Welcome to Mind Move Make in the 2019-2020 School Year!

We will use this book to learn more about John James Audubon

It is a new school year, and Mind Move Make is off to a great start!  During our Fall Session we will explore the yearly migration of the bird, the Vaux's Swift, to the Portland metro area.  Every year the Swifts put on an arial show as 10-30,000 of them dive into the chimney of Chapman Elementary School!  It is an amazing thing to see, and Portlanders picnic on the hills surrounding the school to watch every night in September during sunset.  Along with that, we will learn about John James Audubon's passion for birds and his interest in both art and science.  Mind Move Make students will become artist-scientists by keeping a sketchbook of different birds that live in the Pacific Northwest.  The students will also have the chance to invent their own special bird species.  We will draw, paint, and create sculptures along with investigating mindfulness and movement.

During our first class together we spent some time getting to know one another to begin to build a sense of community.  I explained that during each class we will start by sitting together in a circle and exploring a different breathing practice.  The first one I taught them was Shark Fin Breath.  While we took the time to settle into the new space of the classroom and breathe together, I asked them to check in with how they were feeling.  Life is moving so quickly that sometimes we forget to check in with ourselves and investigate how we are in the moment.  In Mind Move Make class I like to give space for each child to do this.

After taking a few deep, refreshing breaths together I introduced the idea of lightning rounds.  Lightning rounds provide a way to bring each child's voice into the room and share in any way they choose.  We started by simply sharing our names and going around the circle.  For our second Lightning Round we said our names and created a motion to go with our names.  Everyone in the group repeated every other child's name and action.  I call this Pass the Movement, and it is a game we return to often.

Then we had a discussion of what Mind Move Make class is all about!  MIND stands for MINDFULNESS!  I asked if anyone wanted to share their ideas of what mindfulness is.  "Mindfulness is being calm," one child shared.  Many of the children agreed that this was true.  I shared that mindfulness is paying attention to what is happening RIGHT NOW.  It is paying attention to what is happening INSIDE of us (thoughts, feelings, body sensations) and OUTSIDE of us (sounds, sights, other people/animals/plants, the wind, weather, water, and on and on).  MOVE stands for MOVEMENT!  In our class, movement will be yoga along with lots of other types of movement.  And MAKE stands for making artwork.

We also took the time to go over some expectations I have, and here they are:

• Respect everyone
• Show kindness to everyone
• Respect the classroom
• Respect the materials we use

I asked if everyone could do these four things during our time together and we put all of our hands together in the middle of the circle in a cheer as a way of sealing our agreement to be kind and respectful.

Then I introduced the Quick Draw Challenge, which is another form of Lightning Round we will use together.  Everyone received a whiteboard and a black pen.  I asked them to draw a picture of how they were feeling in that moment.  They had two minutes to complete their drawings, then we went around and shared both the drawings and feelings.  There was a range of different feelings: tired, happy, angry, nervous, calm, sad.  It was interesting to get a glimpse into each child's internal landscape through this practice.

After that we transitioned to using the yoga mats and bringing more movement into our class!  We started by taking three volcano breaths together.  I invited the children to become a loud, exploding volcano with our first breath, then to practice the second two breaths in a more calm way.  Then we brought attention to our feet and made circles around our center point.  When everyone found their center, we discovered our STRONGEST mountain pose!  I went around and tried to knock these beautiful mountains over, but they were too strong for me!  Then we played Shake Shake Mountain!  The children could move, wiggle, and shake in any way they wanted on their yoga mats while I created a rhythmic sound with an instrument.  When I stopped playing the instrument, the students were invited to freeze, slowly come back to mountain pose, and take three deep breaths.

Then I invited the students to bring their arms apart in a wide gesture, as if they were ready to give someone a huge bear hug!  All together we brought our hands together in a loud "CLAP", then we rubbed our hands together for about 30 seconds.  I asked them to hold their hands apart just a few inches and describe the sensation in their hands.  "My hands feel fizzy!  Like a glass of fizzy water," one girl stated.  Many other students agreed that their hands also felt fizzy.  Tingly was another way a student described the sensation in her hands after trying this exercise.

After moving through a few more yoga poses, we began our art practice.  In order to get to know one another better, the children were to choose their favorite thing they like to do and make a drawing of themselves doing that thing!  It was fun to see the different activities the students love doing. 

Camp Hope

This summer Mind Move Make was honored to be invited to teach mindfulness, movement, and art with Camp Hope Oregon.  Camp Hope is a place for children who are survivors of domestic violence to "heal from trauma and have the fun, playful experiences that they deserve".  Camp Hope allows children who have been impacted by domestic violence to spend five days in wild nature playing games, swimming, making friends, singing around a campfire, and much more.  Mind Move Make was asked to be a part of the 2019 Camp Hope experience.  I had the opportunity to lead workshops for eight groups of children over the course of two days.  Here is a fantastic video that distills the power of Camp Hope for the children who participate.

Camp Hope America is a national organization that uses research centered around Dr. Chan Hellman's "HOPE Theory" to structure their programing.  HOPE Theory uses three main ideas in stoking the fires of hope: goals, pathways, and agency.  

Goals are the cornerstone of HOPE Theory.  Goals can be short or long-term, but they must be potentially attainable, clearly articulated, and measurable. 

Pathways become the "road map" to attain a desired goal.  Hopeful people create multiple pathways to get to a desired goal.  They can also anticipate road blocks and find ways around them.

Agency is the will power one has to reach a desired goal.

Camp Hope is an intervention for children experiencing domestic violence to increase and sustain hope in their lives, and Mind Move Make got to be part of this magical experience for the summer of 2019.

In Oregon, natural beauty exists in so many places.  Children who participate in Camp Hope Oregon spend five days in the foothills of Mt. Hood on the bank of the Salmon River.  The land and contact with nature work together as a healing agent, combined with many of the other elements of the experience.

The Salmon River near where the Camp Hope fire circle happened every night.

Upon arriving at Camp Hope I was greeted by Chelsea, Hope Oregon's Children's Program Coordinator.  She gave me my spunky green Camp Hope t-shirt and helped me get all the supplies to the large dining hall where I offered 8 hour-long workshops over the course of two days. 

About a half-hour into my drive to camp I had the nagging suspicion that I had forgotten something.  Suddenly I realized I had forgotten my singing bowl!  When I arrived, Chelsea and I got creative and asked the kitchen staff if they had anything that I could use as a singing bowl stand-in.  The replacement was hilarious; I ended up using a huge three-gallon metal mixing bowl with a humongous whisk as the mallet!  I'm actually thankful that I forgot the singing bowl that first day because it was fun to use these new tools to practice mindfulness of sound, and the children were rather intrigued by the unusual and very large musical objects.

In terms of setting up the space, I created a circle using Mind Move Make's yoga mats.  I introduced the campers to zine making, so I had a collection of around 30 different zines set up on a table as examples.  

Here are some of the zines I included.  I love Molly the Popsicle!

  
 I also had several tables set up with art supplies and paper so the campers could create their own zines.  When I was planning the art portion of this experience, I wanted to offer the campers something open-ended in which they could explore their individual ideas of what hope means to them, and reflect on where they find hope in their own lives.  Zines are perfect for this because they create a tiny container in which images, words, or a combination of both can be used to create a mini-book.  I was excited to get started, meet the kids, and see what they would create.

The first week of camp was for younger children, aged 7-11 and the second week was for children aged 12-15.  I was there for one day the first week and one day the second week.  When each group of campers arrived, I invited them to take off their shoes to participate.  Then each child chose a yoga mat and found a comfortable sitting position.  The first group of campers was all boys and there might have been a few groans upon seeing the yoga mats, but everyone respectfully participated during the entire workshop.  There were spots for the counselors to join in, and the sessions with the most counselor participation tended to be the ones that went the best overall.  It is obvious that the children adore their counselors and want to emulate them.

For the first few moments of the workshop I tried to make eye contact with everyone in the circle.  Then I told a little bit about myself and Mind Move Make.  I introduced the concept of a zine (psst! you can learn more about zines here!) and shared some of the most fun and creative zines from my library collection.  Zines are small, self-published pieces of media that are often inexpensively made.  Because they are self-published, zines have been used as a tool by many marginalized voices to express themselves.  First created in the 1930's, zines were made by science fiction fans.  Punk and feminist cultures have also used zines to express different points of view.  Because they are mostly hand-made, today they serve as a counter balance to our technology-saturated society.

In the beginning of each workshop I told the campers that everything I offered was an invitation.  There was nothing that they "had" to do, and throughout the workshop I gave many alternatives for each activity.

We also talked a bit about what mindfulness is.  I asked who had practiced mindfulness before and several children raised their hands.  I explained that mindfulness is being aware of the present moment and what is happening RIGHT NOW!

After my introduction, I invited them to take three of the deepest breaths that they'd taken all day.  This was a great way for everyone to arrive in the space, and start to notice their breath.  Then I introduced the idea of lightning rounds to bring each person's voice into the room.  A lightning round is when everyone in the group responds to a prompt in a quick way.  For the first lightning round we simply shared our names.  For the younger children (ages 7-12), the second lightning round question was, "If you could transform yourself into any animal, what animal would it be?"  There were SO MANY interesting responses to this question!  One camper wanted to be a mosquito, another chose a moth.  There were very few lions, tigers, and bears.  Everyone seemed to think of something very original.  

With the older students, for their second lightning round share-out I asked them to give me a weather report to describe how they were feeling in that moment.  Most of the campers and counselors' weather reports reflected contentedness, many with a chance of rain.  Once again, there was a lot of originality from each camper and no two weather reports were exactly the same.

After the lightning rounds, we began to move.  First I asked everyone to stand up and feel their feet on the ground.  Then we circled our weight around our center of gravity, shifting the weight from one part of the foot to the other and exploring each foot in its entirety.  This is a grounding movement practice and allows a focus on the sensations in the feet.  A couple boys began to do "hula hoop" hips; I went with that and started doing the motion myself and invited everyone to join in.  I thanked the boys for being good teachers and helping us find new ways of exploring the body.  I encouraged everyone to come to their center in a standing position and introduced Mountain Pose, or Tadasana.  For Mountain Pose, I asked the campers to make their legs as strong as possible and about hip-width apart so they had a stable base.  "Find your mountain and feel your strength," I encouraged.  With the younger children, I went around to each camper and asked if I could test the strength of their mountain.  I would gently try to push each person over, campers and counselors alike.  Smiles and gentle laughter filled the space during this part of the workshop. 

From Mountain Pose, I invited the students to hold their arms out in a big "T" shape.  We stretched out the shoulder muscles by giving ourselves hugs and changing the arm that was on top each time.  Then we held our arms wide apart and loudly clapped our hands together.  After clapping, we rubbed the palms of our hands together and felt the friction that was created.  I asked the children, "What do you feel?"  There were many responses: "Heat!" "Tingling!" "Vibration!"  This was a way for them to get into the body through experiencing a distinct sensation.  It is surprising how much sensation we can notice when we are focused on it.

After moving our bodies in a few more poses, I instructed everyone to balance on one leg and move the other leg around, trying to throw themselves off balance.  We talked about how balance in the body is important, and that balance in the body can lead to feeling more balance in the mind also.

After that, I invited everyone to take a seat on their yoga mats.  We were headed towards a mindfulness practice, and I wanted each camper to feel as comfortable as possible.  I explained that they could sit facing into the circle, or choose to turn around and face out of the circle.  Lying down was also a choice.  "Take care of yourself in any way that feels good to you," I reminded them.  In each group, different campers made different choices.  I was overjoyed to see that they were making the experience their own, and doing what they needed to feel at ease.  

When everyone was settled in their chosen poses, we practiced mindfulness of sound together.  With the younger children, I used the whisk and the huge mixing bowl!  And with the older campers, I had my singing bowl with me.  I said, "Focus on the sound of the singing bowl, and when you can't hear it anymore please place your hand on your heart.  Then, listen to the other sounds you hear around you."  After practicing for a few minutes I asked the campers to share some of the noises they heard.  With both the older and younger children, I introduced snapping as a way of showing agreement or connection with another person.  "If you heard the same noise as someone else, snap to show that!" I encouraged.  It was fun to listen to the campers sharing the different things they heard and hearing excited snaps when others heard the same noises.

For the next part of the mindfulness practice, I explained that they would be thinking about where hope lives in their lives, right now.  I posed four questions to them, pausing between each question to give space for reflection.  The questions were:

• Is there a person, animal, or pet that makes you feel hopeful and happy?
• Is there a place that fills you with hope?  Your room, under a tree, a favorite chair?
• Is there an object that brings hope?  A stuffed animal, blanket, favorite sweatshirt?
• Is there an activity that makes you feel hopeful?  Playing a sport, swimming, dancing?

I left time for silence after I was finished asking these questions so that each person could have the space to allow the questions to soak in and reflect on hope in their lives.

After that it was time for us to move our bodies again.  We played a game that is similar to mindful walking, but a bit more playful.  I asked the campers to begin moving through the space and explained that when I rang the singing bowl, they would stop and slowly make their way back to Mountain Pose and take a few breaths while standing.  The twist of this game is that I would invite them to move in many different, unusual of ways.  "Walk as if you were late for the bus!" was one movement request that I made.  During this movement game, the campers, hopped, danced, walked in slow motion, and much more.  In this part of our workshop, it was obvious that many of the campers were giggling and enjoying the movement of their bodies.  After each unique style of "walking" I rang the singing bowl so that they had time to pause and feel their bodies in stillness.

During the last round of the mindful walking game, I explained that they would find one partner with whom to share.  This time when I rang the bell, I invited the campers to partner with the person who was closest to them at the sound of the bell.  Then each pair of individuals shared one or more things that bring hope into their lives, whether that is a person, place, activity, or object.  Several campers paired with camp counselors.  Walking around and listening to the conversations, many were rich with detail, and others were much shorter.  It was beautiful to watch them have the opportunity to connect in a more intimate way.

At the end of each session, I invited the campers to participate in one more lightning round, reflecting on how they felt after our workshop.  One girl really wanted to ring the mixing-bowl-turned-singing-bowl, so I started passing that around and each person rang the bell after sharing how they were feeling.  Many of the campers shared that they felt calm, grounded, happy, peaceful while some individuals chose to pass the question all together.

During the last part of our Mind Move Make workshop, the campers made zines about the hope that exists in their lives right now.  After I taught them how to fold a single-sheet zine paper, they began their creations!  Some individuals chose to stick with the theme of hope, and some made cool, interesting, original pieces of art about other topics.  Below I am sharing several of the different pieces of art they created.

   


   

Kindness Creatures

Kindness Creature design by a Kindergarten student

The three components of all Mind Move Make classes are mindfulness, movement, and visual art.  During this class I introduced the idea of Mindful Bodies to the group.  I enlisted the help of the students who have been a part of our class in the past to help me show this idea to the newer students.  I asked one of our returning students to explain what a Mindful Body looks like; she said, "Calm, quiet, peaceful."  Then I sat in a very dis-regulated way, with lots of movement and distracting my neighbors.  "Does this look like a mindful body?" I asked.  "NO!" all the children agreed.  Then I asked a returning student to show our group a Mindful Body.  He did a wonderful job, embodying stillness and calm.   After that, we all tried our Mindful Bodies on.

After that, we discussed showing ourselves kindness.  I asked the students two questions:

Why is it important to be kind to yourself?

Is it sometimes hard to be kind to yourself?

We had a great conversation about these questions.  Even though these students are very young, mostly Kindergarten, first, and second-graders, everyone agreed that it is sometimes difficult to be kind to themselves.

At the end of our movement practice, I asked everyone to lay on their backs with feet on the floor and legs bent and "windshield-wiper" their legs back and forth.  While moving in this relaxing way, I asked them to reflect on ways that they love themselves.  After that, I introduced the idea of the Kindness Creature!

A Kindness Creature is meant to remind us to be kind to ourselves.  How many of us need that reminder?  The Kindness Creature will be a stuffed animal, the base of which is a sock.  I showed the children a Kindness Creature that I designed and they were excited about the project, though many of them were skeptical about creating a stuffed animal starting with a mere sock!

Each child got to select a sock that they liked.  Some socks were patterned, and some were plain white.  After making a selection, the students traced the sock in their sketchbooks and designed what they wanted their creature to look like.  They also wrote and reflected on the thing they love about themselves that they thought about during the movement part of our class.  There were many whimsical, adorable designs!  Here are a few:

Kindness

Kindness is our focus for Mind Move Make's Winter Session.  Our Central Idea is:

 We can choose to grow kindness around us to make the world a better place

Some of the questions we are exploring together are:

What is kindness?

Why is it important to be kind to ourselves?

How can we be kind to ourselves?

Why is it important to be kind to others?

How does it feel when you are kind to someone else?

What actions can we take to spread kindness around us?

To begin this inquiry into kindness, we shared a discussion around the question: what is kindness? Together we read the book Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller to get our juices flowing around this topic. After we read the book and began our conversation, one first-grade student was late because she was confused about her new schedule. Right away, another student consoled her, sat with her, and told her it was OK. I also welcomed her, but it was the second-grade student's compassionate actions that made the difference between this first-grader feeling distraught and upset and settling into the new classroom. I pointed out that second-grade students was demonstrating KINDNESS IN ACTION! It was a beautiful way to start our class, actually seeing kindness manifest itself in a real-life situation.

Art-wise, the students designed the front covers of their sketchbooks. They had a choice between illustrating themselves doing something kind for another person, or drawing someone performing an act of kindness towards them. We had many interesting, colorful kindness drawings!

Here is a picture of the front cover of Be Kind by Pat Zeitlow Miller.  The illustrations by Jen Hill are gorgeous, filled with lush color.