example, with the wind, tree and river, as well as with each other. This experience is primarily designed to allow children to be in touch with their surroundings as well as nature at the same time. In order for children to be able to gain a deeper understanding of their surroundings, they must be able to experience these surroundings through their senses. Movement restrictions, particularly at an early age, can have a serious impact on this process. Studies have shown that when children play in natural/wild areas they play with more creativity, more harmoniously, for longer periods of time, & and develop a deeper relationship with the world around them (Wilson, 2007. The final benefit is that this experience  provides children with land they own and awareness while keeping a connection with the indigenous people.

# data[].attributes.body
The aim of this experience is to connect the children with nature and the environment they are surrounded with by using movement to recreate how birds move on land and at sea when they are at their most natural. During this experience, there will be 3 main parts. In the first part, the birds will gather together and then proceed to silde and move along the land showing all sorts of emotions while doing so. Children can express themselves in a completely natural way through this type of free movement that is entirely their own.

# data[].attributes.body
Although I thought the activity conducted for children was good, I think using musical props like shakers, bells and drum would have been more enjoyable and would have captured the children's attention more effectively, as some of the children weren't engaged. As the children loved to move and dance around, I should also consider using a bigger space in the future when planning my next activity with them. I have noticed that using a more upbeat sound helps to engage the children in a better way as they are able to dance and move while expressing themselves in an active manner.

Also, children are better at remembering which tone a word or sentence was spoken in. Likewise, when learning a language, children are likely to remember the song that was played.  As a final note throughout this experience, I believethat Instead of more "traditional" approaches, children should be able to express themselves through the things they enjoy in learning. As a result, children will be better able to connect with their ideas and emotions, making learning more fun and interesting.

# data[].attributes.body
The experience I had when I was in the on country visit was influenced by my experience when I saw flocks of birds in the natural environments. A child's ability to recognize rhythm and move to the beat of the music is already developing very early in their lives. After all, music is supposed to be a calming, nurturing experience for them. It also stimulates the brain, supporting the development of their brain during the earliest years of their lives. During this experince, children will be exposed to rhythms and beats as well as verbs that are used in a variety of contexts all throughout their daily lives. Learning music should be taught or shown as how we learned to speak at a young age by taking more of a less academic approach. I believe the approach to alternative ways to learning, other than the academic approach, is more beneficial for children as it allows them to learn in different circumstances and is likely to engage more participation making it easier to adopt and improve educational learning. As Ibrahim H. Baltagi (2019) points out, music is instrumental in enabling children to develop all aspects of their development and skills for school readiness, especially those related to language acquisition and reading skills.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a fun experience for children to learn the beat, rhythm and dynamic combination to express their music with. In this song, "Flap your wings together" from YouTube was played for the children. There are several instruments, beats, and nature sounds that make the song both engaging and captivating for the children to listen to. Aside from that, action words are also used here, which means that children will learn language from the music and the many bird actions that are related to vocabulary. In this short and easy song, there are many repetitious words in it which help to make it an excellent song for children since it is very catchy and easy to sing along to.