Connecting with place through temporal languages by Jessie Jackson (she/her)

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Making our Water Xylophone

Implementation

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'Lets sing let it go"- Juno

The Intelligence of Sound

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During my visit to Merri Creek, i had the urge to collect rocks and throw them into the creek, purely to listen to the sounds they made. I noticed the varying sounds as i threw small rocks compared to larger ones. I wanted to bring this musical experience from my on-country visit and modify it for the children in an educational setting. My real-world exploration sparked the idea for a water xylophone that the children can use to experiment with sound/music.

Food for thought

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Ziggy seemed more interested in pouring the water and mixing the colours at first, but eventually became curious and engaged in tapping the bottles, and observing teh varying pitches, especially after we changed the small bottles to large jars and glasses. She seemed to comprehend the distinction between high and low sounds, particularly after i demonstrated and compared just two jars, one full and one nearly empty. The experience successfully encouraged active listening, as i noticed Ziggy often stopped to listen intently after tapping a bottle.

In the future, i will continue to offer experiences that spark curiosity and encourage experimentation. I will research more ways to incorporate stronger visual cues alongside auditory experiences to support learning and the inclusion of deaf and hard of hearing children, so that they can experiencing music and be included in these activities. I will also incorporate Schafer's concept of Soundscapes (New, 2009) in both my professional practice and personal life. I discovered that Schafer wrote Snowforms, “intended for children to sing, listen to and perhaps draw pictures to” (Composers note, 2016). Schafer also describes giving children "sight-singing" exercises, asking them to sing drawings or shapes seen in nature. I have been inspired by this idea and now i often “sing” what I observe in nature. I believe this particular musical exploration would highly benefit my teaching practice.

s8138021 — 2025-09-15 10:40:43 UTC

I've always been interested in the performing arts and understood the importance of utilising these creative languages in my practice. This unit was particularly validating in the way i engage with children and i have very much enjoyed learning from and with my peers through this collaborative process. The unit readings and resources have been thought-provoking, i found myself re-visiting many of these resources again and again as they were so valuable. I can now confidently articulate many of my intuitive practices, I'm more knowledgable and can back it up with research. I will continue to stay curious, and to prioritise reflection, to challenge, to grow and to continue learning. This pursuit of understanding my 'why' in every decision i make has enhanced my practice and allowed me to make vital connections that go beyond surface level.

The sounds of Country

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Wooten (2013) discusses the concept of not being explicitly “taught” music and compares it to learning our first language. He explains that children learn to speak through exposure and the idea of learning music was the same, it’s in us. No one told me to start moving as I engaged with place, but I felt an urge to pound the pavement with my feet. It’s like country just spoke to me, and I naturally responded to its rhythms.

Inspired by the soundscape

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My main artefact for Assessment 2 featured the soundscape of the Merri creek trail and stated "I sat for an hour and let my mind wander. I watched various birds and did my best to identify them, but i found myself creating stories in my head, imagining their secret lives as they each went about their day" (Just.Doin.Jessie, 2025). The children will use their soundscape as inspiration for storytelling and imaginative play.

Water Xylophone

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Children will create and experiment with their own water xylophone, inviting children to explore music, sounds and pitch, through hands-on learning, inquiry and experimentation. This learning experience aligns with Reggio Emilia approach, recognising children as active and capable participants in their own learning, who communicate through a hundred languages (Edwards, et al., 2011). Teachers can intentionally include aboriginal perspectives by discussing the cultural significance of water and caring for the environment, as well as guiding children to notice the sounds from nature that contribute to the broader soundscape. Sounds carry intelligence and contribute to a sense of place and by encouraging children to understand how sound vibrations are interpreted by our ears and brains, we can support them to understand the difference between hearing and listening (Oliveros, 2015).

Dancing with Country

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The ability of the Bangarra dancers to embody the Mutton bird and natural elements and through dance demonstrates how movement and symbolism can tell a story and convey emotion. This performance of Mutton bird (Page, 2008), reinforces the understanding that movement can understood much like a language (Wooten, 2013), allowing for a powerful form of expression. John Dewey believed that children learn as a result of their experiences and interactions with the world, Learning by doing. This feather served as my inspiration. I threw it up into the air and swayed, turned and shimmied. Applying Wooten's (2013)."music as a language" approach to movement for children allowed me let go of control, and allow children to naturally express themselves through their bodies.

s8138021 — 2025-09-15 11:39:06 UTC

Collect 8-10 glass bottles and fill them with varying amounts of water.
Place the bottles in a line from least full to most full and introduce the experience to the children explaining that they will be exploring sound using water.
Invite children to hypothesis by asking them open ended questions to encourage critical thinking, for example:
- “What does it sound like?”
- “What do you think will happen when i tap it?”
Demonstrate gently tapping each bottle with the chopstick and how to blow across the top of each bottle to produce different sounds.
In small groups of 3 or 4, invite the children to take turns and experiment with the bottles. Encourage them to listen carefully to the varying sounds each bottle makes and describe the sounds they hear.
Collect the children’s working theories, continue to model curiosity by asking open ended questions, for example:
- “What does that sound remind you of?”
- “Why do you think they sounded different?"
- “How do these different sounds make you feel?”
Guide children to notice that bottles with less water produce a higher pitch and those with more water produce a lower pitch when tapped.
Allow children the time to freely experiment with tapping the bottles, creating their own music, and exploring the sensory experience of sound and vibration.

The experience

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1. Gather the children outside and introduce them to the story of "Waa the Raven" (Assessment 2) using expressive voice and engaging tone.

2. After the story, encourage children to listen closely to the sounds of nature around them.

3. Ask open-ended questions. For example:

- "What sounds do you hear in nature?"

- "What if Waa tried to sing like the wind, or the rustling leaves? What do you think that would sound like?"

- "How do the different sounds make you feel?"

4. encourage them to collect natural materials that remind them of characters from the story explaining that they will create characters for their own story.

5.Ask children to share their ideas to create a collaborative story inspired by nature.

s8138021 — 2025-09-15 11:44:37 UTC

upon reflection, i created 2 experiences in one. i will put these natural materials aside and extend on the storytelling experience

Our stories from nature

s8138021 — 2025-09-16 00:02:03 UTC

As humans, we naturally think in narratives. Stories helps us understand the world and learn from experiences, when we deliver knowledge by connecting it to emotions, it easier to remember. In Indigenous culture, stories are vital for teaching about history, values, and how to live in harmony with nature. Oral tradition for thousands of years to pass on important information in a memorable way.They act as living textbooks, keeping ancient wisdom alive and ensuring that valuable lessons and taditional knowledges are passed down from elders to the younger generation. In this storytelling experience, i will incorporate diverse perspectives and theories to inform my practices (Slater, 2020), such as the practice of Dadirri, which Ungunmerr-Baumann (2002), explains as "inner deep listening and quiet still awareness". (p.3). Wilson (2018) states that "In nature, there’s always something to explore and discover. Natural materials invite not only hands-on manipulation, but engagement of the mind and imagination, as well” (p. 9). In the outdoor environment,

You will need:

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Outdoor environment
Bluetooth Speaker
Instrumental music
Scarves/Ribbons (to extend movements or represent "flowing" elements)

You will need:

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Clipboards
Paper & Pencils
Baskets to collect natural materials

Wally the wombat and Elsa the snake

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boo hoo

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Implementation (audio)

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I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this Country on which I am on, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung clan of the Kulin Nation. I respect their spiritual relationship with Country and acknowledge that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to those living today. I pay my respects to their elders and ancestors, past and present.

s8138021 — 2025-09-17 00:46:31 UTC

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have maintained a deep spiritual connection to the land for 60,000 years. Their connection to Country is not only physical but extends to their cultural identity, spiritual beliefs, and ways of life. Their relationship with the land is demonstrated by their respect for nature and a belief in the interdependence of all living things. This ancestral wisdom has been passed down for generations through practices such as movement, storytelling, songs, ceremonies, and traditional lore (Kinnear, 2024).

You will need:

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Water
Food colouring
Glass bottles
Metal chopsticks

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Without instruction, Ziggy began naming each colour in a progressive scale

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We realised that larger jars and glasses allowed for a much nicer sound

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1. Invite children to quietly observe their surroundings for a few moments.

2. Ask open-ended questions. For example:

- What do you see moving around us?

- How does the wind move the leaves?

- Can you a bird fly?

- "How do you think water flows?"

3. Invite the children to share what they notice, or something that speaks to them

4. suggest a few natural elements that the children can embody through movement and demonstrate what this might look like. For example:

- leaf: slow, gentle, swirling,

- water: fluid, perhaps wavy or trickling

- tree: standing up tall, but use swaying branches,

5. Play some calming instrumental music to encourage the children to participate

s8138021 — 2025-09-17 14:05:54 UTC

Some children collected natural materials to create the characters for their stories

The Pied Currawong's song sparked inspiration for Ziggy

s8138021 — 2025-09-17 16:33:04 UTC

According to R Murray Schafer “a soundscape is any collection of sounds, almost like a painting is a collection of visual attractions” (New, 2009, 0:24). I explained this concept to Ziggy and we both closed our eyes to listen to our soundscape. We rattled off a list of immediate sounds, varying bird calls, a tram, car traffic, our cat performing parkour inside. We voiced more sounds as we heard them, a child playing in the distance, the footsteps of a bird moving about on the roof, the wind rustling the leaves of a tree, a car door slam shut. Eventually, we were sitting in silence, listening to as symphony composed by the world around us. Ziggy smiled and nodded, confirming to me that sge understood this idea, that our surroundings constantly communicate with us through sound.

A few days later, we were walking home when Ziggy grabbed my hand and 'shushed' me. She had noticed the call of the Pied Currawong and stopped to enjoy and deeply listen the soundscape. I have always found pleasure in identifying birds and attempting to mimic their calls (i do an awesome baby seagull, if i do say so myself) and the Pied Currawong was no different. I suggested we use it as inspiration for our water xylophone activity when we returned home.

"i'm a kangaroo"

s8138021 — 2025-09-17 16:37:04 UTC

The children were initially receptive to the experience of embodying natural elements. As i attempted to explain the idea of moving and dancing "like a leaf floating down the creek", i was met with mopstly blank stares and a comment from 4 year old Ophelia "but leaves don't swim, they're on the tree" i realised i probably over explained and would now need to demonstrate exactly what i meant. While the overall experience went well, I will change some things next time to encourage mor participation and less distraction. i implemented this experience a few times and found that the children were more receptive to this when first implementing Dadirri before they engaged with movement so i will ensure this is prioritised for the next session. I implementedthis movement as a dance experience and a yoga experience and i feel like the children responded well to both, however, I also noticed that there was much more participation when doing it outside echoing Wilson (2018), that “Nature invites authentic play” (p. 5) and children naturally engage in movement play—spinning, rolling, climbing, dancing and through experimentation they delevope motor skills, body awareness, and discovering the expressive potentiall of their bodies. Wooten emphasises the importance of playing and experimenting with music, even making "mistakes," is essential to learning. In my future practice, i will incorporate dance and other creative languages daily, and encourage children to explore movement organically, recognising it as a fundamental and powerful language for learning, expression, and connection to their world.

s8138021 — 2025-09-18 02:24:53 UTC

Exploration

Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners

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This experience provides and opportunity for children to "use trial and error to explore different possibilities through ‘cause and effect’ " (AGDE, 2022, p. 53), aligning with Outcome 4.1: Children develop a range of learning and thinking skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising,researching and investigating.

Being, Belonging, Becoming.

s8138021 — 2025-09-18 02:52:48 UTC

Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world. We can foster mindful listening and an appreciation for the sounds in the environment, connecting to how natural elements, like rocks in a creek, create different soundscapes. (Australian Government Department of Education [AGDE] (2022).

Being, Belonging, Becoming

s8138021 — 2025-09-18 04:52:41 UTC

This experience aligns with Outcome 5 of the Early Years Frameworks as children use non-verbal communication through the language of movement, allowing them to express their ideas and interpretations of nature. Children are effective communicators through the hundred languages (ADGE, 2022).

According to Wilson (2018), children need frequent opportunities to play freely and creatively in natural outdoor spaces. Nature related experiences foster “development of empathy for all living things and the understanding that we are all a part of the same amazing world” (p. 44). This aligns with Outcome 2 of the EYLF (AGDE, 2022). The child’s emerging sense of wonder is one of the greatest sources of knowledge and educators can support this by fostering "hope, wonder and knowledge about the natural world, as well asthinking about social and economic sustainability" (AGDE, 2022, 23).

s8138021 — 2025-09-18 05:33:26 UTC

“To listen [to place] you have to call your brain” – Lucia, 4 years old (Gandini, 2011, p.326).

This profound statement was made by 4 year old Lucia when children were asked their ideas about a sense of place. It perfectly explains the thoughts mirrored by Pauline Oliveros (2015) in her ted talk emphasising that hearing is a physiological and passive process, while listening is an active, conscious engagement with sound.

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s8138021 — 2025-09-18 06:51:09 UTC

Some children incorporated storytelling into the movement experience deepening their engagement with the dance narratives but this allowed for new ways to connect with the environment, fostering a holistic approach