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Australia Day Victoria 2021, Online Video, Youtue, viewed 9 June 2022, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9ta1EQJYqE >.

Briggs, M, Hansen, A, & Hansen, A 2012, Play-Based Learning in the Primary School, SAGE Publications, Limited, London.

Bruce, T 2011, Learning Through Play: For Babies, Toddlers and Young Children, Hodder Education Group, London.

Cooper, M 2011, ‘Is Beauty a Way of Knowing?’, in C Edwards, L Gandini, G Forman, & Reggio Children S.R.L (eds), The Hundred Languages of Children: the Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation, 3rd Edition: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation, ABC-CLIO,LLC, pp. 295-301.

Edwards, C, Gandini, L, Forman, G 2014, Hundred Languages of Children: Reggio Emilia Approach Advanced Reflections: The Reggio Emilia Approach Advanced Reflections, Second Edition, ABC-CLIO.

Hanna, W 2017, The Children’s Music Studio: A Reggio- Inspired Approach, Oxford University Press, Incorporated.

Langer, J & Killen, M 1998, Piaget, Evolution, and Development, Taylor & Francis Group, London.

Martello, J 2010, ‘Four Literacy Practices roled into One: Drama and Early Childhood Literacies’, Melbourne Studies in Education, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 53-63.

Suzanne, M, Woodard, C, Milch, C, & Mair, S 2012, Make-Believe Play and Story-Based Drama in Early Childhood : Let's Pretend!, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London.

TEDx Talks 2013, online video, Music as a language, viewed 09 June 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0.

Ungunmerr-Baumann, MR 2002, Dadirri: inner deep listening and quiet still awareness, Emmaus Productions, pp. 1–4, http://www.dadirri.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Dadirri-Inner-Deep-Listening-M-R-Ungunmerr-Bauman-Refl1.pdf.

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Being actively involved in this unit, I was able to understand the importance of music and drama in the learning process of children. My perspective of music, movement, and drama has changed as a result of engaging in the unit content to recognise drama, music, and movement enable children not only to develop their social, physical, and cognitive skills but also nurture children to find who they are and their capabilities from their hand-on involvement in the practice of music, drama, and movement.  Victor Wooten's Tedx talk - 'Music as a language' (TEDx Talk 20013), explains we learn from our surroundings, and what we learn from our surroundings forms us to discover our capabilities and be who we are today. The Dadirri script by Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann (Ungunmerr-Baumann 2002) outlined to me that the land or the environment around us provides us with many possible opportunities to grow and find who we are through the resources the land provides us. When we connect to the land and allow our imagination to take place and implement our ideas, we are able to find music from our resources and conduct drama and movement activities in a natural environment which allows us to learn in-depth about ourselves and think deeper.

My country visit enabled me to think about the land and the local environment. I was able to reflect on the beautiful nature and think deeply about the importance of the land for the first nation people. During my country visit, I connected with nature, taking in the smell, the feelings of the gum trees, the wind, the movement of the birds, and the landscape. This made me imagine how the animals in Australia would have lived in this land and how much of a treasure this land would have been to those animals, thus I created the land of unknown in my creative work, which I related to in my micro-teaching activities in order to influence children to think about the land and how we are connected to the land. The three micro-teaching activities are related to children's imagination and how they are able to connect to the land through the acknowledgment of the other lives we share this land with. The main learning outcome of the micro-teaching activities is for children to respect the land and gain a sense of their responsibility to the community through the activities of drama, music, and movement, which develop their imagination, cognitive, literacy, social, and physical skills, and abilities. The innovation of microteaching programs helped me to shape my future learning experience to implement imagination in activities and ensure all activities hands-on experiences for children as pedagogies have proven children develop further knowledge through hands-on activities (Briggs, Hansen & Hensen 2012) and identify their capabilities and how they are able to extend such capabilities through scaffolding (Langer & Killen 1998).

During group conversations, I have outlined I learned to see beyond what meets the eye which is a concept I further acknowledged and learned to implement in my planning of activities in my teaching practices when forming activities and implementing in achieving a learning outcome. The reading and the videos which we reflected on during the unit helped me to think deeper about how we as teachers can allow children to be more connected to the land and enable children to imagine through creativity.

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Activity: Drama

Title of the activity: Let’s explore our land

Drama enables children to think critically, step out of their comfort zone, develop confidence, and strengthen their physical skills and literacy, as they perform in movement and sounds (Martello 2010). The following activity is designed for children to move their bodies, utilise their imagination, and explore their sounds in conducting a storytelling activity through the concept of drama. The pedagogical outcome of this activity is children are capable and has a wide imagination which they are able to utilise in understanding their surrounding and build their knowledge of Australia.

Learning Outcomes:

For children to be creative and explore their capabilities.

For children to develop their social skills through performance.

For children to connect to their land and acknowledge the land they play and learn.

Activity:

This activity is a learning-through-action activity formed for children to learn through their movement, sound, and drama.

Educators are to introduce the drama activity by reading the following story and asking the children to act.

Equipment Needed: Aboriginal Musical Instruments

Story

Meet wombat wobble. He’s going to go on an adventure. First, he needs to find his bag. He filled his bag with water cause where he’s visiting is very hot and he needs his food to eat when he’s hungry.
Off he went…
Through the red gum trees and under the tree trunks he found a magical land… He can hear the cockatoos flying above his and the wind going woooosh wooosh.
He excitingly follows the kangaroos, jump jump jump.
He sees the dingos upon the big rock. He runs faster and faster to say hello to the dingos. Ooh, wait a minute. Who is this? Wombat wobble thinks looking up at the gum trees. They are grey. “They are koalas”, shouts the dingo climbing down the rock. “There’s a magical land filled with koalas to see”, said the dingo. “You just have to go through this magical tunnel”. The wombat Wobble crawls into the brown log tunnel and enjoyed the sound of the music being played by the instruments. At the end of the tunnel, he ran out with amazement and saw koalas climbing the trees and kangaroos jumping, whom he followed, and cockatoos flying in circles when he jumped to the log. Another wombat he pointed jumping in excitement. This wombat walked over to him and gave him a gum tree.

Actions

Meet wombat wobble (act out the actions of a wombat and waive to each other).

He’s going to go on an adventure. First, he needs to find his bag (move around the room and find the bag and mime to put on the bag).

He filled his bag with water (filling water from the tap or the river). This is where the educators provide children the opportunity to utilise their imagination and be creative with their movements.

cause where he’s visiting is very hot – the action of hot weather and how you would feel when it’s hot

and he needs his food to eat when he’s hungry – finding food items from the environment, and acting out eating or showing the feeling of hungry.
Off he went… - movement like wombats
Through the red gum trees and under the tree trunks he found a magical land… - Acting out the actions accordingly to the words through, under, and finding a magical land with the expression of amazement.

He can hear the cockatoos flying above his and the wind going woooosh wooosh. – action of the wind and making sounds of the wind using vocals and instruments, flying and listening.
He excitingly follows the kangaroos, jump jump jump – provide children the opportunity to be either kangaroos or wombat, ask children to jump like kangaroos and others to follow the Kangaroos as a wombat.
He sees the dingos upon the big rock. – actions of a dingo

He runs faster and faster to say hello to the dingos. – running to speak to the dingo over the rock.

Ooh, wait a minute. Who is this? Wombat wobble thinks looking up at the gum trees. They are grey. Stopping quickly and wondering, acting out questions. Allow children to climb and be koalas and others to be wombats.

“They are koalas”, shouts the dingo climbing down the rock. Actions “There’s a magical land filled with koalas to see”, said the dingo. “You just have to go through this magical tunnel”. In this part of the story, children have the opportunity to choose which character they would like to be vocalise and act as the character dingo or be koalas, or the wondering wombat. Children can form a magical tunnel.

The wombat Wobble crawls into the brown log tunnel and enjoyed the sound of the music being played by the instruments – Children can utilise the aboriginal instrument to make music and form a tunnel, this can be done individually or together.

At the end of the tunnel, he ran out with amazement and saw koalas climbing the trees and kangaroos jumping, whom he followed, and cockatoos flying in circles when he jumped to the log. Another wombat he pointed jumping in excitement. This wombat walked over to him and gave him a gum tree – These animals can be acted out accordingly by the children as the story is read by the educator.

By conducting this activity in the learning environment, educators are providing children the opportunity to follow instructions, develop their literacy skills, be creative, work together in teams, strengthen their physical skills, develop social skills, be confident, and acknowledge children’s capabilities. In this activity, children are given the choice of which character they would like to perform with guidance and how they would like to perform using their imagination and their own thinking, which allows children to explore their hundred languages and nurture. It is stated by Cooper (2011) the unique course of development of children should be provided for children to have opportunities through space and time to develop through the course of hands-on experiences. Through this activity, children are able to represent their ideas, feelings, and already-gathered knowledge gaining a deeper understanding of Australia and the culture that is held in this land by the aboriginal community. Welcome to the country' video by Aunty Joy Murphy (Australia Day Victoria 2021), where the aboriginal people hand a gum leaf to welcome their visitors to the Kulin land, is outlined in the story, allowing children to understand the culture undertaken and their responsibilities they have in looking after the land. Acting out the story through movement, sound and drama infuses the classroom with energy and creates enthusiasm for learning as children are more involved in the learning event and actively engaged (Suzanne et al. 2012). Piaget outlined the importance of hands-on experience children should have when developing, station children learning through play has a higher capacity for cognitive development and understanding of the lesson, providing children with opportunities to not only deeply understand but also the scaffold their learning experiences (Langer & Killen 1998). Hence, through this activity children are able to learn about the land and connect to the land. It also enables children to think about how they belong to the environment and their responsibilities to the environment and the community.

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Activity: Obstacle Course

Title: I’m an Australian Animal

This activity is designed to promote children’s physical skills and creativity, educators are to set up an obstacle course using the following resources.

-         Climbing Dome

-         Three Chairs

-         climbing and slide Ramp

-         Three tables

-         Crawl tunnel

-         Small branches of gum leaves

-         Pictures of Australian animals (kangaroo, koala, dingo, cockatoo, kookaburra, and wombat)

The resources are to be set up in the above manner (picture attached).

Instruction for the activity:

Educators are to utilise indoor and outdoor resources (substitute if have to) to conduct this activity. The purpose of this activity is to provide children the opportunity to move their bodies, improving their physical development. This activity can be conducted either indoors or outdoor space.

Educators are to place the pictures of the animals in the following manner indicating to the children the animals they are to create using their bodies;

-         Koala - Climbing Dome

-         Kangaroo – Three chairs

-         Dingo and kookaburra climbing and slide Ramp

-         Cockatoo - Three tables (place the small branches of gum leaves for the children to use as wings of the cockatoo and make sounds)

-         Wombat - Crawl tunnel

In this activity, children are to take turns acting out the animals displayed in the area. Educators are to encourage children to stay in their character during their transition to the next area. Children are to climb and down the dome like a koala, jump in between the chairs like kangaroos, and climb or walk the slide in actions of dingos, they are open to being a bird in the middle, flying around the tables using the gum leaves like a cockatoo, and crawl into the tunnel like wombats. Educators are to allow children to be creative when moving their bodies.

With this activity, children are able to identify Australian animals, understand the characteristics of such animals, and outline the movements of such animals creatively by moving their bodies. This activity provides children the opportunity to imagine, be creative, and strengthen their physical skills through movement.

Learning Outcomes:

For children to develop their knowledge of the land through identification of the Australian animals.

For children to develop their physical skills through movement.

To provide children the opportunity to be creative, implement their open imagination, and understand their movement capabilities.

How the activity is related to the pedological walk:

As I observed the movement and the environment of the Bundoora Park – Red Gumtree Pathway, my imagination immediately took place according to how the trees were formed, the pathway, the bushes, and how the tree trunks were laying on the group. I thought about how this land is related to the first nation people and the animals we share this land with. I quested myself and did the dingos climb on the fallen tree trunks, I could imagine the shadows of kangaroos jumping on the pathway, birds moving through the trees, and a wombat exploring the environment going on an adventure. Relating to my thoughts at the time and my creative response to ‘The Land of Unknown’ I formed the ‘I’m an Australian Animal’ obstacle course of movement for age three children. The activity enables children to move their bodies like Australian animals using their imagination and creativity. This activity allows children to be open to possibilities, explore their abilities, and nature their knowledge and skills. Setting activities with the objective of open-ended spirals, enable young children to repeat key experiences, observe, reobserve, consider and reconsider, represent, and re-represent as per the hundred languages approach of Regio Emilia (Edwards et al. 2014, p. 10). Ungunmerr-Baumann (Ungunmerr- Baumann 2002) outlines the connection the first nation people have to the land and how they learn from the land, as well as states the land provides them to find themselves. Hence, in relation children can find their skills and abilities through this activity while learning about the Australian land and gaining respect for the land as the land holds great value to everyone.

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Title of the Activity: Let’s Go See Australia

Resources and Equipment needed to conduct the activity:
-         Pictures of Australian Animals

-         Tree sticks collected from the visit to the

-         Gum nuts

-         Rocks

-         Gum tree leaves

How to conduct the activity:
Educators are to ask the children to stand and provide them with the above natural resources.

At the beginning of the activity educators are to ask the children to shake all the natural resources as per their liking to explore the different sounds the resources would make. This part of the activity can be done by the educator instructing the children to shake or clang the resources together by saying start and stop in a repetitive manner, gaining children’s interest. During this time it is important to allow children to share their opinions with educators and peers. This enables educators to determine whether the children are interested in the activity and how they are able to make it more interesting and interactive for the children.

Thereafter identify the Australian animals – Koala, Dingo, Kangaroo, Emu, cockatoo, kookaburra, and parrot.

Sing the following song with the children, allowing them to make and identify the noises and actions of the different animals of Australia. Educators are to show the picture of an animal to the children to identify and make their noise using the natural loose-part instruments.

Activity Song:
We are walking in the land of Australia, we are walking in the land of Australia,
We are going through the bushes, there’s our gumtrees, wwwoooshhhhhh, wooooshhhhhh,
Oooohhhh wait a minute!!! who is this? Eating all the gum leaves… (show the pictures of the koala)…. It’s a koala – (allow children to guess the animals and make koala noises with their natural instruments).

We are walking in the land of Australia, we are walking in the land of Australia,
We are going through the bushes, we go over the logs, step step step,
Oooohhhh wait a minute!!! who is this? Standing on the log, looking out... (show the pictures of the dingo)…. It’s a dingo – (allow children to guess the animals and make dingo noises with their natural instruments).

We are walking in the land of Australia, we are walking in the land of Australia,
We are going through the bushes, there’s our gumtrees, wwwoooshhhhhh, wooooshhhhhh,
Look out…. It’s a kangaroo (show the pictures of the kangaroo)…. Jump jump jump – (allow children to guess the animals and make kangaroo noises with their natural instruments).

We are walking in the land of Australia, we are walking in the land of Australia,
We are going through the bushes, there’s our gumtrees, wwwoooshhhhhh, wooooshhhhhh,
Oooohhhh wait a minute!!! who is this? Flying.. (show the pictures of the cockatoo)…. It’s a cockatoo – (allow children to guess the animals and make cockatoo noises with their natural instruments).

We are walking in the land of Australia, we are walking in the land of Australia,
We are going through the bushes, there’s our gumtrees, wwwoooshhhhhh, wooooshhhhhh,
Look who it is !!! (show the pictures of the emu)…. It’s a emu – (allow children to guess the animals and make emu noises with their natural instruments).

We are walking in the land of Australia, we are walking in the land of Australia,
We are going through the bushes, there’s our gumtrees, wwwoooshhhhhh, wooooshhhhhh,
Look up everybody… who do you see? (show the pictures of the kookaburra and parrot)…. It’s a kookaburra and a parrot– (allow children to guess the animals and make kookaburra and a parrot noises with their natural instruments).

While singing the song, educators are to encourage children to move their bodies by modeling the actions of the song by walking around the room, demonstrating climbing, taking big steps, looking up and around, and jumping.

Pedagogical Outcomes:
-         For children to acknowledge and respect the land we live in, and understand the rich history the land upholds through music.

-         Allow children to explore sound and music through natural resources collected from the walk taken to Bundoora Park, developing their cognitive and physical skills.

-         Allow children to explore the sound of nature through the creative use of the resources in relating to the Aboriginal Culture.

Description of the activity relating to the walk:
This activity is designed for children to explore the different sounds using their bodies and resources collected from the land such as tree sticks, gum nuts, rocks, and gum tree leaves, allowing children to connect to the land we live in, recognise the importance of the resources provided by the land, and acknowledge their environment. Using natural resources to create music and sound enables children to acknowledge the resources provided by the land and how they can utilise such resources in their everyday play to learn through play (Bruce 2011). Rose Ungunmerr- Baumann (Ungunmerr- Baumann 2002), outlines the respect, and connection the Aboriginal people have to this land and the use they have from the land as the land provides them and allows them to learn and live, they grow respect towards the land by seeing the importance of the land. Through the use of natural resources collected by the land, children will be able to gain an understanding of the many resources and use the land provides us and also acknowledge the history of the land. This activity also enables children to develop their cognitive skills through imagination as they walk through the land of Australia, acknowledge the animals we share our land with, and develop their physical skills as they move their bodies according to the song. This activity not only allows children to create sounds of music but also recognize the sounds of Australian animals, and explore how such animals would move and live in our land, leading to creativity and gross motor development. Allowing children to explore the different sounds the natural resources would create and acknowledge their surrounding through the activity, would enable children to outline their interests and creativity, which then the educators would be able to undertake in their reflection and modify according to children’s interests and capabilities to nature the children (Hanna 2017).

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I have decided to title this activity, 'The Magical Land of Australia', as this activity is related to the place walk pedagogy taken place in Bundoora park's Red Gum Tree nature walk path, belonging to the traditional owners of the land Kurnaj-berring tribe of the Wurndjeri clan, who are the traditional owners of the land. As I walked through the park observing and listening to the surrounding, I discovered many hidden gems in the fallen gum trees and the sound of nature through the movement of trees and birds surrounding the nature path, which allowed me to think about how the first nation people would have utilise this land and how various of national animals would have lived in the past. In relating to my thoughts during the place walk, I have innovated activities of sound, movement, and drama for children to acknowledge the land we live in, and build their developments, while recognising their interest.

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The below activities are formed to provide children opportunities to develop their cognitive, physical, and social skills, and connect to the land they live in. The activities are extracted from the creative work previously innovated in assessment two and the place visited, Bundoora Park. The below activities are formed in line with the three-year-old age group and are to be run between 5 to 10 minutes time frame in order to gain effective learning outcomes. The activities allow children to move their bodies, nurture through sounds and learn through hands-on experiences, which has proven to better benefit children in the long run. The below activities also enable children to connect to the land they live in, implement their imagination, and understand the culture of the land, along with the living nature we share this land with. The ultimate learning objective of these activities is for children to acknowledge the land they play and learn, their responsibilities, and gain an understanding of their place in the community.