Circle of Trees and Sock Puppets (oh my!)

Upon arriving at TIS to teach the eighth Mind Move Make class, I realized something different was in the air.  There was a palpable excitement that I just couldn't put my finger on, plus there was absolutely no parking anywhere around the school!  When I saw the Assistant to the Head of School and the EMT both dressed as Starbucks cups, I realized that today was the Halloween celebration and parade.

Between the candy consumed and the costume wearing, the Mind Move Make crew was a bit more energetic than usual.  We started the class by creating a Circle of Trees, something I've wanted to try for a while now.  Standing in a circle, with the palm of one person's hand pressed to his or her neighbor's, we helped each other in tree pose.  The students who were focused found tree pose to be easier with help from the people standing next to him or her.

Because of all the Halloween enthusiasm, the movement part of our class was shorter than usual.  We warmed up our bodies and went through two sun salutations before I decided to make an early transition to the art part of the class.

Art-wise, today we started creating sock puppets!  I showed the students many pictures of amazing

sock puppets before we started.  After thinking about and brainstorming ideas of their puppets, the students used paint to add color to their creations.  I explained that this was only the base color for their puppet, and that we would layer fabric and other materials on top of the puppet to make it more creative and interesting.

At the very beginning of class several students asked if I brought the book Annie and the Old One so that I could finish reading it to them.  When the students were settled and ready to work, I engaged them in a discussion about the book so far to see what they remembered.  I was really impressed by their recall of many details from the book as well as their understanding of the message.

As they worked on painting designs onto the beginnings of their puppet creations, I finished reading Annie and the Old One.  It was wonderful that they enjoyed the book so much!  I'm planning on bringing another book to read during the art portion of our next class.