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One student holding up his Kindness
Creature design |
At the beginning of Mind Move Make's eighth class I hung all of the Kindness Action artworks on the wall. We had a discussion about the artwork in the form of a game. The students each got the chance to guess who created which piece of artwork. When their work was chosen they had to tell their favorite thing about the work and talk about some of the ideas they put into the work. Turning a critique into a game made it fun and helped the students stay engaged in the discussion. We left the artwork up for the parents to see at the end of class. Many of the students made their parents guess which artwork was theirs!
It was raining on that particular day of class, and the weather inspired a fun guided meditation during relaxation time. I asked the students to imagine they were a raindrop falling from the sky. What would that feel like? I also told them that they could choose to land on anything they wanted to land on once they reached earth. What would they choose to land on? A squirrel's nose? A puddle to join many of their friends? The ocean's wave? It was interesting to hear their choices.
After warming up the body with a few rounds of Cat/Cow and a couple Sun Salutations, the students took part in another partner movement activity. Each pair of children became a human seesaw! Sitting across from one another they grasped hands. One student leaned forward while the other leaned back. I asked the students to connect their breath to the movement by exhaling when bending forward and inhaling when leaning back. This activity is great for stretching tight hamstrings while encouraging connection between partners.
The Kindness Creatures are starting to come to life! (Check out this
blog entry to learn more about the Kindness Creature creations!) After looking at their designs from last class and reading through their ideas about this project, the students jumped into creating the creatures. Most of the students designed a template for their creature and transferred the shape onto fabric. A few students even began sewing facial features onto their creatures. It looks like a few students might have time to create two Kindness Creatures. Stay tuned to see how these purposeful stuffed animals take shape!
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| Writing and design ideas in one student's sketchbook |
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| This student sewed basketball pajamas onto her Kindness Creature |
