For this experience, we will use the outdoor space in the centre where we have a vast variety of trees with all types of leaves.

We were a group of 8 children in the outdoor space and we first did a leaf treasure hunt. Once we gathered our leaves, Ms. Jenell showed them how different leaves have different colours, shapes, sizes even if from the same tree and that they can help us make different sounds by placing them in our mouths.

The experience:

The children will be shown how to place a leaf in their mouth whereby the inside of the leaf faces inwards whilst the glossy exterior is to face outwards. We then need to keep our lower lip firm and we try to blow out air from the top of our mouth to create different sounds with the help of the shape of the leaf.

For this experience, we will use the outdoor space in the centre in the Bali hut.

We were a group of 12 children in the outdoor space. Being in regional Victoria, we are placed in an area where there is an abundant of wild life including birds like the crested pigeon, sparrows, cockatoos, mynas, blue wrens amongst others. The children enjoy having these wonderful creatures around us.

The experience:

We did a bird watch experience using our hands as binoculars, to observe the birds in their habitat. After that, we tried to imitate the birds by moving our heads back and forth like pigeons, making screeching sounds like the cockatoos and cawing like the myna. It was hilarious!

From there, we learnt the chicken dance! This is an absolute favourite childhood dance from India (where I come from) and I remember doing it all through my life!

With the help of a speaker, I played the music and did the moves with the children. They picked up very quickly as the steps are repeated. It was easy for them to learn it too as they had to act like a bird, with their arms flapping at the side and their head moving back and forth.

For this experience, I used my little girl as she has a true love for ants.

The experience:

We used our own home to have this experience. We used our front yard, as that's where she met her first ant friends! I showed her the ant home and how they go back and forth to get food and sand/mud to build their home. I took their opportunity to show her how hard they work and are ALWAYS on the move. We then gathered read the story about the ant and grasshopper and acted the same out in our outdoor space.

I got the opportunity to spend time with watching the leaves move, to explore new changes in leaves due to the change in seasons, to crunch dead leaves. I know these things seem so normal, but with our fast paced life, we forget to do the simple things. I don't remember the last time I actually spent time just watching leaves.

What inspired me to do the leafophone activity was exactly this! I wanted the children in my centre to use their 'boredom' that sometimes they experience to connect with nature. Like Victor Wooten says, 'Music is like listening to a language we don't speak' and that 'we are born musical'. Having the children use something so natural to make music helped shift my mindset during that experience. I saw that 'play is the work of the child' - Dr. Maria Montessori.

Their lives seem very fast paced with the iPad and Tv that we rarely see them enjoying nature without toys and other materials. Showing them how to make music with a leaf would hopefully help them see that nature gives us EVERYTHING we need.

After the children gathered their leaves and tried using them to make music by placing them in their mouths, some of them exclaimed, 'Look, Ms. Jenell, I can do it', 'Can we sing twinkle twinkle' 'I can't do it, please show me,' 'Can I take that old brown one', 'Can I take this leaf home', 'I have lots of leaves in my garden', 'I want your leaf Ms. Jenell, it makes the best music'.

All these statements and questions warmed my heart as they connected to this experience.

What inspired me to do the chicken dance is that I wanted the children to understand the differences in how birds need to move, and that they don't move like us. Their head, feet, bodies move differently. On a second note, the content from Mutton Bird, allowed for me to give more significance to birds and to connect with them. This in turn helped me allow the children in my centre to give them more significance. Even though the story was based on the Aboriginal people, the main idea between the movement and the birds resonated with me. On a third note, the children LOVE music and hence the experience would be super fun! Some other connections were that the children are learning the males and female names of birds. A female pigeon is called a hen and so is a female chicken! The way that a hen and a pigeon move is similar in terms of their head/neck movements.

It was a delightful experience as I played the music and the children copied/imitated my steps. They soon got the hang of it and asked for it again and again. 'Ms. Jenell, can I can't move my hands like that, can I just make them fly', 'Can I sit and shake', 'Can I walk on the bike path and eat the leaves', 'Help me move my head, I can't do it'. All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and there was only footsteps banging on the wooden flooring in the Bali hut and the laughter of the children that could be heard!

What inspired me to do this story narrative with my daughter was that she's a true insect lover! I wanted to extend her learning on the working nature of ants and even that they are so tiny, they can carry double their weight, they build beautiful homes to protect their family and they never stop working which goes to say they have excellent work ethic! In a world where children have the luxury to get others to do things for themselves, I wanted to show my daughter that to get somewhere in life, you need to put in the work, be independent, responsible and not be lazy.

Dadirri was a beautiful piece of content that helped shape my understanding on being still and inner deep listening. It gave me the strength to allow children to make sense of nature and to allow them to understand that nature is all that we need to learn and grow. It helped my daughter through my understanding to learn about listening to the ant and how hard working they are to ultimately teach her the importance of hard work without actually teaching her!

With the front space of our home where we have ants building their ant home, it was easy to let her just observe their work. From there I read and showed her the story of the 'Ant and the Grasshopper' and showered her with information on how the grasshopper was lazy and the ants worked in spite of the cold conditions. This made her connect to seeing how the ants in her yard are working in the cold current Autumn conditions of Melbourne too. So it was a win-win!

One of the videos that struck me the most is Mutton Bird and Dadirri. From them I've connected with the true meaning of using the country to allow children to connect with their inner beings. I've pondered on the fact that life happens whilst we are making plans for children's goals, outcomes, that we forgetting the fact to go back to the basics of how children actually grow and develop and that by using and planning for music, movement, drama in our daily experiences, we allow children to bring out and become the best versions of themselves.

Gano, D. & Krull, S. (2020). Natural

Sensory Learning. Community Play Things.

Oliveros, P. The difference between

hearing and deep listening.

Ungunmerr, M. Dadirri: Inner deep

listening and quiet still awareness.

Wilson, R. 2007. Nature and Young Children : Encouraging Creative Play and Learning in Natural Environments. Routledge.

Wooten, V. (2013). Music as a Language. https:/youtu.be/2zvjW9arAZ0