Kindness Creatures

Get ready for Kindness Creatures!  This is our new Mind Move Make art project, and we started it this week.  The children are creating stuffed animals for either themselves or someone they love (HUMANS ONLY!) to remind the lucky recipient to remember kindness in everyday life.  The students answered several questions to help them gather ideas together before starting.  Here are the questions:
1. Who is your Kindness Creature for?
2. What kind actions will your Kindness Creature remind its owner of?
3. How can the way the creature looks be influenced by its function?
4. What will your Kindness Creature's name be?

After finishing our brainstorming session about this new project, it was time for relaxation.  The students got into a comfortable position on their yoga mats and listened to the sound of the singing bowl while following the sound of their breath.  I asked them to stretch their arms above their heads when they couldn't hear the singing bowl anymore.  Connecting physical action with mindfulness activities helps to keep the students focused.

Then the students launched into movement.  We began with Sufi Rolls in a seated position.  After the students got this motion down, they each grabbed a partner.  Sitting back-to-back, they linked arms and moved through Sufi Rolls together.

After that, the students changed partners and we performed another partner activity.  The students created The Elevator by joining hands, leaning back in Chair Pose, and bending their knees up and down.  For this partner pose it is easier to have people of a similar height working together.  Partner poses are excellent for building trust, teamwork, and confidence.

Art-wise we had many things to accomplish!  My expectation was that all students would complete their Kindness Actions artwork, and everyone accomplished this goal!  The actions that ended up in the artwork were fantastic.  Here are some of the actions that ended up in the artwork:

"Start a community garden"

"I won't steal oysters at dinner"

"Be a good friend"

"Help someone feel better"

"Recycle paper"

"Help my mom and dad around the house"

I'll share all of these artworks at the end of this blog entry!

The Mind Move Make students also started planning their ideas for the Kindness Creatures.  Most of them had time to begin drawing a sketch for what they want their final creature to look like.  Some even transferred their design onto a final sheet of paper.  This design will act as their template or pattern.  They will cut out the Creature shape and trace it onto fabric.  I'm excited to see these Kindness Creatures come to life!



Here are all of the other completed artworks!

Aesthetic Choices

At the beginning of this class I asked the students to finalize their Kindness Action Ideas.  I explained that today we would incorporate the ideas into their finished piece of artwork.  I also read them the next part of the story Zen Shorts.  This traditional Chinese story is about how we choose to view and respond to events in our lives.  In the story, an elderly farmer experiences what his neighbors describe as "bad luck", but each event turns out to have a positive outcome.  Instead of dwelling on or worrying about something that seems negative, the farmer is open and accepting of each event and the possibility of something good coming out of it.  It is easy to dwell on "bad luck" in our own lives; this story challenges us to see the good in a seemingly bad situation.

We also reviewed Gabriel Orozco's artwork My Hands Are My Heart, pictured below.  

We discussed how our hands are the part of our bodies that usually perform kind actions in the world.  Our hands become an extension of our hearts in this way.  If you'd like to know more about Gabriel Orozco's work, here is a video about him from the PBS series Art:21.

Moving into relaxation time, the students listened to the singing bowl and counted their breaths until they couldn't hear the sound of the bowl anymore.  I asked them to place a hand on their stomachs when they could no longer hear the bowl singing.  This activity invites the students to focus attention on two things: external sound and internal breath.  It is a great way for them to find calm in stressful situations, both at home and at school.

For the movement part of the class, we began by warming up the vertebrae with Sufi Rolls.  The students rotated around their center point while sitting on the floor.  We also warmed up the neck and shoulders, and did some side stretching.  Working to strengthen the muscles of the lower back, we balanced in tabletop pose and alternated picking up our left arm and right leg, and the right arm and left leg.  Then, after a few sun salutations, the students practiced Lion's Breath again.  One student who has experience in other yoga classes taught everyone (including me) the Eiffel Tower, a partner pose.    

Artistically, the students had many things to do before completing the project.  Many students needed to finish painting and cutting out their hands.  Some students still wanted to layer more color into the watercolor portion of the work.  Everyone needed to write their Kindness Action Ideas onto their artwork.

My vision for this piece was for the Kindness Action Ideas to be written onto their finished artwork, along with incorporating their hand drawings into the piece.  That way, this artwork would combine words and images to depict a message about kindness.  It would also serve as a reminder that what we do in the world is important.  Combining thinking and talking about kindness must be paired with actions taken.

Many of the students don't share my vision for this piece!  Most of them wanted to keep the hand drawings separate from the watercolor painting.  And this is OK!  I am happy that my students have their own artistic ideas, and are choosing to make their own aesthetic decisions about their artwork.  I'm proud of them for this.

Zen Shorts

We started our fifth Mind Move Make class by reading the first part of Zen Shorts, a book that won a Caldecott honor in 2006.  Here is a great summary of Zen Shorts from Teaching Children Philosophy.  Before I read the book I asked the students to remember and report back all the kind actions they noticed in the story, which is about three siblings who befriend a wise panda bear.  The students did an excellent job of identifying kind actions in the book, such as telling someone a story, making a friend a cake, drawing a picture of a friend, and giving a generous gift to a stranger.  Most of these actions are things that the students can do in their own lives.

After that it was relaxation time.  I asked the students if they brush their teeth every day.  All of them raised their hands, and many said they brush their teeth at least twice a day.  I explained that engaging in relaxation and meditation is similar to "brushing" your brain because it helps to clear the mind and bring a sense of peace.

Then it was time to move!  One new movement I introduced was Gate Pose, or Parighasana.  This pose is great for stretching the intercostal muscles that exist between the ribs and work together to help us breath.  Many of the students also identified that they felt a stretch in their hamstrings while engaging in this pose.

Artistically we focused on watercolor painting.  Several students continued to work with the different watercolor techniques we learned in the last class: salt, resist, pigment lift, dry brush, wet on wet, and wet on dry.  They also began to layer brushstrokes and colors on top of one another.  Some students decided to paint the hand drawings they created several classes ago.  A couple students were ready to take the tape off of their paintings!  In the end, we will layer the hand drawings on top of the paintings and the students will write their kindness action ideas onto the painting.  I'm looking forward to seeing how these elements work together to create a finished piece of artwork!

  

Watercolor Exploration

This was our first Mind Move Make class after the students had been on vacation for Winter Break, so we started by reviewing our Central Idea:

Humans can choose to cultivate kindness to make the world a better place.

Then I asked the children to share an act of kindness that they either witnessed or performed over the holidays.  I encouraged them to think about an action taken rather than focusing on a gift they were given.  Several students talked about putting time and care into homemade gifts for loved ones.  For example, one student told us he worked really hard to create a deck of hand-drawn playing cards for his father.  Another student shared that she gave her mother a hug at a time when her mother really needed it.  It was interesting to hear the students recount acts of kindness that they either observed or performed.

During our relaxation time, I dimmed the lights and allowed the students to concentrate on their own breath rather than sharing a guided meditation.  After reading more about mindfulness and doing some research into neuroscience, it is important to give this space to cleanse the brain through focusing on a single object or sense (touch, taste, hearing, sight, smell).  In our case, we focused on the breath.  I've heard meditation referred to by the Hawn Foundation as "brain brushing," similar to teeth brushing but for mental health instead of dental health.  If everyone made "brain brushing" a part of the daily routine, I believe we'd all be happier and healthier in every sense!

After that it was time to begin the movement portion of our class.  We started by doing Sufi rolls, a different way of warming up the vertebrae by remaining in a seated position and rotating around our center of gravity.  After that we went through two Surya Namaskar A sequences.  I also taught the children how to do Lion's Breath, which was really fun.  Here is a funny video of many different people performing Lion's Breath, if you're curious to find out what that is!  Lion's Breath is a great way to release tension in the face and throughout the entire body.  And you get to make a silly face, which is an added bonus!

For the art part of our class we experimented with different watercolor techniques to build the background for our Kindness Action Ideas artwork.  The techniques we worked with were salt, resist, pigment lift, wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, and dry brush.  The students had a lot of fun exploring all of these techniques on their watercolor paper!

Here are pictures of the student's watercolor works so far: