Australian readers of this blog may have seen the art installation at the Victorian Art Gallery of lots of metal balls floating around a pool and gently tinkling against each other. Continuing very hot weather has prompted lots of water activities here and I was reminded of this idea recently, so we tried it at kinder. Metal bowls floating in water and gently striking each other to make quiet music is a lovely idea, and in fact the water music is very pleasing – but first Bella had to explore the bowls, which meant vigorous splashing and making tsunamis of waves, filling and sinking them and having fun! Metal balls would offer a clearer focus on the sounds, but the balls are still in the catalogues and the bowls were in the cupboard. Did the (brief) aesthetic experience register for Bella, or only for me? I do know that she was responding to the sensory and movement possibilities of this experience, we were sharing oral language and developing vocabulary around filling, sinking, waves, force and that she was communicating her observations. The sounds created were a part of that.