In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

I love the wind.  I love feeling the air on my skin.  It makes my body feel alive.  I love teaching movement with the wind as a tool for body awareness.  It is the perfect tool.  We are normally not aware of our skin like we are aware of our knees bending or our arms swinging.  It is hard to be conscious of the back of your neck or the front of your shins.  But when a strong brisk breeze blows by you can feel every ounce of your body come alive.  The hair on your skin stands up as if to shout "We are here!" like the Whos did in the book Horton Hears a Who!

In feeling all sides of the body, in essence your three dimensionality, you become aware of all the directions your body can move.  The wind can blow forward, back, side, and side and so can you.  The wind can twist and turn, so can you.  A kite can take flight and so can you.

Movement Activity

1. Talk about the wind with your child/class.  It travels in all directions.  How do we know?  We can feel it.  We can feel it whooshing by our legs, it sometimes can push us forward or back with its force.  We can see it when our hair gets whipped about or when it picks up a piece of litter and lifts it off the ground.  Let's see if we can travel in all directions like the wind.
2. Give each child a scarf.  (If you don't have a scarf, use a tissue.)  Can they move their scarves forward and back?  Can they make their movements bigger and smaller?  Can they move through the space with big sweeping forward and back movements?  Next try side (right and left) and back.  Can they twirl and spin with the scarf?  Can they move from low to high and high to low?
3. Make a circle and have one child go into the circle at a time.  Watch as they do their wind dance.  Have the children pretend to blow softly, moving their scarves gently, directing the dancer to move gently and slowly like a calm breeze.  Then have the children move their scarves fast and furious like a blustery wind.  The dancer in the middle then should react with gusto!

Have fun moving up down and all around and off the ground with the children in your life!

Sincerely,
Stacey