During our previous Mind Move Make class, the students started a self-portrait drawing after being inspired by the book
In My Heart by author Molly Bang. In the drawing they created themselves, but filled the area where their hearts would be with portraits of all the people in the world who are most important to them. At the beginning of this class, I placed each drawing on a yoga mat. I asked the children to sit where they saw their drawing. After practicing two minutes of mindful breathing, I asked the students to think why they are thankful for each person in their drawing. Then we shared one thing we are grateful for for each person. One boy mentioned that he is thankful that his mom snuggles with him every morning. Another student said she is grateful to her pet bunny because it makes her feel calm and loved when she is petting it. It was great to hear the students reflect on why they appreciate the people they love the most in the world.
After moving through many different yoga poses, we worked hard to finish our self-portrait drawings! Many students still had a lot of drawing to do, and some children were ready to add color. The students got to choose between several different art media for the color portion of this work. We taped the two pieces of paper together, one for the head and one for the body. This was (unbelievably!) our last class for Session 2, so everyone took the drawings home at the end of the class. Sometimes one hour doesn't seem long enough to get everything completed, but these determined artists worked hard and most of them finished by the end of class.
Here are pictures a few more
In My Heart-inspired drawings!
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| A Kindergarten artist hard at work! |
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| The work of another Kindergarten artist. |
And here are pictures of the completed assemblage artworks, inspired by Alexander Calder:
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| Second grade artist |
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| Kindergarten artist |
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| Kindergarten artist |
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| Kindergarten artist |
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| Second grade artist |
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| Second grade artist |
