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!