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This documentation panel showcases three brief teaching exercises inspired by my imaginative response to Cherry Lake. The events delve into the natural noises, movements, and imaginative storytelling that come from interacting with Country. Each activity is developed for early childhood settings and encourages children to participate with:

Music: "Nature's Orchestra" - exploring soundscapes with natural and discovered artefacts.

Movement: "Flow Like the Lake" - mimics the movement of water and fauna around Cherry Lake.

Drama: "Stories from the Lake" - uses drama and storytelling to depict Cherry Lake's life.

These sessions promote sensory engagement, creativity, and an emotional connection to the environment.

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These experiences are based on my creative soundscape work from Assessment 2, in which I closely engaged with Cherry Lake by capturing noises, walking mindfully, and listening to both human and non-human aspects. The activities were designed to elicit comparable connections in youngsters, promoting bonds with place, imagination, and sensory learning.

The activities are based on aesthetic learning, which involves engaging children's senses and emotions through the arts (Wright, 2012).

Poetic knowing provides expressive and emotive ways of understanding and reacting to place (Gibson & Ewing, 2011).

Place-based education helps students engage with their local ecosystems and the stories of the land (Somerville, 2010).

These sessions correspond with EYLF v2.0 Outcome 2: "Children are connected with and contribute to their world" and Outcome 4: "Children are confident and involve learners"

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Nature’s Orchestra – Sound/Music Experience

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Nature’s Orchestra – Sound/Music Experience

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Lesson Steps:

Welcome children in a circle outside or near open windows.

Ask them to close their eyes and listen to their surroundings for a minute.

Invite the youngsters to share what they have heard.

Provide natural things such as sticks, leaves, stones, shells, and water in jars.

Encourage children to experiment with making noises using these things.

Play in small groups to create a soundscape inspired by Cherry Lake.

Reflect as a group: Which sounds reminded you of nature?

Items needed:

Found/natural objects.

Small containers.

Framework Connection: EYLF Outcome 4: Children demonstrate confidence and involvement in learning, including creative expression and problem-solving.

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Flow Like the Lake – Movement Experience

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Flow Like the Lake – Movement Experience

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Lesson Steps:

Play relaxing instrumental nature-inspired music.

Ask the children, "How do you think the lake moves?" "How do birds move?"

Encourage children to move their bodies in the same way that water flows, trees sway, ducks waddle, and fish swim.

Initiate group games like "stick with the leader" (which imitates lake movements).

Scarves or ribbons can be used to create visual effects of flowing movement.

End with a cool down: lie on the floor and imagine floating in the lake.

Materials needed:

Calm instrumental music.

Framework Connection: EYLF Outcome 3: Children take greater responsibility for their physical well-being (movement coordination and body awareness).

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Stories from the Lake – Drama Experience

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Stories from the Lake – Drama Experience

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Lesson Steps:

Invite children to contribute to the story by using their imaginations.

Assign simple roles such as duck, frog, fish, tree, wind, etc.

Act out the story that the group constructed.

Pause the story and ask guiding questions, such as, "What might the duck do next?" How is the frog feeling?

End with a group reflection: What did your character experience and see at the lake?

Materials needed:

Simple costume components.

Nature-based props.

Framework Connection: EYLF Outcome 5: Children communicate effectively through theatre, storytelling, and language development.

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Prior to beginning this course, I viewed music, movement, and theatre in early childhood education as enjoyable and engaging activities to entertain children or fill in time. However, via readings, seminars, and my own creative response to Cherry Lake, I've grown to view these artistic forms as rich learning languages. They enable youngsters to express their emotions, thoughts, and experiences in ways that go well beyond words.

Creating the soundscape for Assessment 2 allowed me to listen more thoroughly – not just to sound, but also to location and myself. It anchored me in the rhythms of Country, and that sensory awareness informed how I prepared each of the three events. I discovered that arts-based learning is about process, presence, and connection, rather than performance or perfectionism.
Each of the activities I designed for this evaluation provided a space for children to slow down, notice, and connect, whether by producing environmental sounds, moving like water, or acting out lake stories. I witnessed how these art forms promote children's well-being, identity, and communication, as well as foster relationships with the environment and one another.

As a future early childhood teacher, I am now more secure in incorporating music, movement, and theatre into daily practice in meaningful ways. I will continue to use place-based techniques, value children's creative voices, and acknowledge the link to Country in all aspects of teaching and learning.

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What worked well:

The children were really interested in the natural materials.

The movement activity promoted expressing oneself and coordination.

Storytelling encouraged creativity and teamwork.

What didn't happen as expected:

Some children struggled to remain calm during the soundscape listening.

The drama activity required clearer role coaching for younger children.

What I Would Do Differently:

Prepare a silent listening game before to the soundscape activity.

Allow additional time for collaborative storytelling.

Future practice: These encounters highlighted children's ability to connect with nature and express themselves through art. I will continue to incorporate natural areas into my teaching and give opportunities for artistic expression related to place.

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Listening to the sounds around them and admiring the movements that they see

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Listening to the sounds around them and admiring the movements that they see

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Trying to use their imagination after coming up with their role play and imagining the different types of animals that may be around them

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Wright, S. (2012). Children, meaning-making and the arts (2nd ed.). Pearson Education.

Ewing, R. (2010). The arts and Australian education: Realising potential. ACER.
https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=policy_analysis_misc

Knight, L. (2013). Not as it seems: Using Dewey’s aesthetic theory to look beyond the obvious in early childhood education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 14(4), 387–394.
https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2013.14.4.387

Victoria University Login Service - Loading Session Information. (2025). Proquest.com. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/reader.action?docID=820317&ppg=331

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