A Helping Hand

We began this week's class by reviewing our central idea, Humans can choose to cultivate kindness and make the world a better place. We also took another look at My Hands Are My Heart by artist Gabriel Orozco. Then I asked if any of the students either saw the movie or read the book The Hobbit. A few students raised their hands and briefly explained the plot of the story to everyone else. Then I read the following quote from the wizard Gandalf, a character from The Hobbit:

"People believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage."

We discussed that Bilbo Baggins is a Hobbit, a very ordinary being without obvious extraordinary powers.  But armed with kindness and caring for his friends, he saves the day again and again.

I asked the students to brainstorm in their sketchbooks three to five ways they can "grow" kindness in our world.  Here are some of the kindness action ideas that they came up with:

• Showing kindness by being a good friend
• Being kind to myself by practicing yoga
• Donating to those less fortunate than we are
• Being kind by spending time with my family
• Maintaining a neighborhood community garden
• Helping others feel better
• Showing kindness to the earth by recycling

What a great start in developing ideas to cultivating kindness in the world!

Here is a picture of one student brainstorming kindness actions in her sketchbook!

After that I asked all students to find a partner and we practiced Secret Message Back Writing!  This activity develops concentration, engages students in positive touch, and builds spelling and literacy skills (from Lisa Flynn's book Yoga for Children).  To play the game, one student either draws pictures or writes words on the back of his/her partner, then the person receiving the touch has to guess the shape or word.  I encouraged the children to start with simple shapes first and build up to writing words on one another's backs.  In order to correctly guess the shape or word being written, the students must be fully present and focused!

Two students practicing Secret Message Back Writing.

After participating in a guided meditation during relaxation time, the students were ready for some movement!  On Monday I attended a yoga class with Simon Menasche, one of my favorite teachers.  His class gave me a few ideas for the movement portion of the class.  One movement activity involved slowly unfolding from seed posture into standing with our arms above our heads, using the breath to guide us.  Our class ended the movement practice with Tree Pose, and I was impressed that the students chose to help each other maintain balance.

All the students in the back row were helping each other in Tree Pose

   

During the art portion of the class students focused on drawing their hands!  Drawing the human hand is a difficult task, but these students were up to the challenge.  I asked them to really exercise their skills of observation while capturing their own hand.  Eventually we will cut out the drawings of our hands and incorporate them into a larger piece of artwork.  The drawings will be combined with writing we've done around kindness.

Here are a few of the drawings so far!