# data[].attributes.body
Throughout this unit, I have been excited to discover how Music, Movement and Drama can be useful tools in my future career as an early childhood teacher. For me, these art forms are now a language of expression and connection for young children to each other, to people around them, and to the natural environment. Through inspirational videos about music as a natural language, the importance of deep listening, the importance of movement in storytelling or another perspective from pretend play and exploring the world around us, and many other useful resources such as the benefits of music for our brain development, or the importance of children engage and creative play with nature, as well as the experiential activities we have done in the studio such as practicing listening and dancing without our eyes open, singing a song in different ways, acting our stories without talking, sound simulation and sound layering, and the most recent opportunity of the On Country Visit that I did for my Assessment Two, I have learned to observe, listen and respond to world around me with all my senses and artistic intention. This has shape how I have designed the following three activities for children, each of which encourages them to interact with space and story through sound, movement and imaginative drama play.

# data[].attributes.body
My activity is based on my imaginative game in Assessment 2, when I practiced "deep listening" (Pauline Oliveros, 2015) then visualized a royal parade on my way home. That moment of imaginative play helped me realize the natural power of imagination in connecting children to their surroundings through music, movement and drama. From there, I developed three activities:

Activity 1: Music - Wind Symphony: The sound of the wind "playing background music" and the birds "calling each other to watch the parade" are transformed into this activity, where children use natural sounds to create music. Children will listen and explore natural sounds, especially the sound of the wind, then use loose parts to create a wind instrument. This activity encourages children to listen and create music from the things around them.

Activity 2: Movement - Flying Dragons: Vehicles become "flying dragons" which inspired this activity, encouraging children to explore their body movements through imagination. Children will imagine themselves as flying dragons, moving to the music and exploring different ways of moving: undulating, soaring, taking off and landing. This activity helps children develop gross motor skills and body expressions, while stimulating their imagination.

Activity 3: Drama - Interact with the tree soldiers: Trees "wave friendly hellos" become the basis for this activity, where children role-play and interact with the environment as living characters. Children will participate in a mini drama, in which trees come to life. Children use their voices, gestures, and imagination to "talk" to the tree - asking questions, sharing feelings, or just listening to what the tree might say back. This activity helps children develop communication skills, role-playing skills and empathy for nature.

These three activities will encourage children to use their senses to explore their surroundings, transforming familiar sounds, movements and sights into a colorful imaginary world. Allowing children to transform natural objects into other things (trees into friends, wind into musical instruments) helps foster creativity. These also strongly demonstrate the importance of imaginative play in children's development. "The way children play with or talk about their imaginative friends can tell you a lot about how they’re feeling" (raisingchildren.net.au the Australian parenting website, n.d.). Furthermore, these activities focus on multisensory learning as they encourage children to use their hearing (listening to the wind, birds), sight (observing trees, dragon moving), and touch (touching leaves, tree trunks) to interact with the world around them. "When children use their senses as they explore their world through sensory play, they are actively building nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, which is crucial to brain development" (Diann Gano, Sharron Krull, 2020). And as Wilson suggested “Fostering an environmental ethic involves not only learning about nature but also learning through nature.” (Wilson, 2017, p.6) by interacting with trees and the wind, children develop their connection with the country and appreciation and awareness of protecting the environment. These three activities also along with the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners and Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world.

# data[].attributes.body
Materials:

Loose parts, recycled materials such as plastic bottles, tin cans, bamboo tubes, shells, dry leaves, rope, and so on.

Video filmed on the way to work with sounds from nature and video of nature sounds with strong and gentle wind.

Lesson Steps:

1. Gather children together.

2. Acknowledgement of the Country at the beginning. Introduce the idea that Aboriginal people listen deeply to the land and learn from its sounds.

3. Tell a story about the experience, for example, on the way to work today, the bird friends informed teacher of a royal parade, and we heard a wind concert. On the road not just cars, we saw Dragon gliding around and the tree said "Hello" and waved with us. (Play a video you recorded on your way to work while tell the story).

4. Introduce the first activity: Today, we will be musicians and listen to the sounds of the wind. Can you hear the wind singing? (If the weather is not windy, you can turn on the background sound of the wind and the sound of birds for children)

5. Introduce loose parts to children and suggest that they can make musical instruments from loose parts. For example, you can tie dry leaves to a string to make a wind chime and show children.

6. Hang the instruments in a windy area if available or move them around to make sounds.

7. Invite children to describe the sounds they hear.

8. Encourage children to “play” a piece of music together using their instruments.

This activity align with EYLF Outcome 4.1: Children develop a growth mindset and learning dispositions such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity

# data[].attributes.body
Materials:

Some colorful strips of cloth.

A song that evokes a sense of adventure and flight, would be better with Aboriginal songs.

Lesson steps:

1. After finishing the first activity, gather the children and ask: "Do you remember what creatures were in the parade I just saw?". When the answer is dragons, then introduce the second activity "Imagine we are strong dragons and soar into the sky!"

2. Play music and guide children through basic movements: "Dragon flying in the air" (encourage children to run around, spreading their arms like dragon wings), "Dragon winding through the clouds" (children writhe their bodies), "Dragon flying fast" (running fast), "Dragon flying slowly" (walking slowly).

3. Encourage children to use the strips of cloth as a dragon tail or dragon wings.

4. Invite children to freely express their own creative movements.

5. End the activity by asking the child to “land” and relax.

This activity align with the EYLF Outcome 3.2: Children become strong in their physical learning and wellbeing

# data[].attributes.headline
Activity #3: Drama - Interact With The Tree Soldiers

# data[].attributes.subject
Activity #3: Drama - Interact With The Tree Soldiers

# data[].attributes.body
Materials: No special materials needed, just an outdoor space with trees. Note that you should visit the selected area to learn about the trees there, the native trees there to prepare the best teaching plan.

Lesson Steps:

1. Gather the children in line and go out for an On Country Walk to the selected park nearby. While walking, introduce the children to native trees and their importance to Indigenous people and to us today.

2. Introduce the activity by asking “Do you remember in my royal parade experience the tree soldier waved to me?” "Do you see those trees? They also are soldiers. They are waving to us and whispering secret stories.".

3. Ask children to be quiet then observing and listening to the environment around.

4. Then encourage each child to play a dramatic game by asking them to imagine that the tree soldiers and we are new friends, then build a conversation or story with the tree. You might say: "If this tree soldier could talk, what stories would it tell?" Then invite the children to approach the tree, one by one or in pairs, and "talk" to the tree. You can suggest some questions for children to talk to the tree, such as: asking the tree "How old are you?", telling the tree something they like "I like your clothes".

5. Then, encourage children to share what they imagine the tree said back. By gather children again and ask: "What did the tree soldier say to you?" or "How did it feel to talk to the tree soldier?"

6. This activity can be further developed by having children draw a picture or act out a short story that the tree told them after returning to the classroom.

This activity align with the EYLF Outcome 2.4: Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Please note that the adults in the video only participate as children experiencing the activity and do not have any other involvement in the process. 

# data[].attributes.body
By introduced the activity with my experience of witnessing the royal parade and listening to the wind concert, I noticed that children were curious and excited to create wind instruments from loose parts. This activity stimulated the children's imagination and creativity. However, there were still some children who were busy playing other games such as making dragon sound or just observing without participating. I want to develop this activity into a group project next time, incorporating a stage for children to perform their works. This not only encourages participation but also helps them build confidence and practice their cooperation skills. I also realized that integrating personal experiences into teaching makes it easier to connect and lead children to participate more actively. Moreover, this activity is a clear demonstration of "Children gain other concepts and skills as they play, as well." (Wilson, 2017, p.2). In this activity, children not only learn about sound of nature, but also develop many other skills at the same time such as creativity skills through designing and creating musical instruments from available materials; Fine motor skills such as cutting, tying, connecting parts of musical instruments. In the future, I will continue to exploit my own experiences to effectively combine methods such as music, movement, drama into other educational activities like this.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Please note that the adults in the video only participate as children experiencing the activity and do not have any other involvement in the process

# data[].attributes.body
In this second activity, I noticed that children were very actively engaged, even more than the first activity. After the warm-up and simulating the dragon's movements together, each child took turns taking the initiative to step onto the stage to perform their own dragon dance. This shows that children not only participated actively but also confidently expressed themselves in front of the group. They not only moved freely but also combined sound, movement and surrounding space to create diverse and unique performances. Although most children participated actively, there were still a few children who were shy and confused in understanding the idea of ​​dragon dance, perhaps due to the lack of visual experience or insufficient language to visualize. To make it more complete next time, I will adjust the duration of the activity, spend more time on the imaginative warm-up, helping children visualize more clearly before performing. Using illustrations of dragons and how they move, support children who are still confused in visualizing. This activity for me is a vivid example of the saying: “Young children are made to move and are natural wigglers” (Dance Teaching Ideas, n.d.). Children not only learn to move, but also express emotions and imaginary stories through their body movements. Through this activity, I also clearly saw the potential of integrating music, movement and drama into teaching activities. These methods not only enrich children’s experiences but also help them develop physically, emotionally, mentally and socially. In the future, I will continue to integrate these elements into my teaching activities to create inspiring and interactive learning experiences for my student.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Please note that the adults in the video only participate as children experiencing the activity and do not have any other involvement in the process

# data[].attributes.headline
Activity #3: Drama - Interact With The Tree Soldiers

# data[].attributes.subject
Activity #3: Drama - Interact With The Tree Soldiers

# data[].attributes.body
In this final activity, I organized an on Country Walk and encourage children to play the role as a friend with tree soldiers and talk to the trees. Children are actively participated, many of them imagined that the trees could hear and respond to them by shaking their leaves or swaying in the wind. Some even gently hugged and rubbed the tree trunk like a close friend, this showing a deep emotional connection. However, some children were initially confused by the idea of ​​talking to trees, they needed guidance and support to start talking to the trees. Next time, I might need to expand the activity with music or movement such as dancing like a tree in the wind or singing to the trees to increase their connection with nature in another way. From the results of this activity, I understand more clearly the importance of creating space for children to experience emotions and imagination in nature, as Wilson mentioned "Play in natural environments provides far more opportunities for development and learning than playgrounds equipped with exercise equipment only" (Wilson, 2017, p.6), in the future I will try to come up with more plans for my students to learning with the nature.

# data[].attributes.body
Before this unit, I viewed music, movement and drama as separate fields that required specialized skills and were performance oriented. After being exposed to the resources of this unit and completing three very practical assessments, I realized that music, movement and drama are a natural language ​​that can be naturally integrated into daily activities to help children connect with themselves, with people around them and the natural environment. Through this unit, I also became more aware of the importance of listening and observing children, and using my own personal experiences that are similar to their ideas of play will help me build meaningful learning activities with them. I can see myself not only as a guide, but also as a companion and explorer of the world with children. I now feel more confident in using art as a tool to nurture identity, empathy and curiosity in future teaching pedagogy.

# data[].attributes.body
Australian Government Department of Education [AGDE]. (2022). Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia (V2.0). In ACECQA. https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf

Dance Teaching Ideas. (n.d.). Creative Dance-Play for Early childhood. Danceteachingideas. https://danceteachingideas.com/creative-dance-movement-for-toddlers/

Gano, D., & Krull, S. (2020, July). Natural Sensory Learning. Communityplaythings. https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/natural-sensory-learning

Raisingchildren.net.au the Australian parenting website. (n.d.). Imaginary friends. Rasingchildren.net.au. https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/behaviour/friends-siblings/imaginary-friends

TEDx Talk. (2015, November 13). The difference between hearing and listening | Pauline Oliveros | TEDxIndianapolis  [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/_QHfOuRrJB8?si=I3I0583mKIBZjwpJ

Wilson, R. (2007). Nature and Young Children: Encouraging Creative Play and Learning in Natural Environments. Routledge. https://vu.ereserve.vu.edu.au/app/manage/resources/access?item_id=193726&session_public_key=a335109d1abb4dd387b0110267931f26