When I was brainstorming ideas for this session I was dreaming of Spring's arrival. Visions of our dreary grey skies changing into bright sun-infused blue and dormant trees suddenly bursting with delicate light-green buds filled my head. The idea of transformations returned to my mind again and again. Then I thought of my 3-year-old and how he is constantly using his imagination to "become" other things: animals, pilots, astronauts, monsters, The Rat King from The Nutcracker.
My mind centered on developing a Mind Move Make session devoted to children's imaginary transformations. If you have a child of your own, how many times has he or she decided to become a cat for the afternoon, or perhaps a horse? During this Mind Move Make session we will focus on pretending we are different types of animals. What it would be like to have hooves instead of feet or fur instead of skin? What would it feel like to flutter above a flower like a butterfly? Or to be able to see at night like an owl? Each child will choose one animal to focus on during this session, but through our group interactions we will look at many different kinds of animals.
I believe that through these imaginings, children can develop a sense of empathy for other creatures, with the right guidance from a teacher or an adult. Our Central Idea for this session is:
Our imaginations can help us connect to other living things.
For our mindfulness practice we worked on connecting to the breath, as we do during every class. I also asked the children to picture the animal he or she had chosen. I asked them to think about the habitat the animal would live in also. Then we returned again to purely concentrating on our breathing. After our mindfulness activity was finished, I asked the children to share what they imagined.
Then we transitioned to our movement practice. I talked about how animals are very aware of how their bodies are moving at all times. As humans, we sometimes forget we even have bodies when we are deep in thought. We stood in a circle and I asked the students to follow my movements. At first I moved in a slow, graceful way. Then I changed my movements to very fast. All the while I reminded them to continuously notice their bodies and how they felt during the slow and fast movements. Then I let each student lead us, moving alternatively fast and slow. There were lots of giggles, and we had fun with the movements! Afterward, I asked how their bodies felt different moving slowly or fast. Several students said their limbs and bodies felt heavy during the slow movements, and lighter during the fast movements. They did a wonderful job truly noticing their bodies!
During the art part of our class, each student received a sketchbook. On the front cover of the sketchbook the students drew the animal they will focus on for this session. Here are a few of the students' drawings!
