Generosity (K-2nd Grades)

I started this class by asking if anyone has practiced mindfulness outside of our time together during Mind Move Make.  Several students raised their hands.  One girl shared that she used mindfulness in the car that morning on the way to school.  Another girl used mindful breathing when she thought her tooth was going to fall out.  A boy said he used mindfulness in the mall over the weekend.  It was wonderful to hear that many of the children are using the tools we're learning in class in their daily lives!

After that, I asked if anyone knew what it meant to be generous.  Almost every student raised his or her hand and had an idea about what generosity is.  "When was the last time someone was generous with you, and how did their generosity make you feel?" I asked.  Everyone agreed that it feels good when others show generosity towards us.  I also asked them to think of a time that they were generous with someone else, and how that made them feel.  Being generous makes other people around us feel happy, which is usually contagious and the happiness is passed on to us!

During almost every class, we practice several sun salutations.  The children raise their arms into the air, and I ask them to imagine that they are grasping the sun between their hands.  At the end, I have them bring the sun down to their hearts.  Just about every class, one Kindergartener says, "Now my heart is on fire!" with a huge smile on her face.

Art-wise, today we created very detailed self-portraits using mirrors.  Our Central Idea for this class is Exploring Magnificent Me, and we are continuing to do this through mindfulness, movement, and art.  We talked about what it means to observe, and how artists use observation all the time.  I asked the children to try and show every eyelash, every freckle in this self-portrait; to really spend time observing even the smallest details.  We will use these drawings as a map to create a self-portrait relief sculpture using many different materials.

 

Stars and Wishes (K-2nd Grades)

 The students are excited to participate as mindfulness leaders!  It's fun watching them ring the bell and feel proud that their classmates listen to their instructions.  I think everyone has taken our mindfulness practice to heart now that they are involved in guiding what we do.

Today we talked about the fact that sometimes it is easy to stay focused on the breath while practicing mindfulness, and sometimes it can be difficult.  The mind has a tendency to wander in many different directions; a student might think about what's for dinner, or plan what will happen after class is over.  This is very normal, but with mindfulness we always want to gently bring ourselves back to the present moment.

Today I taught the students how to use anchor words to stay focused on the present.  We used the phrase "breathing in" during the in-breath and "breathing out" during the out-breath.  Just like the anchor of a ship, these words can help us stay connected to the present moment.

During the art part of our class, we started with a work-in-progress discussion!  The students paired up and I asked them to give their partner two "stars" and one "wish".  In this mini-critique, "stars" are compliments about the artwork and "wishes" are suggestions for making it better.  Everyone was very respectful and engaged in the conversation.

Today we put the finishing touches on our Romare Bearden-inspired artworks.  Some children were still cutting and gluing collage elements, and everyone worked on adding color and detail to the backgrounds.  Almost everyone finished, so here are the completed artworks!

2nd Grade Artist

Kindergarten Artist

2nd Grade Artist

Kindergarten Artist

Kindergarten Artist

Second Grade Artist

Second Grade Artist

Collage Creations (K-2nd Grades)

I've decided to have a mini assistant become the mindfulness leader during every class!  Having each student take ownership of this is wonderful for developing confidence, pride, and interest in mindfulness.  The assistant's responsibilities include reminding everyone to find his or her mindful body, ringing the singing bowl to signal the beginning and end of our practice, and squirting down the yoga mats at the end of class to wash them.  When Session 2 is finished, every student will have the chance to guide us through the experience.

During this class we took a trip around our entire body.  We started by focusing on how we feel, beginning with our feet and ending with the hair on our heads.  I introduced them to the concept of "sensation".  We talked about how hot, cold, tingly, and heavy are some of the sensations we can feel in our bodies.   We also talked about WHY it is important to pay attention to how our bodies feel.  Our bodies do so much for us each day: our feet help us walk and run, our hands allow us to pick things up and explore the world.  Being aware of our bodies helps us to take care of ourselves.

After that, everyone was ready to move!  We practiced two Sun Salutations together, matching breath to movement.  I think one of the students' favorite poses is the upside-down insect.  For this pose we lay on our backs and move our arms and legs around as if we were insects turned over on their backs.  Usually an imaginary gust of wind blows through the room and turns all the little insects right-side-up!

We took a look at Romare Bearden's work again when we engaged in the art part of our class.  I asked if anyone remembered what a collage is, and everyone knew!  We looked more closely at Bearden's artwork and identified the parts in which he used collage.  I gave the students the photographs that I'd taken of them a few classes back, and they started incorporating eyes, noses, and mouths into the portraits that they started.  These pieces of art aren't complete, but we already have some really fun works in progress!

Happiness (3rd-5th Grades)

During this class, the students and I talked about happiness.  We discussed the fact that scientists actually STUDY human happiness; I think many of them were surprised by this.  I asked them, "Why do you think scientists would be interested in studying happiness?"  They had many fascinating responses!

I told them about a study that was conducted by both Harvard Medical School and University of California.  The scientists involved found that happiness is contagious!  Here is a link to information about the study and a summery of the findings:

Happiness spreads through social networks like an emotional contagion, according to a study that looked at nearly 5,000 individuals over a period of 20 years. When an individual becomes happy, the network effect can be measured up to three degrees. One person’s happiness triggers a chain reaction that benefits not only his friends, but his friends’ friends, and his friends’ friends’ friends. The effect lasts for up to one year. Conversely, sadness does not spread through social networks as robustly as happiness.

We discussed the meaning of the word "contagious" and the things we usually associate with it, like sickness and the flu.  Who would've guessed that HAPPINESS is also contagious?  In order to spread a little happiness of our own, we focused on Heartfulness during the mindfulness practice.  Heartfulness involves purposefully having kind thoughts for ourselves or others.  With this action, we become "happiness generators". 

We began by thinking of someone we know and love, either a person or a pet.  I asked the students to get an image of this person in their heads and to think about different things that make him or her happy.  Then we sent kind wishes to this person or animal.  I asked the students to listen to the wishes as I said them, then to repeat them internally.  The wishes were:

May you be happy

May you be healthy

May you be peaceful

May you be loved

I asked the students to keep the person in their minds for a little longer, and to observe how they were feeling themselves at this time.  Then we took a few more mindful breaths, and listened to the sound of the singing bowl.

After engaging in some movement, we began the art part of class.  I reminded them of the artist Michael Grab, a sculptor who practices rock balancing.  I brought a collection of many different rocks so the students had a chance to try a little rock balancing of their own!  They worked in groups of three to construct the rock sculptures and discovered how difficult it is to tame gravity, though they had a blast trying!  Then they worked with value pencils to create a drawing of the rocks.  I photographed all of the sculptures so the students could finish the drawings during our next class.  Here are a few photos of the sculptures and the students working on their drawings!