• Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world

• Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
  

Summary:

Children listen deeply to natural wind sounds and use natural materials (leaves, bark, and seed pods) to create their own “wind songs.” This activity encourages children to imagine what the Earth might be saying through the wind and to explore sound as a form of storytelling.

Materials:

• Natural materials: leaves, seed pods, bark, small sticks

• Quiet indoor or outdoor space
  
  

Steps:

1. Gather children and show video from your on-country visit
   
   

2. Invite children to close their eyes and listen in to the sounds that they can hear outside/on Country.
   Ask children: “Listen with your whole body, not just your ears. What do you feel?” (Drawing on Dadirri, the practice of deep listening.)
   
   

3. Whole-group discussion
   Ask the prompt:
   “What story do you think the wind is telling?”
   
   

4. After the discussion, introduce children to select a natural item or instrument and explore how to use it to recreate wind sounds; soft rustling, tapping, whooshing.
   
   

5. Guide the children to create a collaborative soundscape, layering their wind sounds gently.

 VEYLDF Outcomes:

• Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity

• Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
  

Summary:

Children explore how their bodies can express what wind feels like, using movement to embody different wind movements using scarves and flowing movement. Through guided imaginative prompts, they explore how the wind moves through nature and how their bodies can reflect those rhythms.

Materials:

• Scarves 

• On-country visit video/soundscape (Ass 2)

• Outdoor space
  
  

Steps:

1. Show children the on-country visit video.
   Ask: “What do you think the wind is saying to the trees? What stories might it be carrying?
   
   

2. Hand out scarves and invite children to feel how they move like the wind. Children can watch the scarves’ dance as they blow in the wind and replicate those movements. Encourage children to close their eyes briefly while holding their scarf and imagine they are the wind.
   
   

3. After a few minutes of watching the scarves’ movements in the wind, ask the children to give them back. They will now begin with their own movements.
   
   

4. Instruct the children that we will be using our bodies like they are the scarves blowing in the wind. Ask the children:
   “How can we move our bodies  in the wind?”
   “How did the scarves move?”
   
   Encourage children to use their whole-body.
   
   

5. Begin with guided movement:
   
   “Can you move like a gentle breeze?”
   “Now try a strong gust of wind”
   
   

6. Lead children through a “wind journey”:
   “Now we have become the wind, we will travel around and see Country”
   
   . Over mountains
   . Through trees
   . Across rivers
   
   

7. After this, gather in a yarning circle to reflect.

   
   Ask:
   “How did moving like the wind make you feel?”
   “Where did you travel/what places on Country did you visit?”
   

• Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world

• Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
  

Summary:

Inspired by Aboriginal Ways of Knowing through oral storytelling and the belief that land holds memory and voice, children take part in a dramatic storytelling, imagining what secrets the wind might whisper across the land. Through props and roleplay, they become elements of nature such as trees, rocks, animals, and create their own short stories inspired by what they hear and feel in the wind.

Materials:

• Large cloth (to represent “The Wind”)

• On country visit video from Ass 2

• Indoor or outdoor space

• Props (try to use natural items found outside; leaves, sticks, rocks etc.)
  
  

Steps:

1. Find a clear space outside where you and the children can sit down.
   
   

2. Gather children in the outdoor space.
   “Today, we’re going to hear a story carried by the wind. Aboriginal people believe the land is full of stories and nature has a lot of sounds. If we listen to these, we can be closer with nature (Dadirri). Let’s listen closely.”
   
   

3. Play the on-country visit video and invite quiet listening.
   
   

4. Begin a group storytelling session with this prompt:
   “The wind told me a secret today...”
   Pass the cloth (the “wind”) around the circle.
   
   

5. Guide dramatic responses with prompts like:
   
   “What did the wind whisper to you?”
   “What would you like to whisper back to the wind?”
   
   

6. As a group, build a short performance story inspired by the children’s responses. Use props and costumes made from natural items found outside such as leaves, branches and rocks etc.
   
   

7. End with a reflective yarning circle:

   Discuss:

   "What we did in this activity was practice something called Daddiri. Dadirri means to listen in to Country. We also shared stories from this. Aboriginal people have been doing this for years. It is how they learn about things."
   
   

Each experience draws on each of the temporal languages, for sound; I encouraged deep listening to natural soundscapes and musical play inspired by Niland’s (2009) work. Movement experiences connected with Wilson’s (2007) insights into how the natural environment invites creativity and embodied exploration. Dramatic play encouraged narrative-building and expression, aligning with the Reggio Emilia approach that emphasises on multifaceted meaning-making.

Aboriginal perspectives are central to these experiences, particularly in Activity 3, where children engage in dramatic storytelling through the concept of Dadirri; deep, reflective listening to Country (Ungunmerr, n.d.). Children imagine what the wind might whisper, using cloth and movement to become elements of the land. This honours Aboriginal understandings of Country as living, with memory and voice. 

These experiences align with the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) (VCAA, 2016) particularly in supporting children’s identity, wellbeing, and communication. Children are active participants in their learning as they engage with nature and express their understandings through creative and sensory experiences.

This experience has helped me realise how much I value child-led, sensory-based learning, and how essential children’s presence is in bringing these ideas to life. In future practice, I will be more intentional about creating open-ended, temporal experiences that allow children to express themselves in ways that feel natural to them, whether that is through sound, movement or drama, I now see music, movement, and drama not just as “activities,” but as powerful languages children use to connect with place, community, and themselves.

Resources like ‘Dadirri’ (Ungunmerr, n.d.) reminded me of the importance of deep listening, not just to sound, but to silence and presence. ‘Wala is Life’ (2018) showed me that music can be a conversation with Country. ‘The Parallaxis’ (Kilby, n.d.) inspired me to be imaginative and see things from a child’s perspective in drama, and ‘Listen’ (Schafer, 2009) made me reconsider the everyday soundscape as a space for learning.

This unit shifted my thinking about the temporal languages. Music, movement, and drama are not just creative arts; they are essential ways of communicating, knowing and being. I am excited to carry this perspective into my future classrooms, where children can lead with their bodies, voices, and stories.