Last Class for Session 2

One student transformed his coral reef sculpture into a bracelet!

It always surprises me how quickly each session of Mind Move Make passes by!  During our final class for Session 2 I asked the students to reflect on their favorite things from our time together.  There was a diverse array of responses!  To my great surprise, two students said their favorite thing about our class was the pose Savasana.  Savasana is the "do nothing" resting pose that we take at the end of each yoga-influenced movement practice.  With seven active, excited children aged 6-9 years, at the beginning of our class it was a challenge to get everyone to practice Savasana at all!  Over the past several months I've noticed more quiet, peaceful moments during Savasana.  The resting pose is considered THE MOST IMPORTANT in a yoga practice.  I'm pretty excited that several of the children are recognizing that their bodies and minds need time to relax, rejuvenate, and just "do nothing".  Several other students mentioned the art part of our class as a favorite.  One child said she loved the movement-based games we played, especially when the students worked in groups to create different forms of water.

During our previous class I let the students choose which movement practice they wanted to engage in for our final class.  The majority of the children picked the game Musical Mats, which is similar to Musical Chairs accept no one is ever "out".  Students became different types of sea creatures as they moved from mat to mat waiting for the signal that it was time to stop.  When I said the word "ocean", the students paused on whichever mat was closest to them and I asked them to take a yoga pose.  Then, when I said the word "swim" they became ocean creatures again and "swam" from mat to mat as jellyfish, mermaids, sharks, and seahorses!  Any student who wanted to select their favorite pose got to teach it to the class during the game.  It was a fun end to our movement practice!

After that, we began to build a sculptural coral reef using the metallic fish we created during our last class.  Students used cardboard, colorful paper, and pipe cleaners to create the sculptural coral reef environment.  It would've been wonderful to have one extra day on these sculptures, but some of the students said they would take them home and add more elements into their reefs.  Many of the children were very happy with their sculptures as they were and went home to show them off to family members!

 
    

Pass the Pose

One of my favorite parts of teaching Mind Move Make is feeling the sense of connection and community that is created between the children in the class.  At the beginning of this class, I asked the children how they were doing and if anyone had something he or she wanted to share.  The twins in my class talked about how they were going to visit their grandparents.  Another girl was excited to share that she was going out to dinner with her family.  I was surprised when one girl raised her hand and said that her grandmother died.  She talked about it for a little while and shared how she was feeling.  Everyone showed respect and consideration for her.  This student was slightly shy when our class began, so I was honored that she felt comfortable enough to tell us about her grandmother.

After practicing our two minutes of mindful breathing, we warmed up our bodies by finding child's pose and practicing cat-cow.  Then we imagined our bodies were the ocean's waves rolling in and out from the shore.  After finding a little bit of movement, we played a game called Pass the Pose!  Going around in a circle, each child got to share and teach his or her favorite yoga pose.  Most of the students have been in Mind Move Make for two sessions, so many of them know a lot of the poses and they definitely have favorites!  It was fun going around and learning about the poses the students like the best.  I helped when they needed assistance with teaching the pose, but for the most part everyone truly flourished when teaching the poses themselves!  They liked the game so much we played two rounds.

Then I shared a book called Coral Reefs by author and illustrator Jason Chin.  While looking at the pictures, I had the students work together to tell the story!  The illustrations are gorgeous and show a girl finding a book about the coral reef at the library.  As she is reading the book, the entire library slowly transforms into an underwater world, and the sea creatures she reads about become real.

After being inspired by Jason Chin's exciting book, the students had the chance to complete their own coral reef artworks!  Some students continued cutting out and adding coral while others were busy making more sea creatures to their creations.  Below are many of the student's artworks!