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Dance Teaching Ideas. (n.d.). Creative dance-play for early childhood. Dance Teaching Ideas. Retrieved from https://danceteachingideas.com/creative-dance-movement-for-toddlers/

Gandini, L. (2012). The atelier: A conversation with Vea Vecchi. In C. Edwards, L. Gandini, & G. Forman (Eds.), The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia experience in transformation (3rd ed., pp. 303–316). ABC-CLIO. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/vu/reader.action?docID=820317&ppg=330

Wilson, R. A. (2018). Nature and young children: Encouraging creative play and learning in natural environments (3rd ed.). Routledge. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/vu.edu.au?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.taylorfrancis.com%2Fbooks%2Fmono%2F10.4324%2F9781315148533%2Fnature-young-children-ruth-wilson

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Introduction: Connecting with the  place through play

In my creative response, the sun and Whisper game emerged from a solo sensory walk through a local playground. This experience, using a children's lens, was transformed into a speech-based stop-motion video performed in character as a child named “Sunny”. The video invites everyone into an imaginative game where equipment like swings, and natural elements such as trees, tanbark, and grass become parts of a dramatic adventure. Through this medium, I aimed to embody a child’s imaginative play, connecting deeply with sensory play, children’s movement, and environmental affordances. This process was inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach, the importance of nature-based play, and embodied learning through movement in early years. My analytical response demonstrates  how my creative work transforms ideas from theory into practice, unfolding the expressive and educational potential of surrounding sound, movement, and dramatic storytelling for children.

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Core ideas and teaching pedagogy

This analytical response is influenced by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, specifically  the idea of seeing children as capable, expressive agents who learn best through symbolic and sensory languages. In Reggio’s philosophy , the atelier represents a space where children explore meaning through multisensory media. Gandini (2005) notes that “The atelier had to be a place for sensitizing one’s taste and aesthetic sense… a place for researching motivations and theories of children… and for being familiar with similarities and differences of verbal and nonverbal languages” (as cited in Gandini, 2012, p. 304). In my speech video, the playground becomes an outdoor atelier: sunlight becomes a warm welcome; the swing becomes a flying chair; and the grass becomes a quiet  zone. These metaphors reflect how children make meaning with their environment.

The shift of space into symbolic meaning also connects to Reggio’s belief in the environment as a “third teacher.” The child character does not just observe the playground;  they actually view it as a co-player in their story. The environment invites interpretation and inquiry, offering affordances that encourage  imaginative play.

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The language of movement and dance

Movement plays a significant role in my video. Each sensory “station” like the sound station, the tanbark station, invites explorers  to dance  like a bird, push the swing, move around and feel the tanbark, or lie on the grass. These gestures reflect the language of dance in early childhood since they are expressive movements that express children's  emotion, rhythm, and meaning. As Dance Teaching Ideas (n.d. , para. 1) states, “As dancers, children explore space and time in active experiences, sharing feelings and making decisions about intentional movement”.

Stillness is also incorporated to illustrate the  contrast and control. In the last station, Sunny asks everyone to lie in the grass and whispers their name, reinforcing the dance principle that meaning emerges both from motion and stillness. Children “need to move,” but also benefit from moments that invite “focus on the body part,” developing self-awareness (Dance Teaching Ideas, n.d. , para. 5)​.

The balance between physical movement and imagination emphases one thing:  children use their bodies to make sense of different  ideas or complex concepts. Through movement, the child is not just  playing  but performing an inquiry into a new environment.

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Sound and the language of music

The original soundscape was purposefully retained in my video: birds chirping, leaves rustling, dogs barking, the sound when scooping tanbark, and the clack of a moving swing. Rather than adding music, I allowed these natural elements to act as the soundtrack, reflecting the child’s close listening and emotional engagement with the place. “Play-actions occur when the child’s interest and ability interact with the potential affordances of the environment” (Gurholt and Sanderud,, as cited in Wilson,2018 , p. 11)​. In my case, those affordances included not only the physical setting but the very own soundscape of the place.

These sounds did more than background, for me, they served as emotional cues and game clues. The clack of the swing represented deep listening because children only can hear it when they focus on what they are doing; the rustling leaves prompted a “shadow dance” under the sun; the bird calls inspired a funny movement that we all need in every game. These elements align with Gandini’s notion of expressive freedom (2005): “a place for exploring variations in tools, techniques, and materials” (as cited in Gandini, 2012, p. 304)​, including sound as a material for children to learn.

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The language of drama and storytelling

The video is rooted in dramatic play: a child leads a game using real objects as symbolic props. Each station becomes an essential part of storytelling: the tanbark is wood dust, and the sunlight can give you company. These transformations are an explanation that every gesture, expression, and metaphor can support children’s learning. As Gandini (2012) describes, expressive languages in the atelier “weave together emotions and empathy with rationality and cognition in a natural and inseparable way” (p. 307)​.

Critical reflection and future practice

This assessment  reinforced my belief that creative, sensory-rich environments offer potential  contexts for children to learn new lessons everyday, even when they are outside of the classroom. Through the character of Sunny, children are invited not only to experience  but to co-create the game in each station, embodying Reggio’s approach  that children are protagonists in their learning journey. The video could be an inspiration for real-world dramatic movement activities, where children create their very own experience and use nature elements as a stage for sensory play.

It also promotes inclusivity and child agency,allowing children to enter the experience based on their unique experience: what they feel, hear, or see. Each  station is open-ended and requires no prior knowledge, the only thing needed is a willingness to play and listen. This reflects Wilson’s (2018) view that play supports learning “They want to explore and experiment. They want to be busy doing something – and it is through such busyness that they learn about the natural world and about themselves.” (p. 9)​.

As a pre-service teacher, I aim to use nature elements, drama, movement, and sound not as “extras,” but as learning materials for planning unique learning experiences that respect each child's expressive potential.Through this experience, I constructed a new way of viewing children’s play:  every child can be an explorer of place, imagination, and self to grow a love for their learning journey .

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I chose speech-video as the language for my response. In this video, I am Sunny- a child excited to take you to his adventure that he just discovered under the sun.

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Dino Huynh- Artefact Sun and Whispers (On Country Visit)

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Dino Huynh- Artefact Sun and Whispers (On Country Visit)

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I went to a playground and I captured the background sound (birds chirping, dogs barking), equiqment’s movement, tanbark's sound, grass's texture and the sunlight in this outdoor setting.

https://youtu.be/4BQaM_uhaas?si=Z1ZTUISLIYMdyMFl