Last Class of the 2014-2015 School Year

Our class, the "serious" pose

On June 4, 2015 Mind Move Make had it's last class of the school year.  I started the class by having the students reflect on their favorite things about Mind Move Make.  One student mentioned she enjoyed relaxation/meditation. I was also proud that another student liked the art projects because she felt everything we did had meaning.  In creating this class I tried to infuse a meaningful concept into each part, and it was wonderful that the students observed this.

Our class, the "silly" pose!

After discussing their reflections of the class, we had one last relaxation time together.  Before the students settled themselves for relaxation, I explained that I would ring the singing bowl once for each student in the class.  I paired the sound with verbally saying each child's name.  As the students in the class were honored, I asked that they think about one another and remember something positive.  During Mind Move Make we cultivated a sense tremendous of community, or "sangha", and I wanted to give the students time to think about how each individual contributed.

Then we moved through some warm-up poses before I turned the class over to the students.  Three children got to share the animal-inspired pose they created when we worked on the Spirit Animal project.  The rest of us followed their directions to get into the pose!

I promised the students that we would have a celebration together on our last class.  I prepared a four-course snack for all of us to share.  Before dishing out the food I told the children that no one should start eating until everyone was served.  I also explained that we would have four courses in the meal and that each course was special.  We talked about being thankful for our food before eating it.

The first course was sweet potato chips, second course was carrots, third course was strawberries, and the grand finale was a homemade chocolate chip cookie! As we ate we talked about the different tastes we experienced.  The students thought about the food they were eating and savored each bite a little more because of this.

For our last activity, we participated in a Surrealist drawing game called The Exquisite Corpse.  Each child folded his or her paper into four sections and started by drawing the head of a human or creature.  Part of the drawing bleeds into the next section of paper.  The child passes the drawing on to his or her neighbor and he or she continues the drawing in that section.  In the end, four different artists work on the same picture without seeing the other parts of the drawing.  So you end up with a mixed-up creature that no one could have created on his or her own!  Collaborating in this was was a great finish to the year.

At the end of the last class I returned the students' Spirit Animal drawings.  Here is a drawing from each child: