Movement, Music & Drama. by Lauren Gelov (she/her)

Let's move with the land!

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 04:14:49 UTC

Let's go on a nature walk and try and see what is moving in the yard. What can we see? Why is it moving? What is making it move? How does it move?
Let’s see if we can make these movements with our own bodies. Can we move like the trees? Can we move like the wind? What else can we use to re-create these movements.

-We could possibly use ribbons, fabric, natural materials we can collect during our nature walk, light & shadow? Gathering the children’s ideas on what they think they can use to represent their own ideas and creativeness

Music to our ears.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 05:24:38 UTC

For this activity we will use our voices, music, body percussion and instruments. We will be using ‘Bunjil the Eagle’ song to listen to first.
First, let’s close our eyes and listen. What can we hear? How are those sounds made? Can we make those sounds?
Then we see what sounds we can make using only our bodies.
Third we use instruments to recreate what we hear.
Finally, we can combine our voices, bodies and instruments.
We can voice record our activity and discuss as a group what different sounds we hear.

Rationale.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 05:25:04 UTC

Something we do in Tharangalk room (Kinder), is sing an acknowledgement, using only our voices. I'd like to extend on this by planning an activity based on my findings from the unit content. Using body percussion, adding instruments (tapping sticks or body parts) I'd like to re-create this morning activity and enhance it with more sounds, instruments and explore the art of sound in a more meaningful way.

I’d like to encourage the children to really listen first, because when I stopped and listened during my on-country visit I was able to hear so much more. The singing birds, my footsteps and the rhythms and patterns that often go unnoticed. Although we have already been learning ‘Bunjil the Eagle’ song, I wanted children to close their eyes and notice the sounds in this clip that resemble nature’s songs. (birds, water dripping, instruments and a combination of all). When reflecting on Suzuki’s method of listening, I have learnt that the more children listen, the more they can learn.

“Much emphasis is placed on listening to recordings of the Suzuki repertoire as well as music in general. It has been proven that the more frequently the students listen to the recordings, the more easily they learn to play.”
“Constant listening to music performed with beautiful tone provides children with a role model for their playing.” (Suzuki, 2022)

Reflection.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 05:25:37 UTC

During our activity the children amazed me with how much knowledge they already had. As we listened to the ‘Bunjil’ song the children picked up on the tapping sticks, the didgeridoo, “lots of voices singing together”, the sound of dripping water and different instruments. I found it challenging to explain why we weren’t watching the clip, but once we started listening, they didn’t seem to mind as much.
We then used our bodies to try and create sounds and beats, the children used their tongues to click and explained how it mimicked the tapping sticks, stomping of their feet, clapping, shaking their clothing, patting their legs. The children used body percussion well and I found that this part of the activity was successful. One child used a combination of stomping and clapping and connected the sounds with the song ‘we will rock you’. It was nice to see children making meaning of the sounds they could create.
Adding instruments was something that went unexpected as some children covered their ears and wanted the sounds to stop, I also found the mixture of instruments being played loudly overwhelming. We decided to take it in turns to play our instruments which helped. The children used drums, tapping sticks, a didgeridoo, triangles and shakers.

After this unit and learning about music & sounds, I can understand the importance of having these activities and how beneficial they are for the temporal arts and children’s development. I recognise that in our program we use a lot of music through our speaker but admittedly not many instruments are available for the children- this is something I have now reflected on and plan to include these in our space. As Victor Wooten says, we should be engaging in music because it feels good. I can see that music is a powerful tool that can help children connect and respond. It’s a way we can learn about our world and learn about ourselves. “Children are naturally musical” (Wooten, 2024)

Some things I will aim to implement is having music, soundscapes and instruments readily available for children to access and explore- to include more storytelling through singing & sounds, exploring tone of voice, sound effects, sound vibrations- all the wonderful findings from session 8’s unit content.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 07:52:13 UTC

Body percussion

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 07:53:22 UTC

Rationale.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 07:54:38 UTC

This activity will aim to enhance children’s awareness of their surroundings and can support the children in making meanings of their space through movement.

Reflecting on my own country visit, I created an experience that gives children an opportunity to focus on movement in a way that is more focused and intentional, just like I had during my own experience. By prompting children to visually take in what movements are happening around them, it will provide a new experience to how they normally explore their yard and provide an opportunity to understand movement in a way that connects us to our environment.

“How do children sense their natural world through their whole body? What do they understand about their world as they feel the surface of the earth when they move?” I read this in Dancing Teaching Ideas (2025), and it sparked some thoughts for me, wondering how the children perceive their space and surroundings. How do they make meaning of their environment and what do their eyes notice that mine don't?

This activity will provide children with opportunities to explore, discover, imagine, connect and respond. "They can hear the world around them and ready themselves for even more movement" (Dancing Teaching Ideas, 2025)

Reflection

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 07:55:18 UTC

Here are what some children noticed and voiced during the activity:
“I see the sun moving”
“The sand is moving”
“This rope is moving when I swing on it”
“The trees are moving”
“The birds are flying”
“The possum climbed into the tree, but it stopped moving to sleep now”
“The plants are moving”
“My shadow is moving!”

When I asked “How can we move our bodies to recreate what we noticed outside” the children focused on shadows.

Using a lamp, and whiteboard and a piece of fabric we had everything we needed to make shadows!

It started off with the children using their hands to create birds, tree branches and attempting to make other symbols with their hands. Children then ran around the room collecting items to explore their shadows. One child got a toy butterfly, one child got a wooden bowl and said, “It’s a leaf”. After some time, it turned into some large, excited whole-body movements.

Although the activity didn’t go exactly as planned, I did notice that the children were able to perceive movement in a more complex way. My aim was for children to connect to country in a new way- maybe I could have spoken about our country & natural movements first to inspire and provoke children to really ponder on this.

I did notice the children were able to express their thoughts and ideas through freely moving their bodies though. I can see how the children interpret movements and how their perceptions of movement had different meanings.

For my future practices I’d like to explore the movements on our country and help the children connect with country, linking it back to how we care for the land and leaning into what each movement means, for example, the sun moving. We can do this during our bush kinder program next term!
“Knowing and understanding the land with Aboriginal cosmologies requires seeing much deeper than the surface. It involves feeling those deep connections that have existed for thousands of years and understanding trees, rocks, and rivers.” (Hamm, 2015) (p.56)

In future, I think it would be important for us to understand that sometimes movement can mean more than dancing, finding the deeper meanings behind movement and exploring this with the children.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 09:06:46 UTC

The Wilderness Game.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 10:02:36 UTC

For this activity- I will show the children my videos & photos of the wilderness from my on-country visit.
I will ask the children what they can see happening throughout the videos and photos. I will ask the children what they hear and then what could be making the sounds? What do you see happening? What things do you notice? Prompting the children to think deeply and explore their own perceptions and thoughts.
Next, we can take it in turns to reenact something, whether that’s an animal, bird, tree, water or anything else they have spotted in the videos & pictures- the other children then have to guess what they are acting!

Rationale.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 10:03:27 UTC

Inspired by my own findings on my on-country visit, I am creating an activity where the children can act and get creative with things that they have taken away from ‘the wilderness’.
After watching ‘Silent Storytelling’ (2009) I was inspired to see how movement and drama connect with storytelling- providing an experience for children to tell their own story based off their own personal feelings about the wilderness. The story that the mimes were telling through drama and movement sparked deep thoughts about how we can use our bodies to create a story, express our ideas and use creative thinking and imagination.

Reflection.

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 10:06:25 UTC

Once we had watched the video, the children were discussing amongst each other about what they had seen and heard. They even started creating their own interpretations on why certain things where there, why the birds singing, and why the alpacas were hiding under the tree.

The children then took turns in picking something to act out and the other children had to guess what they were acting.

The beginning of the activity was so interesting, the children initiated to use props we had in the room, and used these to ‘dress up’ to help express ‘who’ or ‘what’ they were. The children were doing a wonderful job in acting and guessing correctly.
Something that was challenging was some children decided they wanted to be something outside of the video of the wilderness, such as a princess or a mermaid- which made the guessing part of the game tricky for others. We altered the game asking the actor to declare whether they were something from the video or not from the video. The children started exploring many different things to act out and it was overall a fun, engaging and dramatic game! With how much the children enjoyed this game, I think providing more time during our day to play games like these would be a great way to bring in more dramatic play into the program.

For my future practices I’d like to add more dramatic storytelling in our program, after all I have learnt about drama and the temporal arts, I can see how much the children can explore their own identity and creative ideas. After listening and watching the Auslan version of the ‘Cranky Bear’ I feel inspired to bring more drama into the room through body composure, facial expressions, tone of voice, sound effects and gestures as well as Auslan. I can see how much more engaged the children are after adding some more drama into the space, and how significant it is for their development in the temporal arts areas.

Overall Summary

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 10:13:14 UTC

Throughout this unit, I have discovered the power in the temporal arts and how much children can connect and make meaning of their environments using temporal arts. I have learnt many different ways I can use sound, movement and drama in my everyday practice and through storytelling, dramatic play, music and movement. It can be implemented in almost all play stations and can even just be in the way we use our voice! I have learnt to be more inclusive, more creative and be more aware of my own teaching practices. I have been able to implement new ways of storytelling that help gain the children's attention and I can see just how much more engaged they are. I can see the children using dramatic play in more creative ways, I have also seen how our natural environment is connected to the temporal arts and how much we can learn from our space. I have a completely new view on music, drama and movement after this unit and I am excited to explore this new knowledge in my future practice!

s8154492 — 2025-04-12 10:59:19 UTC

Hamm, C. (2015). Walking with place: Storying reconciliation pedagogies in early childhood education. Canadian Children. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=26024c46-924d-32e9-a217-a228a5b86642

Author Unknown. (2025) Creative Dance-play for early childhood & Movement in the wild. Dancing Teaching Ideas. https://danceteachingideas.com/creative-dance-movement-for-toddlers/

Suzuki, S. (2022) Suzuki Method. Suzuki Talent Education Association of Australia. https://suzukimusic.org.au/suzuki-method/#:~:text=It%20was%20created%20by%20Dr,to%20speak%20their%20mother%20tongue.

Wooten, V. (2014) Music as a language. TEDX, YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0

Bunjil The Eagle (2016) Peninsula Specialist College. [song] YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7mPNwu3PU0

Bland, N. (2013) The Cranky Bear: Auslan version. YouTube, CommRepublic. [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QsoglLzKtQ&t=1s

Silent Storytelling: The Art of the Mime. (2009) YouTube, Northwestern University. [video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDN0fxGByko