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The troll emerged from his home in the fallen tree, he looked up at all the doors in his building and wondered what everyone else was doing behind those doors, what stories were being told, and what memories were being made. He made his way down the vines and stalks of the tree and headed into town, most of the town was covered in water, just the way he liked it, the water gave life to all the plants that surrounded the lands, and it reflected the sun and the stars and what the troll liked most about the water, was the way it sang to him. The way it moved when the wind blew, the songs it would sing and the life it would feed. The troll couldn’t think of a better place to live.

The troll waltzed his way over the fallen tree that created a bridge to the nearing town where he could go collect his fresh fruit and veg, he watched as the birds flew and sang to each other. He let the wind carry that tune to his upturned ears, he listened to the chatter of the nearby children and how the threw acorns into the water, watching the way the water rippled to his feet and the sound of it hitting the water added to the bird’s call.

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Play and the environment is an integral part of a child’s learning and development. By providing opportunities for exploration, social interaction and self-development, play fosters holistic development across physical, cognitive and other domains. We as educators need to recognise the importance of play-based learning and create an environment to promote and support children’s natural inclination to play and explore. Wilson states “Creative play helps children learn about their bodies, their abilities, and their relationships with others. They learn to deal with frustrations, to make decisions, and to challenge themselves in social, cognitive, and physical activities.”. Children learn crucial development milestones through play, play uses all the senses and allows children to explore the world around them, explore the environment and other children and how they work and how a child might work with them. Often, adults can see play as insignificant and not worth the time or as a treat, they can go play. This stunts a child’s cognitive development significantly. As an educator, I often get asked “Why do they play all day?”, it used to shock me that adults didn’t understand that children learn through play and just how much their little minds are working and developing through that play and now I quite enjoy educating the parents and caregivers about why play is so important.

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Meyers, A.B., Berk, L.E. (2014). The SAGE Handbook of Play and Learning in Early Childhood. SAGE Reference. https://vucollaborate.vu.edu.au/content/enforced/1816406-ECE2008-1-2023-HWB-151670/the-sage-handbook-of-play-and-learning-in-early-childhood%20(1)%20(1).pdf?ou=1945831

Pattison, A. B. (2018, November 14). Wala is life. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XACgej9L80&t=5s

Wallin, M. L. (2019, June). The importance of pretend play in natural settings. The Importance of Pretend Play in Natural Settings. https://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/the-importance-of-pretend-play-in-natural-settings#:~:text=When%20children%20are%20given%20the%20time%20and%20space%20to%20play,to%20cognitive%20and%20linguistic%20growth.

Wilson, R, 2007, Children, creative play, and the natural environment, in R. Wilson (edn) Nature and Young Children : Encouraging Creative Play and Learning in Natural Environments, Routledge. Ch 1, pp 1-18.

Wooten, V. (2013, May 30). Music as a language: Victor Wooten at tedxgabriolaisland. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0

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Sound, movement and drama play crucial roles in a child’s development, they offer holistic approaches to learning and development.

Sound engages children’s auditory senses, allowing for crucial development in language, communication and cognitive development. Listening to songs helps children develop listening and vocabulary skills. Sound also allows children to express themselves verbally and non-verbally, they can explore different modes of expression and creativity and it allows children to regulate emotions. Using calming music can help soothe a child or environment whilst using energetic music can promote energetic behaviour, promoting positive behaviour.

Movement such as dancing, running, jumping or climbing can help support both fine and gross motor skills, coordination and balance whilst it also can help children integrate sensory input from their surroundings which can then lead to body awareness and sensory processing abilities. It also allows children to improve their cooperation and collaboration skills.

Drama allows for a multitude of imagination and creativity skills to be set in motion. Drama encourages children to create stories and explore different roles, perspectives and scenarios which therefore enhance creativity and problem-solving skills. This also allows children to expand their vocabulary and communication skills. Just like sound and movement, drama also allows a safe space for children to explore and express a range of emotions, they can begin and learn to understand social cues. They can learn emotions, relationships and social dynamics.

I always encourage activities that involve sound, movement and drama in my practices as they offer multiple pathways for children to learn and grow across numerous domains of development and they also promote active engagement, creativity and meaningful interactions which in turn lays a strong foundation for lifelong learning. Not only that, I enjoy dancing with the children and singing along, even if the song is on repeat, I dance and sing with 110% energy and the children match my energy.

I use music in my day-to-day life, it helps me boost my energy on the way to work or calm me down in stressful situations. I listen to music when I’m cleaning my house or doing my assignments. I find music is the key to life.

Whilst on my “walk in the country”, I found myself leaning into the trees, after a long day of work, I was able to relax to the sounds of nature. The wind blew past my ears, the children chattered in the background and the birds sang their songs, it created a melody and the acorns and rocks hitting the water created an echo amongst the melody. Nature works in mysterious ways, the sounds always form a rhythm and it’s never out of time, even if it tried. It creates a flow for the trees to sway which then creates momentum for the acorns to fly into the water, creating a loop, a loop that will always be music to my ears and a form of relaxation. I find I too end up swaying with the trees as the wind flows and the birds follow, it’s hard not to follow, we are from the ground and will return to the ground, it is only natural that we feel a deep connection to the earth and follow the sounds and movement of nature. I find when I sit in nature I don’t often think of a plot or dramatic play such as the one I created. I find I listen to the dialogue of the animals I don’t know what they are saying but the actions they are doing, in whatever moment I am watching, I do somewhat create a script in my head of what they might be saying to each other, I do this with humans too, when Im people watching. It was quite different to create a whole scene, with characters and a narrative. It was an interesting experience, I found I didn’t have to think too hard to create characters, instantly my mind knew what the characters were and the narrative took hold and a whole performance was created, I felt like I could see it all happening right in front of me as I was imagining it.

I’ve always been very lucky to grow up surrounded by nature and surrounded by trees, and I’ve always felt a deep connection to the land. Playing outside allows children to develop crucial developmental areas such as physical strength, cognitive growth and linguistic growth (Wallin, 2019). Cognitive growth such as self-regulation is a fundamental skill that allows children to persist in life and allows them to manage their own emotions and behaviour and how they react to things, play, such as make-believe plays a crucial role in children’s emotional regulation. (Meyers and Berk, 2014). It is not a secret that going outdoors and into nature also can regulate emotions, breathing the natural air, and listening to the animals scatter and the birds sing, allows one to regulate. Play in the outdoors is the perfect scenery for learning to regulate one’s emotions whilst also developing crucial development areas.

Growing up, I used to watch where my feet went, terrified of stepping on an ant or any bug, my mum said I used to cry if I ever did or even if someone else did. Even now, when I see roadkill, I get this sense of pain, I start thinking, “How old was that baby?” “What if it had a family?”, I try not to look at them, only to see if there is a pink cross on it (Vic Wildlife has checked it) otherwise I will call them.

I don’t find it hard to imagine scenes and put my imagination to the test, my whole childhood involved playing outside, creating stories and rehearsing dances for both my mum and for concerts for my actual ballet classes.

My artefact is a spot in my local park, it’s slightly hidden and away from the park. I used to take my dog there all the time and she would swim through the water and was able to jump in with her to help her swim. The tree that had fallen used to be upright and created more of an island for me to walk on. After one of the big storms a few years ago, the tree fell, causing a bridge. I’ve tried to walk the bridge but it isn’t strong enough to hold my body weight, unfortunately. I find that particular spot quite relaxing, it’s away from too much noise, and it’s not near any main roads but you can still hear the slight bustle of the town and the buzz of the cars but still able to hear nature and the whistle of the birds and feel the breath of the trees and to watch the movement of the water when objects fall in.

Much like what Victor says (TedXtalks, 2013), children are not taught how to imagine things, they are not taught to play, they are learning through play, but it is as innate as language, the way children listen to their surroundings, growing and developing their senses, their cognitive abilities. They use their surroundings to understand the world around them which then develops into “skills”. children are listening to each sound, they recognise more than we, adults, can capture, such as the song “Wala Is Life” (Allara, 2018). The song has numerous sounds, it’s able to create a piece that still creates a catchy rhythm whilst using meaningful words and creating a message. Children can find play in the smallest of sounds and the smallest of moments, children aren’t taught how to listen or what to listen to to play, they just innately know how to.