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I went for a walk with my 5 years old daughter. While we were walking, I said that I could hear the vehicles driving on the highway. Then she listened and she said she could hear a several other sounds such as wind blowing, birds singing and frogs croaking in the nearby pond. When we came home, we went in the backyard, and I asked if she could be anything she saw on our walk. First, she acted out like a tree, with her arms open and swaying side to side while making up a song about the tree. Then she suddenly wanted to be a bird and she flapped her arms while running in circles in the garden. My son also came and joined her following her movements and shared her joyous moment. “Young children are made to move and are natural wigglers. Dance provides a fun movement activity while developing concentration and attentiveness” (Creative Dance for Early Childhood, 2020).

As per Earthbody institute dancing with nature wakens your body as you connect with natures elements by visualising its characteristics and by becoming conscious of the element in its life form. (Movement in the Wild: Nature as Dance Partner - the Earthbody Institute, 2017). Free movement in natural settings also help children explore their senses. They are actively building nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, which is crucial to brain development (Gano & Krull, 2020). Natural places not only stimulate healthy development but also provide the most playful physical environments for young children (Wilson,2012). It also helps children connect to place and brings a sense of belonging to place. Movement through dance inspired by nature is also a learning experience for children to learn other cultures as well as Australia’s indigenous cultures.

Therefore, engaging children in movement activities inspired by the natural surroundings they are in improves their holistic development and learning dispositions.

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I took my children to my brother’s backyard, where I made the video for my assessment task 2. I asked them to look around them and use their imagination to make believe in what they see. My daughter told me that the wisteria flowers hanging from the tree looks like fairy lights, the large dragon fruit tree looks like a giant scary spider crawling towards her. My son looked at the line of tree trunks and said that it looked like the Moai statues in Easter Island.

When I am at work and children are gathered around me, I like to observe the sky and the surroundings near me and ask I wonder questions to stimulate their imagination by looking at the dramatic world around them. We mostly make figures out of the clouds in the sky. It is such a fulfilling moment where I engage positively with the children where we create reciprocal relationships with each other while also scaffolding their imagination, creativity, language, social and communication skills. “According to the philosophy of Reggio Emilia, the learning environment is the “third teacher” in early childhood education, after the two classroom teachers (Edwards, Gandini & Forman, 1998). This environment should include not only the indoor early childhood classroom, but also the outdoor environment. The environments where children play have an effect on them and the quality of their play” (Lark Wallin, 2019).

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My perspective of music changed after listening to Wala is life and its artists approach to making music using the sounds based on her story. She is connecting deeply to her roots while storytelling how water brings life to the land and to living things dependent on water. Therefore, I played this song while providing pieces of sticks I gathered from my brother’s backyard. My daughter listened to the song and changed her styles of making music when the song changed sounds. Once she clapped the sticks together. Then used a stick to tap on the metal bottle, shook the metal bottle which had pebbles in it etc.

Music is a part of many cultures. In our culture, we have different music and songs for any situation in our life from happy to sad occasions. It is also evident that music plays an important role in Australian indigenous people. Therefore, providing opportunities for children to explore connections to their culture and heritage is important in the early stage of children’s lives. In my practice, I have observed that playing music and singing songs is an inclusive way of engaging all the children to take part in listening and singing with music using their vocal chords and musical instruments.

As per Dr. Ibrahim Baltagi, Music is the most important thing in our life. Music helps brain development even before a child is born. Music can benefit children of all ages from lullabies to improving social and emotional skills. (How Music Affects Your Baby’s Brain: Mini Parenting Master Class, n.d.). Music is a fundamental part of being human and in an early childhood setting, children are given the opportunity to explore music using various instruments and they also make music using other materials such as kitchen utensils, sticks and rocks. “Studies of children's free musical play have shown that children will be more deeply engaged over long periods of time and show greater persistence than is often evident in teacher-led group music making (Niland, 2009)”.

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Untitled video - Made with Clipchamp (1)

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My Reflection on Performing arts for young children.

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My Reflection on Performing arts for young children.

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Reflection:

I felt a sense of freedom and joy in my children when they engaged in moving freely according to what they observed in their nature. To be children, they need that freedom of movement while exploring their senses through nature. Touching the ground with their bear feet feeling the grass, feeling the wind brush through their hands and body as they move about in the space. It was a wonderful moment for me as a parent experiencing the joy in their faces.

In our early learning settings, children have very limited access to natural surroundings. Some children don’t even have access to a tree in some settings. Most children spend 5 years of their life attending an early learning service fulltime. It is not clear how much time they spend outdoors with their families exploring and learning to love being with nature. Therefore, as teachers, we have an immense responsibility to provide such rich opportunities to instil a love of nature as well as music, movement and drama connecting to place.

As a child making music was critical for me because I thought that it had to sound perfect. But I was wrong. Listening to Wala is life song made me realise that making music doesn’t have to be complicated. We can use our anything in our environment to make music including our own voices (Wala Is Life, by Allara, n.d.). Through providing this opportunity to my children to explore this song with sticks and diy instruments, I wish to change their perspective of making music. However, children enjoyed playing with the instruments and enjoyed listening and connecting with the Wala is life song.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of educators play music on devices all day long to keep children entertained. However, I have also witnessed how children gather around when an educator starts singing with a group of children. It also inspires children to sing on their own in their free play episodes. Music helps children in their holistic development, and I hope to inspire other educators to come out of their comfort zones to engage with children through making music on their own.