Making resources is important for teachers for a variety of reasons: it helps us develop practical skills, fine motor(small muscles) and coordinate gross motor(large muscles) skills. This is very helpful for playing music and movement games with children because it improves the physical coordination of the educators well as increase educators creativity. In the process of making resources, educators will collect many kinds of materials and use their imagination to create activities that will suit and challenge the children. This process also can allow educators’ the chance to reflect on the children in the classroom: educators need to understand children’s physical development status, their personal preferences and behaviours to develop the best possible resources for the children. For example, in Pine Room, children like to play with cars and other vehicles, so I collected various materials and made a Traffic light steering wheel. This resource can also be brought outdoors, so children can play with traffic lights and start learning simple traffic rules.
When resources are made by the teacher after understanding the children’s likes and the dislikes, the children’s participation is higher, which in turn allows for more teachable moments: for example, I made a shark-feeding game after I observed how much children like the song ‘Baby Shark’. In the process of feeding sharks and eating small fish, children not only satisfied their preferences for sharks but also improved their small muscle development and their awareness of different colours.
