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Dance and Freeze

In this experience, children aged 2-3 will play a dancing game as a whole group in which they will dance to age appropriate and relevant music that builds from children's interests. Educators can include songs children have been learning in the centre or songs children have discovered on their own. One educator will play the music without looking at the children and when they stop the music all children will freeze as the educator turns around. The last child to be seen still moving will sit down for one round of the game, but can still participate by dancing with their upper bodies.

Resources and set up:

Music player than can be paused and resumed including child friendly music

Large cleared area for children to dance in

One educator to play and pause the music and mediate the competition

One-two educators to model dancing and direct children around the floor

Dinham and Chalk (2018, p. 114) recognise that through dance, children develop control, strength and poise and through this planned experience, children can extend their developing sense of agency, self-esteem, confidence and social skills. This activity is appropriate for this age group as children are given clear and simple instructions but also exercise the freedom to dance and move independently, creatively and show self-expression through the dance moves they create. Children also develop their physical movements as they practice freezing when prompted to. The educator may extend children by directing them to hop or skip in between intervals of dancing. The other educators will join the children dancing not only not model the activity, but the teacher who demonstrates joy in moving, is inspiring them and in a sense giving children permission to dance (Cecil-Fizdale, 1991). Educators will model the experience with the children, however they will be encouraged to dance independently in any particular style that comes naturally to them. Some children may interact with their peers my mimicking their dance movements or copying set dance routines they know to certain songs. Children with mobility constraints may be included by providing them with props such as ribbons or maracas so they might use their upper body and expression in their own unique way.

As children engage in this experience they participate in creative self-expression as well as develop their physical wellbeing.  This is further supported as "dance offers children an opportunity to learn by involving the whole body in kinaesthetic exploration, cognitive processing, aesthetic experimentation and social engagement" (Sinclair et al., 2017, p. 95). This experience holistically supports children's creativity and develops a strong sense of wellbeing as children build confidence and optimism about dancing and supports good physical health, feelings of happiness, satisfaction and successful social functioning (Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority [ACECQA], 2014, p. 33).

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Game-maker, game-maker, make me a game.

To develop students creativity, aesthetic awareness and competency in using media arts, students aged 7-8 will engage with the digital game-making program 'Sploader' (http://www.sploder.com/free-platformer-game-maker.php) to create their own challenging game, based on the following prompt.

You have just crash landed on a strange alien planet. There are many obstacles and challenges on this new planet. How will you defeat them and get back to your ship?

To engage with this prompt, students will specifically use the Escapepod, which the teacher will direct the students to, and place any obstacles and tools they are inspired by to create a fun, challenging and interesting game which will then be tested by their peers. This activity can be engaged with independently, in pairs or in small groups depending on access to computer or tablet resources and student reading levels.

The teacher may begin the experience by first modelling how to use the resource as a whole group, including how to explore the four building categories and showing students where they can find the Escapepod, as it is compulsory to use. After the teacher models the activity, students will be given the devices in their pairs, groups or individually so they may begin designing the game by trialling different obstacles. The teacher may specifically choose partnerships that will support low level readers as they pair them with students who can read fluently. At ages, 7-8 students should have the capability to read aloud, with developing fluency, short texts with unfamiliar vocabulary (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority [VCAA], 2015), therefore this resource and activity allows students to practice their literacy development with some unfamiliar words but is engaging and simplistic enough to be age appropriate. Following student's creating their own game, they will share this with their peers and be asked to provide feedback to each other so that students can improve their game play and possibly be inspired by others aesthetic awareness. This pedagogical approach is important because, when teachers give students the responsibility to share their expertise, they are engaged in the highest level of learning, teaching (Sackstein, 2017).

The Victorian curriculum recognises that in media arts, students should create visual representations that communicate, challenge and express their own and other's ideas, as both artist and audience (VCAA, 2015). This experience supports students being active media creators as they customise the game to creatively communicate their own interpretation of the prompt as well as learning to be a responsive and respectful audience member as they play their peers games and provide feedback. This experience is supported as game construction is posited as a model of open-ended curricular that supports creative thinking as a 21st learning skill and digital literacy acquisition (Navarrete, 2015). When used as a creative, collaborative resource, children's interests are sparked as they customise their own game layout, colour palette and choose from a range of cool characters and power-ups. Every child can exercise their own creativity and showcase their aesthetic awareness whilst challenging themselves and their peers. As students learn to use this digital technology through play and social interaction, the opportunities available to them for learning make a significant difference to the ways they employ digital materials for creative, communicative and productive purposes (Sinclair et al., 2017).

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When I grow up….

Dramatic play and improvisations can be vehicles for children to explore real world situations and develop empathy and understanding from different perspectives, as they consider the nature of characters and situations and make judgments about these (Dinham and Chalk, 2018).  To support this dramatic play and learning in children aged 2-4, each fortnight, the teacher will ask one student what they would like to be when they are older. Based on this answer, the educator will create a dramatic play environment to support the exploration of this profession or concept. For example, if a child expresses they want to be an astronaut, the educator should source motorbike helmets, space food and play rockets for this child and others to explore and role play this profession. As Coffman supports (2015, p.18), planning dramatic play experiences is not just for children but should be done with children to invite them to explore and try out many situations to grow their own ideas and perceptions. This activity aims to specifically include the interests of all students as they will each have a turn of acting out their specific dream job.  This activity allows students to explore their ideas and pre-conceptions about a real-life job in their own context and provides them with the keys to explore a passion they may have, supporting self-expression. As children explore the situations and characters that may exist in this imaginary world and make sense of these in the context of their own lives, they aren't only practicing problem-solving skills, but grow physically, emotionally and socially as they interact with the objects in the play area and their peers (Miller, 2008). The Victorian Early Years Learning Framework further supports that as children create and explore imaginary worlds through dramatic play, they develop communication and self-expression, leading them to become effective communicators (VCAA, 2016, p. 22).

Resources for this activity may be built from the centres pre-existing dramatic play items, as Miller states, "core items for dramatic play are items required by state licensing and/or recommended by professional groups, such as NAEYC" (Miller, 2008), however to support this particular rotating activity, the teacher may need to source specific resources for children that reflect a certain profession. These resources can be donated or borrowed from family or community members and specifically aim to foster imagination as children envision certain props to support their own imaginary world. By sourcing props and costumes this way, the centre is actively building effective partnerships with family and community to build links between the home and the centre, supporting greater consistency for the child in their learning environments (VCAA, 2016, p. 9).

It is recognised that dramatic play offers a natural and authentic way for all children from diverse backgrounds and abilities to participate because it offers a myriad of physical, social and language dimensions that allow children to join to a degree that suits them (Dinham and Chalk, 2018). The educator must monitor the play without interjecting for the most authentic experience, however if less-abled children are being rejected or forced into subordinate roles, the educator should step in and offer an alternative character or role that will interest them, work with their strengths and include them in the activity.

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Guess that Sound!

In this learning experience, targeted at children aged 4-5, the educator will make a sound from any object found in the setting without the children looking at the educator or the sound. This can be recorded to be played back to children or used to support children with hearing difficulties. The children will then have to try to guess what that sound or object is. The teacher may ask facilitating questions such as, how does that sound make you feel? Is this a hard sound or a soft sound? Children may test objects in the room to discover what makes the noise, and the first child to guess correctly can then make a noise of their own. This activity may be used with any resource that would be found in a typical setting, however the educator may provide specific musical instruments for children to engage with, specifically culturally inclusive instruments.

"It is essential that children are given the opportunity to explore and experiment with sound and making their own music" (Sinclair, Jeanneret, O’Toole and Hunter, 2017, p. 146). This experience offers children an engaging game-like activity in which they can explore different sounds that make up their immediate environment whilst also creating their own music or noise. It is postulated that music needs to be experienced, not just through listening, but making, playing, improvising and organising sound (Russel-Bowie, 2012), which is achieved through this activity as students actively engage and are challenged to create and find a sound and learn by interacting with the music in their environment.

The teacher will collaborate with the children to initiate the experience and prompt them by asking open ended questions to inspire critical thinking. The teacher can also introduce simplistic musical terminology such as soft, hard, loud etc.  While this activity is planned as a whole group interaction, it is simple enough that children can continue playing this in independent or small groups, even at home with their families.

This experience responds to the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework [VEYLDF] as it positions students as confident and involved learners who actively explore the world, specifically through sound (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority [VCAA], 2016, p. 21). It is recognised that children construct their knowledge by making sense of what is around them and develop skills by manipulating what they find interesting (Keeny, 2004). This activity specifically supports this as it utilises the immediate environment and the things children will find most interesting by transforming those random objects into musical instruments. Children’s self-expression and imagination is supported as they find and create their own unique music in which other children will decipher, supporting their critical thinking and exploration.

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Painting the Earth

In this following experience, children aged 5-6 will engage in an authentic and respectful visual arts lesson in which  they will create Dot paintings, inspired by Indigenous art. Children will be supported by storytelling to inspire and support their independent creativity however the teacher may also supply templates of children's favourite native animals for them to paint. Children will be tasked to find their own materials for this experience from the land, such as sticks, twigs or useful tools to paint with. The teacher, to support this learning will source and create paints with the children from natural pigments such as ochre, charcoal and wattle in conjunction with acrylic paints. Students engage in the curriculum outcomes as they use and experiment with different materials, techniques and processes to make artworks (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], n.d.). While the activity is teacher-led, children exercise a certain creative freedom as they choose materials and tools that suit them and their artistic styles. They will be encouraged to be as creative and imaginary as possible in the creation of their work.

As the teacher collaborates not only with the children during this experience, they should seek support from the community by working in partnership with local Indigenous artists. Collaborations in art making have powerful impacts on all involved in the process as the artist can share their passion and stories, inspiring children and the teacher gains new arts knowledge and different perspectives about working with their children. (Sinclair et al., 2017). Furthermore, "respect for Aboriginal culture and the art of Dot painting as a story telling technique is the basis of this experience with children" (Gane, 2018). Children should listen to the stories told to gain new perspectives on Indigenous culture and be inspired to create artworks that represent this new knowledge and developing aesthetic awareness. As children engage with the arts activity and express their creativity, and individuality they will listen to the stories of the expert and explore how art and artworks can represent ideas about the world and draw from a range of cultures including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, times and locations (ACARA, n.d.).

After children have created their artwork, they will be encouraged to share their art and their story, articulating why it is important to them and showcasing their skills. Mai (2003, p. 49) articulates that " in taking the time to see and hear the art made by others we connect to our community and we are inspired in our own artistic practice". Student's connect to the art and the stories told by their peers to further develop their understanding of aesthetic awareness and the importance of storytelling in Indigenous art. The teacher will support students to be included in this process by asking questions such as, "how did painting this make you feel?", "does this painting make you think of a certain memory?" Providing the means for student's explore themselves and connect with others and their environment through art is fundamental to our past, present and future human experience (Sinclair et al., 2017).