In a circle, these instruments become a tool, for which the Foundation students begin exploring musical elements of pitch patterns (melodies) and rhythm patterns created using body percussion and the shaking movement of the bottles. The children will develop skills such as by staying in tune and keeping in time with the educator’s beat; distinguishing the difference between the outcomes of shaking in soft-slow beats to gradually becoming louder. The students around the circle start foster creativity, by combining different sounds, tones, rhythms to practice beats and timing, whilst listening and imitating. Educators understanding the aspect of inclusive practices will include children who have mobility constraints to have an assistant join them in the group with the guidance of shaking the bottle and tapping along with them. We weary of children becoming distracted and creating too much noise, and with those children who do not like loud noises and find ways to calm down and control the environment and individual situations. 

 

Children will take past or current experiences as a means to make sounds, whether you begin employing the sounds around them – such as the rustling of trees to the tapping of rain – they create a sense of imagination and ability to perceive those scenarios and apply it to the activity. This sensory play-based approach has no right or wrong way to play an instrument during these early stages – it is just a matter of the child feeling and discovering the different sounds to enhance their aesthetic awareness. They also gain knowledge of learning about recycling materials and becoming autonomous individuals, learning how to participate in responsibility as individuals in society.

 

In the Visual Arts, when drawing, toddlers are actually in the manipulative stages of development, where their early scribbles are the first artistic expressions of agency and are of little or no control with their motor activity. Meaning there is no connection between the scribbles and representation, they draw as freely as they wish by just trying to express themselves. However, this gives the toddler plenty of freedom to experiment and choose the different textures they like with the different mediums produced. As they interpret the object, drawing as a tool becomes something of the easiest form to master, and through the child’s creativity, they begin to theorise and tell a story or describe their item through the lines, shapes and their abstract forms.

 

For the educator, encouraging children’s engagement means reflecting and reviewing, and by asking questions the child begins to develop an interpretation and self-expression connecting them to current or previous experiences. A toddler’s imagination is theirs to explore, for example if they choose to draw a blue coloured apple instead of a red – as an educator you are to validate their response by first acknowledging their significance in their work and then by engaging the child can be a reflection of ‘what colour pencil do you think looks like the apple?’

 

As for inclusive practices, if the child has no favourite toy, assist in giving them options to choose from, which can reason and reflect their interpretation of aesthetic awareness, which comes from their perspective of the object and their encounters with art or the things around them. This will affect the child’s aesthetic self on how they want to respond to beauty in the world around them and by validating the child’s thinking – their sense of identity and ‘being’ is fostered when they are encouraged to develop and express their thoughts and ideas as opinions. (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019) 

 

Dancing with babies creates creativity and imagination – as they are provided with resources that offer challenge, intrigue and surprise, support their investigations and share their enjoyment. (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019, p. 38). Benefits of babies dancing allow them to discover their full range of motion, developing body awareness, and fine-tuning their balance, muscle strength, and coordination. Accompanying actions that involve every aspect of a child’s body and mind will nurture the child’s flair for language; their body’s urge to move; the brain’s attention to patterns; the ear’s lead in initiating communication and the voice’s response to sounds. (Huggies, n.d. para. 4) Self-expression for the baby means connecting with and contributing to their world by participating through smiling, crying, imitating, and making sounds to show their level of interest in relating to and with others. (Australian Government Department of Education, 2019, p. 28). Aesthetic awareness and inclusive practises include for those babies who have difficulty with movement, hand gesture or eye movements – to be guided and assisted with a certain alternative plan that adheres to inclusivity for all. A variety of movement patterns allows for fun and enlightenment which creates a positive connection between using their body, being healthy and happy. 

 

The creativity in this activity allows for provocations to be implemented to form dramatic play experiences, such as alternative endings or short role-play of by following the book. However, the book itself is a drama story that has the children become engaged in this as a class, you read and recite the words together. Using their imagination, they become eager of the possible scenarios that each page may bring ‘– they become in character which is important for exploring different identities and points of view, including the notion of belonging to global communities. Simple phrases like ‘SHH! SHH! in quite tones already have the children reciprocating, with the impression of being quiet and slowly tiptoeing. The children start using their eyes to make sense of the story and their response becomes a sort of self-expression. Aesthetic awareness of the children will gain an understanding between the fictional and the real; explore the release feelings associated with characters in the book and the idea that humans are not actually blue. Making sure that the 3-4-year old’s are all included within the reading mat and are able to see, ensures inclusivity for all. 

 

To plan before and then to gather becomes an imaginative process as they begin to prepare and think about what they may want to use. Conventions, technical and symbolic codes become elements of Media Arts which are explored, and as Year 3 students, from past experiences may already have a sense of creativity, drawing or compositing of putting things together. Therefore, their creativity becomes enhanced to see things in fresh ways and relating to new situations by creating something unique and original. Self-expression also reflects their idea of meaning and becoming effective communicators through their own works. through the different mediums that media arts offer – for example understanding the relationship between images, facial expressions of images. 

 

Their creations then also become a reflection of their aesthetic awareness as they begin to show and tell, share their creations to classmates and gain ideas from each other, however – be mindful of comparing, and for works to be judged and misinterpreted. By learning how to edit, make sound recording and combining images, sounds and text to tell stories. Through inclusive practices, educators adhering to a positive and supportive learning environment will ensure you are including and valuing a child with additional needs or a different cultural, socio-economic and linguistic background. Understanding and respecting each other’s artworks independently and collaboratively with their classmates and teachers they will experience artworks from a range of cultures, times and locations.