Travel to the Sahara Desert! (K-2nd Grade)

This busy second grade artist drew the sidewinder, the scarab beetle,
and the ostrich!

Today in Mind Move Make class we went on an adventure to the Sahara Desert!  Before our journey into the desert began, I asked the students what they already knew about the desert.  Almost everyone in the class was eager to tell share a piece of information about an animal, plant, or the terrain of the desert with everyone in class.  Their knowledge was impressive!

After our discussion, we began our movement-centered travels through the Sahara Desert!  I held up pictures of each animal we met during this imaginary trip so that the students had a visual image as some of the animals are a bit more obscure.  We started off riding a camel over the sand dunes using cat-cow to simulate both the camel's hump and the very bumpy business of riding on a camel's back.  Our cat-cows started slowly and got faster and faster as we moved over the rolling hills of sand!  After that we encountered a scarab beetle and entered child's pose.  Then a sidewinder snake slithered along and all the children hissed in cobra pose, breathing in as they came off the floor and making their best snake noise as they lowered their torsos back to the ground.  Several other animals showed up during our adventure: a jerboa and a dorcas gazelle.  My favorite part of this particular adventure was when each student became an ostrich!  We used Lord of the Dance pose (Natarajasana) to simulate this animal.  Our long arm became the ostrich's neck, our hand became the head.  Ostriches have very powerful legs; their kick is their greatest defense!  So we kicked up our legs to celebrate the beautiful strength of this animal!  Here is a link to more information about each animal that we looked at from the Sahara Desert, if you're interested in learning more.

When our adventure came to an end, we were ready to create artwork!  I explained that this was an art catch-up day.  Some students hadn't yet finished their rainforest artworks, so a few people worked on that.  Some students wanted to spend more time on their hybrid creature drawings from our last class.  Those who were finished with everything got to draw one of the desert animals as a practice study for a painting we will begin next class!  Many of the drawings are beautiful renderings of the animals we encountered in our imaginations.

A second grade artist drawing the dorcas gazelle

A kindergarten artist drawing the camel

Tree Collaboration

One of our big focuses in Mind Move Make is movement.  Many of our activities encourage the students to find a variety of movements: large, small, fast, slow, collaborative, individual.  My hope is that they begin to loose themselves in the act of jumping, twirling, shuffling, spinning, bending, and shaking!  I want to develop a safe community within our class where it is OK to move in any way and no one will feel self-conscious.

For a warm-up movement activity this week, I played music and explained that the students could move in any way they were inspired to.  When I stopped the music everyone had to freeze!  The girls could either work individually or collaborate with another student.  Even within this free-form activity I asked them to be aware of balancing focus and playful.  It was a fantastic way to let the students release energy after a long day of sitting at school!  During this activity I was laughing out loud watching the joy and fun the students were experiencing while exploring music through moving.

After a few rounds of Group Juggling, we engaged in moving like trees as we've been looking at the earth element.  All the students found one partner and became a tree with that person.  During their collaboration, they had to touch in some way; they could become any type of tree that they wanted.  After a few minutes of finding a tree pose together, they had to switch partners and become a different type of tree with another person!  We did this for a few rounds, and the results were pretty fun.

Art-wise, the students continued working on their earth masks.  Here are some pictures of the artists at work!

Inventive Animal Creations (K-2nd Grades)

One fabulous Kindergarten artist!

I had a great teachable moment with my youngest Mind Move Make students.  I accidentally left the portfolio with all their artwork at home, and many of them were excited to complete the rainforest creations from the previous weeks!  After explaining this unfortunate fact to my students I added that, "even grownups make mistakes."  They were extremely resilient and quick to forgive my forgetfulness.  We did make art during this class, but it was an impromptu idea that I'll describe a little later!

I was excited about the movement portion of the class, and was eager to share the activity with the children.  All the students enjoyed the opportunity to create their own movements for the rainforest animals a couple classes ago, so I developed "flash cards" of all the animals we've learned about.  The students got into pairs, received a collection of four flashcards with pictures of rainforest animals, and created their own movement routines using the pictures.  It was fun to see how different each group's movement pieces were.  One group was very focused on telling a story with their movements.  Other groups mixed yoga poses I've taught them with their own notions of how the animals move.

For me, the best part was being able to listen in on the planning of their mini-performances!  It is so interesting to watch the exchange of ideas, and the give-and-take that comes with collaborative work.  After each group worked out their movement-based performance, they had the opportunity to present their creations to one another.

So, back to the forgotten artwork!  For my spur of the moment idea, I explained that the students could either draw one rainforest animal of their choosing, or they could combine two or three animals together to create a new hybrid creature!  I think everyone chose option #2 and let their imaginations go wild.  Some children completely created a one-of-a-kind animal the likes of whom I've never seen in any book or zoo!  Others combined identifiable parts of various rainforest animals together to develop something new.  So my mistake provided an opportunity for a unique exploration of the imagination.  Here are some of the gorgeous, inventive works:

In progress...

Completed drawing!  This student's art reminds me of the work of Japanese artist Chiho Aoshima.

Bonus Feature: this is one of Chiho Aoshima's works

Observing Trees (3rd-5th Grades)

We started out this class a little differently than usual!  We are currently exploring "earth" as our element, specifically focusing on trees.  We walked around the TIS campus and observed the different trees that are growing around the school.  Many of these beautiful old trees will be cut down when the new school facility is built, so it was also a time to appreciate and enjoy trees that won't be there much longer.  I asked the students to write five adjectives about the trees they observed and draw a picture of one of the trees.When we went back to the classroom we shared our adjectives and drawings.

I actually gave the students Mind Move Make homework from the last week!  The homework was to observe a tree in their yard or neighborhood.  We took the time to share about the trees that are important to us.  One girl said that she has two trees in her yard, and each one is dedicated to a pet dog that has passed away.  Another girl shared that her family stayed in the house they currently live in because of the beautiful trees in their yard.  It was fantastic to hear the students' connections to trees around them.

After that, I asked the students to become the trees that they observed for their homework through movement.  They could do this in any way they wanted.  First, I "planted" each student in a special place in the classroom.  They could move any part of their bodies, except their feet!  Once planted, each girl had to remain in place.  It was interesting to see how different each girl's tree became!  All students were working with the same general concept, but they moved and looked very different.

After that it was time to make art!  The girls began their earth-inspired masks last week, so this week they continued the creation.  Here are the artists in action!

Remembering Our Adventures (K-2nd Grades)

T.N. 2nd Grade: Wonderful blending of colors in a sunset sky!

During each Mind Move Make class we take time to focus on calming our bodies and our minds.  This week we practiced slowing down our breath by counting.  The students worked on breathing in as I counted "One, two, three" and breathing out as I counted "One, two, three, four".  All students found an anchor spot by placing a hand on either their chest or their stomach.  Finding an anchor spot helps them feel the breath move through the body.  I played the singing bowl for them as they breathed in time to the counting.  Focus and calm are both cultivated because the children are engaged in listening to my voice counting, matching their breath to the count, and feeling either their chest or stomach move with the breath.

We've gone on three adventures through the rainforest!  I asked the students if they ever spend time remembering a vacation they've taken by looking through photographs of the trip.  Many said they did this, and I told them that today we would remember our adventures in a similar way.  I held up pictures of each animal we've "seen" in the rainforest, and then we moved into the yoga pose that went with each animal.  It was a fun way to review the poses and recall our imaginary travels through the rainforest!

After that, the students began working to finish their rainforest creations!  I explained that I wanted them to have at least three animals and five plants somewhere in their artwork.  We reviewed foreground, middle ground, and background.  Today we focused on FOREGROUND as the students drew and cut out animals and plants to add into the very front of their pictures.  Here are the (almost!) finished works!  I've labeled the artworks with the students' initials so that parents know which work belongs to their child!

K.R. 2nd Grade: His favorite bird is a toucan

E.C. Kindergarten: So much color and texture! 

E.T. 2nd Grade: She enjoyed learning about the pink river dolphin

S.P. Kindergarten: I love the patterns created in this artwork

A.H. 1st Grade: Beautiful raindrop pattern

L.H. Kindergarten:Great moody, stormy sky

I.T. Kindergarten: Another fan of the pink river dolphin

D.S. Kindergarten: Good layering of foreground images

Inventive Movements (K-2nd Grades)

This week during the movement part of our class we explored things a little differently!  We looked at the book Here Is the Tropical Rain Forest by Madeleine Dunphy and I asked the students to invent their own movements to go with the book.  The children became rain, a frog, a jaguar, an eagle, and many more things!  It was interesting to see the movements and sounds that they paired with each idea from the book.  After we finished, I asked the class how they liked creating their own movements.  Everyone enjoyed it, and many students incorporated the yoga poses I've taught them into the movements they invented.  I told them that I'd give them the chance to do this again during another class sometime!

After listening to the story and matching words and movement, I asked the students to think about the message of the book.  A second grader raised his hand and said, "I think that everything in the rainforest is connected."  Many other children agreed that all the plant life and animals introduced to us in the book were all part of the same habitat and dependent upon one another.

During the art portion of the class we discussed the ideas of foreground, middle ground, and background by looking at another painting by Henri Rousseau.  The students were quick to understand that the things in the foreground are closest to us, while the things in the background are farthest away.  We continued to use these ideas as we constructed our own artworks.

Using the pictures and books I provided the students began adding plants and animals to their rainforest artworks.  It is exciting to see how unique each work is to witness each child approaching the act of creating!  Here are some photos of the artists at work:

 

Becoming the Ocean (3rd-5th Grades)

One student experiments with adding teardrops to
her water mask.

Our last class was the best one so far.  The first thing I had students do was reflect on WHY it was our best class.  When we shared our insights together, most of the students came to the conclusion that it was our best class because they were able to find the balance between being focused and playful.  It is fantastic to see that the girls in the class are really owning the concepts of focused and playful and recognizing that finding the middle ground between the two is essential for creative group work.

After playing with movement and experimenting with calm and un-calm bodies, the girls relaxed on their yoga mats.  I encouraged silence during this part of the class and played the sounds of the ocean for them which connected with our ongoing exploration of water.  While listening to the waves moving back and forth along the coastline, I asked the students to imagine that they were a tiny organism in the ocean.  Then they were to imagine they were a jellyfish, a fish, a dolphin, a whale, and then imagine they were the entire ocean itself!

After engaging in a game of group juggling, the girls worked together to create different forms of water using movement.  The challenge was that no one could talk during the exercise.  They had to figure out how to become various types of water silently.  I explained that they could choose to collaborate with other members of the group or work independently.  The results were very interesting!

We started by creating rain, then moved to an ocean, then a river.  Each one was unique and lovely.  The ocean was the form of water that everyone chose to collaborate in creating.  After this exercise I asked which form of water was most successful and many of the girls agreed that the ocean was the most successful.

After that, we worked on the masks once more.  Students cut, glued, painted, and glittered their creations.  Here are a few pictures of them in action!