The Relationship between Movement and Sound

We appear to be making connections between our interests in moving things, both living (own bodies, insects) and non-living (vehicles, wind), through the many ways we project and express ourselves. Through our bodies, hands, voices, words, and expressions. we explore movement as a language for thinking, communicating, and making meaning of the world around us. 

As we imitate the crawling of insects, the motion of vehicles, or the movement of objects around us, we seem to be investigating what movement can tell us about life, action, and interaction. Our gestures and expressions become a form of inquiry, revealing how we observe, interpret, and relate to our surroundings.

This suggests that our understanding is not formed through words alone, but through embodied experiences. Movement becomes a bridge between imagination, observation, communication, and relationship-building. In projecting ourselves physically and emotionally into our explorations, we are expressing theories about how things move, respond, connect, and perhaps even what it means to be "living".

In an early years context, the inquiry "What kind of sound do you have within you?" can become a gentle and imaginative way for us to explore emotions, identity, attention, and self-awareness.

We naturally think through sensation, metaphor, movement, and play. We may not yet have abstract emotional vocabulary like "anxious" or "nervous" but we can often describe ourselves through sounds:

Emily: "Mine sounds like a whale".

Dhanika: "A dolphin sound".

Anthony: "A shark ... a dolphin".

Luka: "Tiger from Ice Age". 

Rebecca: "Monkey, shark, tiger, hippo, trees, sun".

When Rebecca says she has "all kinds of sounds from around me" she may be expressing that her inner experience is deeply connected to the environment around her. The world flows into us through sound, movement, sensation, and relationship.

After the inquiry about inner sounds, inviting ourselves to "draw the sound itself" shifts the experience from thinking to sensing, imagining, and creating. In early years learning, this kind of transition is powerful because children often understand through image, movement, colour, and texture before abstract words.

When we learn about movement in many different ways, we are also drawn to exploring this concept through our senses. This time, we challenge ourselves to inquire into how sound travels by conducting an experiment using a speaker projecting drum beats onto a surface where rice grains are lying. ​

As the drum beats vibrate through the surface, we observe the rice grains bouncing, shifting, and dancing in response to the sound waves. Through sight, touch, and movement, we begin making connections between the relationships between sound and movement.

This experience invites us to think about movement beyond living things. We explore how invisible sound vibrations can create visible movement, leading to theories about energy, force, rhythm, and connection. This experiment also encourages us to use our bodies, senses, and expressions to interpret what is happening around us, deepening our understanding that movement can travel, transform, and affect objects in many different ways.

After experimenting with sound vibrations - watching rice grains move on stretched plastic wrap over a bowl while sound plays through a speaker - we share our thoughts that sounds is not only something heard, but something that moves, shapes, and affects matter.

Emily: "Sound travels".
Luka: "Sound travels".
Rebecca: "Sometimes sound travels, sometimes they don't". 
Anthony: "They're shaking ... yes, travel".

At the outdoor learning place, Emily touches and feels the styrofoam at the sensory table and realizes that it makes interesting sounds. She is wondering what the sound can be like, since we talk about the different sounds of animals in our discussion. We hear the sound of dolphins and she remembers how they sound like. We are discovering that we can make some sounds with things that are non-living make similar sound of living things.

Luka who is moved by music does not just listen passively; he expresses his feelings by singing the song itself, often adding his own personality, emotion, or imagination to it.

We are continuing with the experiment about the relationships between sound and movement with different materials. We use our voice and pipe cleaners to see if our voice also travel to the pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaners jiggle a little bit with the vibration of our voice. And we wonder why they are not moving much. Then we try it again together. Our voice is getting louder and louder and it gets to the point that one of us needs to cover her ears. We talk about our voice has so much power, they can be very quiet and very loud. Hearing loud voice can hurt our ears. We are learning the importance of control the volume of  our voice at the same time. 

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Then we try it again together. Our voice is getting louder and louder and it gets to the point that one of us needs to cover her ears. We talk about our voice has so much power, they can be very quiet and very loud. Hearing loud voice can hurt our ears. We are learning the importance of control the volume of our voice at the same time. ​

Building on our engagement with The Waltz of the Flowers by Tchaikovsky, we have extended our musical journey by introducing compositions from Mozart. This progression supports us in noticing similarities and differences in musical styles while expressing our responses through movement, voice, and imagination.

The music fills the room as friends pair up and step onto the dance floor. Ryan and Dhanika move in harmony with the other, their footsteps matching the rhythm of the melody. ​

Smiles and laughter flow freely as Rebecca and Anthony twirl, sway, and glide together. Through practiced coordination and shared energy, they dance in synchronization, creating a beautiful display of unity and friendship. 

Watching everyone of us, it seems as though each pair moves as a single entity, connects by the music and the joy of the moment.

Fia, the youngest friend in the group, eagerly joins in as well. She moves alongside her friends. Her energy adds to the lively atmosphere, and sharing in the fun. The friends welcome her warmly, and together they continue dancing in harmony.

To enrich our learning experience, we incorporate colourful scarves into our movements. As the fabric flows and curves through the air, it extends the motion of our arms and bodies, creating a sense of connection.

The scarf emphasizes the rhythm and direction of every step, enhancing the group's coordination and visual harmony. Together, each one of us forms a unified expression of movement, making the synchronization feel even more dynamic and alive.

In the storybook, an opera singer performs with a high-pitched voice that captures our attention. Rebecca immediately responds to what she hears, making a connection between the pitch of the sound and her own expressive movements with her fingers and mouth, exploring how sound can be represented through the body.

Kindest,
Children & Friends.