Cloud City

After welcoming the students and checking in with them, we launched directly into relaxation!  I guided the children through a story while they visualized their own images of the story in their minds.  I asked the children to imagine that they were in the sky, hopping from one cloud to another.  I asked them to feel the texture of the cloud under their feet as they stepped.  Then they were to pause on top of a cloud, part the white fluff and look at the view below.  Each child was to imagine any type of landscape he or she wanted below.  I encouraged the class to consider the details of the landscape.  Were there plants and animals below?  People walking about?  Tall buildings or bodies of water?

After the students constructed these worlds in their imaginations, one student eagerly raised her hand and asked, "Can we share what we saw?"  That was exactly my plan!  One child explained that she imagined she was a raindrop falling through the sky, since she knew that clouds were formed from water vapor.  Another student saw a city through her parted cloud.  She saw her mother walking on the street below.  It was interesting to hear the very different landscapes the children visualized.

The movement portion of our class came next!  I led the students through some warm-up exercises, and as I was doing this I noticed that one student was experimenting with getting into Crow Pose, or Bakasana.  This is a challenging pose, but I encouraged the student and demonstrated it to the other students.  Everyone was excited to try this new pose, and a few students were able to get into the pose!  After that, the student who was selected as the most focused during last class by his peers led us in a series of movements.  He chose the most focused student to lead us for the following class.

Before starting on the art part of the class, I asked the students to remind me of the requirements for this piece of artwork.  One student raised her hand and remembered that they are supposed to include a self-portrait along with illustrating an idea from the book You Are Stardust or a connection to nature.  Another student remembered that the artwork is supposed to be created using many different types of media, or multimedia artwork.

Each student is in a different place for this particular creation.  Our goal is to finish the piece of art during our next class which could be challenging for a few of the students!