Emotion Explorations: Brave

What does it mean to be brave?  This is the question I posed to my students during this Mind Move Make class.  I was impressed that every student who responded to this question paired bravery and fear together.  One third grader said, "Being brave is when you are scared to do something but you do it anyway".  I couldn't have said it better myself!

I thought that perhaps children growing up in our society, with muscular superheroes serving as roll models, would equate being brave with physical strength or fearlessness.  But they all realized that being scared and being brave go together; you can't have one without the other!  As Nelson Mandela said, "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it."

I asked the children in my class if they could remember a time when they felt brave.  One kindergarten student recounted a memory when her mother hurt herself pretty badly and she had to walk with her to get help.  She said she was scared, but she did it anyway.  What a great example of being brave!

After our talk, I read the book Life Doesn't Frighten Me.  The book includes a poem by Maya Angelou and paintings by artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.  It is about a little girl who remains brave in the face of the many frightening things happening in the world around her.

   After engaging in many brave Warrior poses during the movement portion of our class, the students designed "brave" monsters in their sketchbooks.  Many of these monsters were two-headed creatures.  One part of them represented the "fear" side of bravery, and the other the "brave" side.  Here are the artists at work!

Discussing Anger and Fear

We've done a lot in the past few Mind Move Make classes!  Through movement, art, and children's literature we've continued to explore the emotion "anger".  We read When Sophie Gets Angry-Really Really Angry... by Molly Bang.  In the book, a little girl becomes extremely angry when her sister takes her favorite toy.  Then she takes a walk in nature and she is calmed by the act of climbing a tree and listening to the wind and the ocean waves.  We talked in small groups about what we do to calm ourselves down when we feel angry.  It was interesting to hear everyone discussing these ideas with their peers.

We've also tried the "Take Five" breathing exercise.  For this, the students spread their hands in front of them like a starfish.  Then they trace each finger, starting with the thumb.  Sliding their finger up the thumb, the students inhale through the nose.  They pause at the top of the thumb, then exhale through the mouth as they slide their finger down the thumb.  For each finger, the students inhale while tracing up, and exhale while tracing down the finger.  This gives them the chance to focus on taking five good breaths, with the physical object of their own hand to concentrate on while breathing.

During another Mind Move Make class, in celebration of Halloween we looked at the emotion "scared".  I read one of my favorite Dr. Seuss stories, What Was I Scared Of?, then we talked about different things that we are scared of in our own lives.  The students had just experienced an earthquake drill that day and many of them said they were scared by the loud alarm that went off for the drill.  After talking about our fears, each child designed a "scared" monster in his or her sketchbook.

Our last class was a "catch-up" day.  Many students hadn't finished their angry "Bombaloo" masks, so I gave everyone the opportunity to complete the mask.  Also, several students had unfinished monster designs in their sketchbooks, so they had time to go back and work on those.  At the end of the class we took a group photograph of all the children wearing the "angry" masks that they designed.  What a fun bunch of kids!  

Sometimes I'm Bombaloo!

At the beginning of every Mind Move Make class we start with a minute of mindful breathing.  During our very first class, the students learned what a mindful body looks like, feels like, and sounds like.  We practice finding our mindful bodies, focusing on our breath, and listening to the sounds around us.  Afterwards we talk about if mindful breathing was easy or hard that day.  The students' responses to this question change during every class, just as the experience of mindfulness changes each time you practice!

After our mindful breathing work, I explained that we'd look at the emotion "anger" again this week.  I read them the book Sometimes I'm Bombaloo by Rachel Vail.

Sometimes I'm Bombaloo is about a girl named Katie who describes herself as a "really good kid".  She picks up her toys, brushes her teeth, and "gives excellent hugs".  But when her baby brother destroys a castle she worked hard to create, she becomes uncontrollably angry and turns into "Bombaloo".  She pushes her little brother, smashes things, and throws all the clothes out of her drawer.  After she calms down and becomes herself again, she says, "It's scary being Bombaloo".  I think we can all relate to that!  Being angry can feel very scary.

I asked my students if they had ever become "Bombaloo"; if they had ever done something they regretted after becoming very angry.  I told them about a time that I yelled at Harlow, my two-year-old son, when I became angry.  Afterwards I felt awful.  Becoming angry is part of being human, but it can be frightening.  Mindfulness helps us by giving us space between the thing that is making us angry and our reaction to that thing.  Even taking one breath before reacting when we're angry helps us to calm down and gives us space to make a good choice.

I explained that we were going to create masks depicting our inner "Bombaloo".  "What does your Bombaloo look like?" I asked them.  I also asked them to think about the colors they would use to show their angry side, along with the facial expressions.  During our movement time, they had the chance to become "Bombaloo" on their yoga mats.  They made Bombaloo-esque noises, Bombaloo faces, and moved like their version of Bombaloo.  It was fun watching them channel this part of themselves!

During the art portion of the class, the students started designing their masks!  All of them are extremely different, just as our experience of anger is different from anyone else's.  We used pencils to start the design, then we used oil pastels to add color.  I explained that next week I'd bring watercolor paint so that they could add a paint layer.

Here are the artists at work, along with some of the works in progress!

  

Emotion Explorations: Anger

Anger can be a challenging emotion to experience, and this is what we explored during our third Mind Move Make class.  I asked if anyone in the class had ever felt angry before, and every raised a hand (including me!).  In fact, most of the students had experienced anger that very day.  All of the students took turns sharing a time that they felt angry, and it was interesting hearing the things that made them feel this powerful emotion.  One girl talked about a friend who had broken a promise.  Another student shared a time that a cousin was unfair and cheated while they were playing a game.  

I asked the students to think about where they feel "anger" in their bodies.  For example, I told them that when I get angry I feel my cheeks getting hot first, then it spreads to my forehead and my entire face!  One student said she feels anger in her back when it gets tight.  Someone else felt anger in her chest, and her heart pounded really fast.  Noticing how the body feels when experiencing an emotion lets us know that the emotion is coming.  It is like the doorbell ringing before an important visitor comes to our house.  The feeling in the body is the doorbell and the emotion is the important visitor; our body lets us know which emotion we are having.

We talked about how feeling anger is part of being human.  Mindfulness allows us space between anger and our reaction to anger.  This space gives us more control; it gives us a choice for how we respond to anger, along with all the other emotions. 

After that, I let the students explore "anger" by making an angry face at one another, and making angry noises!  It is important to know what "angry" looks like, though almost everyone ended up laughing at one another's funny, angry faces!

Three students finding Child's Pose

During the movement part of our class, I taught several familiar poses along with a couple of new ones: Dolphin Pose and Sphinx Pose.  Giving the students the space of their yoga mat, I asked them to explore "anger" through movement!  They could stomp, make noises, or find a pose that felt particularly "angry".  It was fun to watch the results.

In their sketchbooks, each student designed an "angry" monster.  Through color, facial expression, shape, and scale they developed their creatures.  Here are a few from this class:

   

Emotion Explorations: Excited

First Grade Artist

What does "excited" mean to you?  This is the first emotion we investigated during Mind Move Make class in the Monsters and Emotions unit!  First, I had the students guess what emotion we would explore by reading the "excited" part in On Monday When It Rained, an excellent book by Cherryl Kachenmeister that identifies different emotions from a child's point of view.  No one guessed the emotion "excited" but every student enthusiastically voiced ideas about what the emotion might be!  Then, I asked each student to make an "excited" face for one another, which was fun to watch.  After that I read the "excited" part of the book The Way I Feel  by Janan Cain and asked them to think about a time when they felt excited themselves.    

After that it was time to move!  The students selected their yoga mats and we were ready to go.  We practiced Child's Pose, Downward Facing Dog, and Downward Facing Frog together.  Then we tried to feel every vertebra in the spine as we went from a forward fold to a standing position in "rag doll" style.  The students matched breath and movement while cycling through several Sun Salutations.  Then I asked them to invent a yoga pose that felt "excited" while staying in the defined space of their own yoga mats.  I loved watching the joyful movements they came up with while exploring "excited" with the whole body.

This session is titled Monsters and Emotions because the students are working on designing a monster for each emotion we investigate.  Last week I gave each child a sketch book, and by the end of Session One, everyone will have a collection of monsters to represent several human feelings.  Sometimes we will go beyond the sketch book and create more involved artworks.  These creative investigations of emotion will give the students the opportunity to visually describe what each feeling means to them.

To get the students in a monster kind of mood, we read Romping Monsters, Stomping Monsters, an energetic, fun-loving book by Jane Yolen. From the book and from many other visual resources the students received inspiration for designing their own "excited" monster. Before they started, we discussed the colors and facial expressions an "excited" monster might have. Everyone had a different idea about this, as everyone experiences emotion differently. It was wonderful to watch the artists at work!

  

Monsters and Emotions

Yesterday was the first class of the 2016-2017 school year!  During this thirteen week session we will explore human emotions from many perspectives and using several tools to look at emotion.  Through art, children's literature, mindfulness, and movement we will compare, contrast, and investigate the feelings all humans experience.  Our Central Idea for Session 1 is:

All people experience different kinds of emotions

As the children walked into the art room for their first Mind Move Make class, I asked them to find and sit by the sketchbook I pre-made with his or her  name on it.  The sketchbooks formed a circle, and I explained that this is how we would sit at the beginning of each MMM class.  In order to begin to create a sense of community between all the students in the class, I asked each individual to share his or her name, age, and three things he or she is thankful for.  It was fun to hear their responses!

After that we talked about what each word, MIND, MOVE, and MAKE, means in connection to the classes I teach.  I asked their opinion of what the words mean, and why I chose Mind Move Make for the name of the program.  Then we talked about mindfulness, and how mindfulness helps us pay attention to what is happening in the present moment.   

Then we brainstormed different emotion words.  The students came up with a great list, and we will explore many of the emotions on the list in the next several weeks of classes.  Everyone was eager to contribute to the conversation, so we are off to a great start!

We explored yoga and movement in the next part of our class.  Everyone started in child's pose and felt the breath move through the body in this altered form.  We tried downward facing dog, and several sun salutations.  After coming down to Malasana, we sat back into boat pose, or Navasana.  Then, coming into butterfly pose we relaxed by practicing Bhramari, or bee breath.  It sounded like there were many little bees fluttering around the classroom!

During the art part of the class, the students had the opportunity to design the front cover of their sketchbooks!  I asked them to either draw something that tells me about who they are, or to draw one of the things they are thankful for that we talked about in the beginning of class.  It was a fun and very full first class!   

Dragon's Gate (K-2nd Grades)

2008 Copyright Joseph R. McAuliffe
Carp leaping over Dragon's Gate

For the past two Mind Move Make classes, our Kindergarten-2nd grade artists have been inspired by a Chinese folktale in which a determined carp fish transforms into a powerful dragon.  In China, the carp is a symbol of endurance, perseverance, and strength.  The folktale is centered around a brave little carp who swims upstream along a river that flows down a legendary mountain.  The river's current is very strong; it is a difficult path to follow.  There are many waterfalls along the way that the tiny fish must traverse.  In the end, the river leads to Dragon's Gate.  There is one last waterfall that the courageous carp must jump over to meet its final goal.  As the carp leaps into the air, it can feel its body changing into that of a mighty dragon.

The Chinese have a saying that goes, "The carp has leapt through the Dragon's Gate".   This is used for students who pass their university exams.  It is also used to describe anyone who works diligently towards a goal and succeeds beyond their wildest dreams!  In traditional Chinese and Japanese artwork, both the carp (or koi) and the dragon are depicted often.

Both our movement work and our visual artwork have been driven by this story.  The students have imagined their skin transforming into the scales of the carp.  We thought about what the cold water of the river would feel like rushing against our skin.  I asked if any of the children had hiked up a large hill or maybe even a mountain and everyone's hand went up.  I asked them to imagine what it would be like to try SWIMMING up a mountain!  What a difficult task!

During our first class, the students used black ink to draw their carp fish.  I reminded them of the techniques we already learned in using the ink to create a painting.  During our second class, we used pencil and permanent markers to create a dragon image.  Eventually we will incorporate color into both artworks.

Movement-wise, during our next class the students will work together to create a performative piece telling the story of the carp becoming the dragon.  I will provide a few simple props to help them along, though the use of these will be optional.  Their goal will be to somehow, through movement, show the mountain, the river, the carp, and the dragon.  It will be fun to see what they come up with!  I'd like to give them a few classes to complete this performative piece and maybe show it to their parents during our last class!

Here are a few of the koi or carp paintings:

Kindergarten artist

Kindergarten artist

Second grade artist

Second grade artist

And here are a few of the dragon drawings:

Kindergarten artist

Kindergarten artist

Second grade artist

Kindergarten artist

Second grade artist

Second grade artist

What is mindfulness to you? (3rd-5th Grades)

This invented zine character was described by one student
as looking like a "disgruntled librarian".  You can see the student's
work in brainstorming for her ideas in her sketchbook.

During this Mind Move Make class we switched it up a little bit!  I didn't put out the yoga mats as I usually do.  Instead, we started class sitting on the floor together in a circle.  This was a much more intimate beginning to the class, and proved to be much better for encouraging conversation and connection.  I think we will start all of our classes this way for the rest of the year.

The girls in the class, a lovely collection of 4th and 5th graders, have participated in Mind Move Make for the entire year.  Many of them also participated in one or all of the sessions from last year.  After spending so much time cultivating mindfulness practice, I was curious about their personal ideas about mindfulness.  In their sketchbooks I had them answer the question, "What is mindfulness to you?".  I explained that I would share my idea of what mindfulness is, but that I would go last so that my response didn't influence what they would say.  The conversation lasted quite a while; everyone was attentive and interested.

Here are some of the ideas and responses that were shared:

"Making yourself calm and putting your mind to the present." -E.D.

"Mindfulness is breathing and paying attention to your breathing and finding your anchor, relaxing and maybe dancing." -J.W.

"Calm silence with joy in the air." -G.F.

After that we spent two minutes practicing mindful breathing, as we do each class.  There was something fantastic about practicing in closer proximity to everyone in class, in a circle on the floor.  We will continue practicing this way for our last six classes!

During every class this session, the girls have kept a gratitude journal.  Each week they write three things that they are thankful for in their journal, and on a small piece of paper they write one of the three things and place the gratitude paper offering in the singing bowl.  During our last class we will read many of these to remember all the things we've been thankful for over the twelve weeks of the class.

Art-wise, the girls are extremely self-motivated with the zine project.  During this class I introduced them to a Zine Checklist of requirements that I expect them to fulfill when the zine is complete.  The list asks each student if she has:

• Created interesting fonts, especially for the front cover and back cover                      

• Included at least one cropped, close-up image 
• Used at least three different types of media  
• Layered and blended colors in an interesting way 
• Included a message of hope     
• Developed an interesting layout for the zine

I believe each girl will be incredibly successful with meeting each of these goals. Here are a few photos of the artist at work!   

One inventive student decided to decorate her leg with remnants from the art room floor during our discussion!