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The purpose of this visual journal is to investigate the significance of art and nature for children's growth and the relationship between these two factors and the process of experimenting with different materials. According to Pelo (2016) mentioned that the innate curiosity of youngsters, their quest for knowledge, and their curiosities in the world around them are fostered and maintained. Also, it is a challenge to me in exploring things that I have not yet try to improve myself in teaching.

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When I was playing with paints, I decided to try using a variety of various tools. I experimented with a variety of techniques, each of which produces a distinct texture and aesthetic. I discovered that the smooth tool will give me a colour with a smooth texture, the rough tool will give me a colour with a rough texture, and if I use the particular tool that has forms on it, it will trace out that shape, like my finger for example. The more I experiment with a variety of tools, the more I get exposed to a wide variety of textures, all of which assist me to make connections with aspects of my everyday life. I also investigated the theory that when one colour is combined with another, a new color is produced.

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Clay demands a lot of muscle and strength, which I noticed as I was playing with it. As a form of creative expression, I worked with clay using my hands and felt its texture on my skin. I also used other natural materials. I think that not only my muscles but also my intellect is benefiting from the time I spend working with clay. I investigated the shapes, forms and structure of clay that might be made from the natural objects that were all around me. I used my fingertips to get a feel for the clay. I got to the point where I began appreciating the clay and wondering what I could create out of it or how many kinds of clay there are in the world. Where in the natural world can I locate clay, and what uses does it have? What if I mix in a different color to the clay, and it comes out looking completely different? It gives me the opportunity to experiment with a variety of clay-playing instruments and objects.

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Take a deep breath and slowly enjoy the place I live 

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WHAT CAN YOU LISTEN FROM HERE?
WHAT CAN I LISTEN FROM HERE?

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One of the materials that I experiment with is charcoal, and I have many different kinds of charcoal as well as stick charcoal. When I was drawing on paper with charcoal, I experimented with various line weights and textures, such as light, medium, and heavy, depending on how I applied pressure. The dark color of nature seems incredibly extractive to me. I then began to experiment with tracing with charcoal by placing a coin beneath a piece of paper and coloring it with charcoal. The result was an image of the coin. On the other hand, I discovered a distinct change in the texture of the charcoal's powder when it was dissolved in water. It is considerably smoother, and I had the impression that I was touching a piece of cloth. My fingers were covered with a charcoal-like shade, which resulted in the formation of a fingerprint.

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When I first began playing with blocks, I had no clue what I would build with them; nevertheless, after I started merely piling blocks on top of each other in a personalized way, I was able to produce some imaginative structures. After some reflection, I discovered that I had investigated the engineering behind the design of the home, also the balancing of how all of the pieces could hang on to each other. In addition, I realized that this block play helps build my creativity, despite the fact that I place objects in an arbitrary order. It came up looking like a human face with a grin, some homes, and the final piece of artwork that I made. After seeing my play, I anticipate that various audience members will go away with unique perspectives. Whatever your mind conjures up, it might be anything.

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Using a flashlight in the dark to do hands-on experiments with different colored blocks of light and light sources. I got the opportunity to investigate a wide variety of artistic and scientific ideas, some of which included the size, color, texture, and form of shadows.

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In conclusion, the incorporation of art into early childhood education settings that there are a variety of channels via which they may communicate their thoughts, queries, sentiments, and ideas. In order for this to happen, children need to have access to a wide variety of materials, the time to experiment with those materials, and the assistance to develop their abilities and methods inside the studio. As a consequence of this, children acquire the ability to employ other materials in place of languages and develop their own personal toolboxes or repertoires of communication tactics that they are able to take with them wherever they go.

The educators at Reggio Emilia are of the opinion that exposure to artistic expression ought to be a fundamental entitlement for all children since it is an important component of human thought (Rinaldi, 2006). I believe that these materials and loose parts provide a myriad of suggestions for ways to enhance early childhood education and the learning of young children. In most schools, artistic pursuits are offered as optional extracurricular activities when there is time for them (Clyde, Miller, Sauer, Liebert, Parker, & Runyon, 2006). According to Smilan (2007), there is adequate data to support the claim that active learning and engagement may be increased by exposure to the arts. The child, much like in early childhood settings, is a co-constructor of information with the instructor, and they actively generate ideas, skills, and explanations of knowledge via experiences that they have. Roy, Baker and Hamilton (2015) viewed that Creativity is a natural way that children process information and interacting with the environment; it also has positive effects on a child's well-being that ECT can encourage children to communicate their ideas using a variety of symbolic languages.

The environment is built around a robust mental picture of the children, and it is thought of as the third teacher alongside the children and the teachers (Topal and Gandini, 1999). Exploration is encouraged in this environment since it is pleasant to the eye, welcoming, and intellectually engaging. Relationships and interactions between adults and children, children among themselves, and adults with other adults are encouraged and fostered via the intentional design of spaces. As a future educator, I would want to build a natural environment that communicates in many different languages, fosters connections while giving children personal space, and has the potential to adapt itself to investigate nature and non-human living species.

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Block has consistently been a highly prevalent presence in day-to-day existence. Since it is something that is readily apparent to me, such as a building, tissue box, storage box, large vehicle, etc., I don't draw too much attention on it. I am curious as to what benefits block might provide to me and why it was designed to be a play. According to Pacini, Kind, and Kocher (2016), as we experimented with the blocks, we could feel the weight of history in the room such as the growth rings on a tree, wooden blocks hold remnants of periods past, which caused our experiments to stutter. The blocks have been arranged and constructed in a variety of various ways. There was no denying the fact that blocks moved in a predictable manner and have the steadiness of a clock (Pacini, Kind and Kocher, 2016). In addition, Pacini, Kind, and Kocher (2016) also noted that block play provides a vital, open-ended, and creative opportunity for everyone to participate. As blocks are loose pieces, they may be joined and remade in an infinite number of different ways. The idea that blocks or other detachable components may be combined with or utilized independently dawned on me. Because there is "no proper way" to engage with blocks and because it is an open-ended and child-directed kind of play, it enables me to be creative while I am playing and create what I want to play with them. Increasing the number of available construction materials, such as recycled paper, patterns, sticks, and cardboard, opens up more possibilities for creative expression.

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As an ECT, I would provide children with vast opportunity to learn about their environment via the dismantling and rebuilding of any block-based construct they can imagine. I allow my children a free zone to play their own with blocks and other loose parts that can be come from anything. While playing with blocks I promote children with an excellent opportunity to learn new words, expand their vocabularies, and develop their language skills via exploration of their environments and participation in foundational literacy activities.

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Paint became a tool for thinking rather than sensory development for toddlers. Paint was being used as a verb and a noun (Ingold, 2011). The actions of mixing, dipping, stirring, squishing, and splattering satisfied the expectations of anticipation, composition, performance, and narrative, respectively (Pacini, Kind and Kocher, 2016). Children can experiment and create discoveries, acting like little scientists as they play with tools and combine colors. Paint dissolved these distinctions between human and nonhuman bodies, becoming an aggregation of both. Paint sent an invitation to the various entities to participate and work together. It was an open invitation for forces to mix and clash. It has been suggested by Gilbert (2004) that improvisational assemblages are at their most active and are most equipped to express themselves when limits are present. It is moving to get a feel for how heavy the brush is. The purpose of this is to move while detecting the dampness of the paint. It is used to get an idea of how far away the easel is. It is to rearrange the structure of the world.

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The act of making available to youngsters a variety of supplies for painting conveys the sentiment that they are encouraged to engage in the activity. Through the resources and technologies that available, as an ECT, I am not just communicating verbally but also subtly. By encouraging children's education and providing them with the highest-quality resources and tools that we are able to provide, we are communicating to children the importance that we put on their ruminations, experiments, and other forms of self-expression.

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Charcoal is a substance that takes the form of a stick and is made of compressed and burnt wood. It's possible that charcoal might evolve into anything than a tool for sketching. Paper has the potential to be more than just a surface. Charcoal is friendly material to interactions with people. Charcoal could  leave a mark, spreads out, covers, envelops, and pulls others in (Pacini, Kind and Kocher, 2016). It involves more than simply interpersonal connections. It is about the ability of objects and humans to react to one another in place, in and out of time, while moving, and in an environment that provides for several convergences and intersections. According to Pacini, Kind and Kocher (2016) “encountering charcoal offered us hope: the hope to be open to thought. The hope to meet anew. The hope to touch and be touched. The hope to attend to anything that came along that wanted attending to. The hope to open ourselves to the unpredictability of the world. The hope, no matter what, to respond to the assemblages we become part of”.

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As an ECT, I would offer children more natural materials to allow them play and explore what charcoal could do and what they can do with charcoal. By then, children improve their ability to look, see, and perceive via the use of observation and their imagination as they discover about light and tone, line, form, size, pattern, texture, structure, and story through the medium of charcoal drawing.

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Clay is a natural, earthy material with a long and storied history. Scents of dark coolness fill the air. Although it seems smooth and wet on the outside, the interior is gritty. Moving clay weeps, sticks, shrinks, dries, stretches, gestures, melts, trickles, sits, tears, cracks, collapses, rises, attaches, shudders, rests, and collects (Pacini, Kind and Kocher, 2016). Every piece of clay has its own unique behavior, showing us that not everything is the result of human manufacture. For babies and toddlers, I think clay is a great way to start learning about their own bodies. Others believe that making something out of clay in the woods is a great way to appreciate the ground we stand on and the environment in which we find ourselves (Pacini, Kind and Kocher, 2016). We consider how we may discuss the continuous colonization of this area with children. We consider the soil that was changed to produce clay for artistic purposes. Every unique and ever-changing ecosystem has its own special requirements for clay (Pacini, Kind and Kocher, 2016).  The ecological idea encompasses the complete uniqueness of clay and all that it can do. It allows us to do more than just work with clay in its environment; it also prompts us to consider the nature of clay's relationship to its surrounding world.

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Clay is an excellent art medium for young children since it can be recycled and reused several times. As an ECT, one of my duties will be to introduce clay sculpture to the class. Children's communication skills improve as they experiment with and perfect new means of self-expression. There is generally a lot of talking and exchanging of ideas among the kids while they work on their unique clay creations. Active exploration using all sensory experiences and the use of equipment, materials, and tools to enhance abilities are all supported by this concept, which helps children develop a feeling of mastery and confidence in their own bodies. Involving children in the technical problem-solving necessary for intricate clay works is a great way to encourage their development of both technical and artistic skills. When youngsters are trying to figure out how to do something technically challenging with clay, they typically work together, exchanging information and knowledge. However, in my role as educator, I need to collaborate with students to provide additional support for the development of these abilities. The use of evocative language while critiquing children's clay creations is recommended across the board. Teachers may make pointed remarks on particulars like shape, texture, color, or line, using appropriate specialized vocabulary. Because working with clay introduces children to a natural material that's been vital to the human creative process for long periods of time.

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People nowadays are very occupied with their personal lives, careers, and financial situations. The world seems to be moving at an extremely rapid pace, and as a result, many people do not really have the time to pay attention to what is occuring around them. They are always in a rush to get to and from their jobs, whether it's the office or the construction site, and then back again in time to eat, shower, and go to bed before the sun goes down. The hectic existence has, and always will, consist of the same routine for each and every day, just as I do. Today, on a gloomy and rainy day, I had the opportunity to take a leisurely stroll through the park on my own without the company of any other human beings. I was surprised to find that I could smell the mud and dirt, and when the wind blew in my face, it felt as if someone had rubbed an ice cube across my face. As I walked around the park, I became curious about the bird calls I had been hearing and why the birds had settled here. I took a step back and asked myself why I had made the decision to live and study in Melbourne. I experimented with various noises whether it was dry or wet, and when it was on a concrete walk or on grass. All of the sights, sounds, and creatures that collaborated to produce a home, a piece of music, and some artwork.

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It might be difficult for ECT as well as children to comprehend what it means to engage in deep listening. Because everyone of the children has their own unique personality, it is imperative that I pay close attention to their individual requirements as an ECT. I would encourage youngsters to take the time to listen to one other and the natural world around them.
By designing an engaging activity for youngsters to participate outdoors, this  helps them to discovery what they can listen, what they can notice in life and the sense of smell (Gandini et al, 2015). Additionally, children will show that they are able to speak their views, that they are able to listen, and that they want to listen. Children acquire a more aware perception of the world when they share the mental pictures or ideas they have with others while simultaneously representing those ideas to themselves (O'Brien, 2016).
Deep listening is a technique that may be used not only to the education of children and the development of their abilities, but also to the training educators and to the family.

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Light is one of the most exciting things for people of all ages to experiment with and learn more about because of its ability to elicit emotions, to be aesthetically pleasing, to ignite the imagination, and to offer a real-world context for abstract ideas. Playing with shadows teaches to observe their surroundings with a fresh perspective, one that is fueled by curiosity and creativity. Explorations in fields as diverse as physics, mathematics, art, and language may sprout from the simplest of moments spent investigating light (Thornton & Brunton 2010) . The surroundings gains interest, creativity, and varying textures as light is reflected off of many surfaces. Light has its own own language, which is something that may be discovered and recorded throughout the course of a day spent playing with it (Mahshulah, Syaodih, and Rachmawati, 2020). Experimentation is a great way to help young children grasp difficult ideas in a way that's fun, and it may also serve as a gentle way to pique their curiosity in the scientific world, which can be a challenge for them. According to Mahshulah, Syaodih, and Rachmawati's (2020) stated that the Reggio Emilia method to learning strongly encourages light and shadow play as a means to foster autonomous learning via the senses and as a means to assist in the formation of various viewpoints.

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Children's natural inquisitiveness is fostered, it is almost quickly followed by the expression of their thoughts and ideas. Children may develop a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world around them via the simple act of playing with light, whether this is watching the sun's rays dance over the body shadow. It is possible to establish a connection between light play and other branches of science by pass various terminologies and languages. This helps youngsters build their self-confidence so that they may ask their own questions and put their own hypotheses to the test by exposing them to light in early childhood settings where it is repeated via experience and play. I believe that encouraging children to participate in exploratory activities that make use of light may help children develop their capacity for critical thinking. In addition, youngsters are often fascinated by the way natural lighting changes, and they frequently experience amazement and wonder as they see pictures swell or shrink depending on how close or far away they are from a light source. Children should be able to participate in activities that include both natural and artificial sources of light and shadow in order for them to develop an appreciation for the wonder and amazement of the world that surrounds them. Children's innate inquisitiveness may flourish in the stimulating setting provided by ECT, which provides both adults and children with opportunity for continuous shared thinking and the cultivation of connections in which emotions can be freely expressed.

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Gandini, L, Hill, L, Cadwell, L & Schwall, C, L Gandini, L Hill, L Cadwell & C Schwall., 2015. In the spirit of the studio: learning from the atelier of Reggio Emilia, 2nd edn, Teachers College Press.

Gilbert, J., 2004. Becoming-music: The rhizomatic moment of improvisation. In I. Buchanan & M. Swiboda (Eds.), Deleuze and music. pp. 118 –139. Edinburgh, Scotland: University of Edinburgh Press.

Ingold, T., 2011. Being alive: Essays on movement, knowledge, and description. New York, NY: Routledge.

Mahshulah, ZA, Syaodih, E & Rachmawati, Y., 2020, ‘The ray of light: an activity approach of Reggio Emilia’, The 2nd International Conference on Elementary Education, Department of Early Childhood Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, pp. 1–6.

O'Brien, K., 2016, "Listening as Activism: "The Sonic Meditations" of Pauline Oliveros", New Yorker

Pacini-Ketchabaw, V, Kind, S & Kocher, LLM., 2016, Encounters with materials in early childhood education, Routledge.

Pelo, A., 2016, The language of art: inquiry-based studio practices in early childhood settings, Redleaf Press.

Rinaldi, C., 2006. In dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, researching, and learning. New York, NY: Routledge.

Roy, D, Baker, WJ & Hamilton, A., 2015, ‘Excerpt from A vision for the arts in education’, Teaching the arts: early childhood and primary education, 2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, Port Melbourne, VIC, pp. 11–13.

Smilan, C., 2007. The creative art of education. International Journal of Social Sciences, 2.4(Fall 2007), pp.242.

Thornton, L & Brunton, P., 2010, ‘Exploring light and dark with early years’, Teaching Expertise, Wordpress.

Topal, CW & Gandini, L., 1999. ‘Connections’, Beautiful stuff: learning with found materials, Davis Publications, Worcester, pp. 49–66.

Watts, V., 2013, ‘Indigenous place - thought & agency amongst humans and non - humans (First Woman and Sky Woman go on a European world tour!)’, Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, vol. 2, Queen’s University, Canada, pp. 20–34.