The Magic Train

I got a massage last week and it was heavenly!  My muscles needed it.  My body got a cue to relax and my muscles responded by letting go.  Believe it or not, you are never to young for a massage.  A gentle massage helps the body relax, helps to connect to deep breathing and helps reinforce nonverbal communication.

When I was doing my student teaching in the public schools, I was discouraged from touching any child. I understand this as a means of safety for both the children as well as the teachers.  Unfortunately, touch can be a great teaching tool.  It can be a way of communicating, calming and encouraging a child. 

When supervised and instructed the children can use touch to communicate and teach each other.  If this still is out of the question in your teaching position skip to step 6 of the lesson.

The Magic Train

1. You can make a magic train with the children; one child sitting in back of the next.  If your class is big enough you can make a complete circle ( you can also do this in pairs taking turns giving a gentle touch.)  Have the children place their hands on their neighbors' shoulders.  They should not move their hands.  The magic train has not left the station.  This is a quite and calm train.  It does not move fast.  It is powered by breath.  It needs the class to breath together, slowly, in order to start chugging down the tracks.
2.  Next, they can give a gentle squeeze of the shoulders.  If this is too difficult for your class they can pat the shoulders instead.  (After the squeeze have the children pat their partners shoulders and backs.)
3. Now the train has to turn.  The children need to slowly "draw" a circle on their neighbors' backs.  First clockwise and then counterclockwise.  (If you do this activity in pairs you can also have the children draw different shapes or letters on each other's backs, concentrating on curves, straight lines and angles.)
4. Have the train come back to the station by having the children pat the shoulders again and give a gentle squeeze.  Then the children should have their hands on their partners shoulders just breathing as the train comes to a stop.
5. Discuss how it felt to give a gentle touch and to receive a gentle touch.
6. Lastly, have them cross their arms and squeeze their own shoulders.  Have the children give themselves a hug.  They can help their muscles relax as well. 

The next time you need your students to calm their energy you can have them do the "Magic Train" or give themselves a gentle massage.  It is a very important to learn how to have a light touch, how to communicate with others non verbally and to calm oneself down.

I hope you enjoy sharing this calming and relaxing exercise with the children in your life.  And special thanks to Becky Acabchuk (ctyogadance.com) for inspiring this activity.

Sincerely,
Stacey

Communicating Without Saying A Word

My family recently got a dog.  I was dreading housebreaking.  I came to realize as I hovered over our little puppy that she was training me instead of the other way round.  She was communicating her needs by sniffing the floor, walking in a circle and walking away from her toys and food bowl.   How wonderful that movement was her way of telling me she needed to go out.

Of course this got me thinking about all the non spoken ways we as humans communicate with each other.  And I am not talking about facial gestures either.  Do you have a student that always sits as far away from you as possible?  Or one that is practically sitting in your lap?    Do you have a student that slowly inches his way into the classroom and one that bounds in the moment you open the door?
They are telling you something.

I like to mix things up when I teach.  I sometimes stand in front of a class and get them all settled.  Then I walk to the back of the room and have all the students turn to face me.  A student that likes to sit in the back is now in the first row and vice-versa.   Try this out and see how your students respond.  Challenge them to take risks, not by the steps they take, but the space they take.

If you have a student that always bounds into the room and then one day walks in slowly you know there is a change in mood or behavior.  Sometimes the cues kids give us are more subtle than this.  If you observe your students and what they tell you with their movements then these subtle cues can become more obvious.

When I studied dance I always liked to stand in the front right corner.  I could see the teacher but was not standing right in front of her.  If I did not get to class early enough I would have to find an open spot.  When this happened I was never as comfortable.  I now see how that challenged me.

Change where you stand to teach class.  Notice if you always like to stand in the same place.  Are you giving subtle information to the class by the spaces you choose as well?

Have fun observing how the students in your life communicate through movement!

Sincerely,
Stacey

Body Awareness and the Power of the Breath

My daughter had a snow day from school last Wednesday.  We sat on the couch and watched the snow fall, it was quite beautiful and I was amazed that my very active child was cuddling with me for so long.  I got off the couch to do some chores and she just sat on the couch all cuddled up.  This was quite unusual.  I would love to say that she was taken with the snow and the peacefulness of the moment but when I touched her forehead I knew otherwise.  She was sick.

You often hear the expression "you have to listen to your body" and it is the truth.  It also relates to last week's Friendship Dance post.  We have to learn how to listen.  To quite ourselves enough to connect to what we are feeling.  Adults do anyway.  My daughter was trying to tell me all week that she was tired.  I first thought she had the Monday blues.  I then thought she did not get enough sleep.  NOPE.  She was listening to her body.  Her body was tired.

As parents, teachers, friends, etc. we need to embrace the cues our body gives us and we need to connect to the cues that our children, students, friends' bodies tell us as well.  My daughter lacked her usual pep, was whiny and lost her patience very easily.  All cues.

What I learned from this experience is LISTEN.  Not only to the words (which she expressed very well) but to body language!

Some children don't have the words to express themselves.  Sometimes it is due to age, language difficulty or a non-verbal disability.  Using the body becomes an extremely important tool, a necessity to communicate with others.  The body is truly a tool of communication.

Body Awareness Activity

1. Lie on the floor with your arms by your sides and your legs straight out. Breathe deeply and concentrate on your chest rising and falling.  Rising with each inhale and falling with each exhale.  You can have students put a small doll or a bean bag on their chests to watch it rise and fall.
2. Focus your breath now in your belly.  You can place your hands on your belly or the doll.  Watch/feel it rise and fall.  Feel how slowly your belly rises and falls. 
3. Jump up and run around the room, or in place for one minute.  Lie back down and watch/feel your chest rise and fall.  Feel how fast your belly rises and falls. 
4. Your breathing speeds up when you speed up.  It slows down when you slow down. 

Enjoy this simple activity and see what words kids use to describe their breathing before and after the activity.  Did they know that their breath was connected to how they moved?


A Few Words About Breath:
The act of breathing is part of the autonomic nervous system.  We breath automatically, we don't have to tell our body to do it, it does it beautifully on its own.  Breathing, however, is the only part of the autonomic nervous system that our body can control.  We can speed it up and slow it down on our own.  We can also use this to our advantage. Have you ever been startled? Your breathing speeds up.  To calm yourself down, you consciously slow your breath down.  When we clue into another person's breathing we can gain important information about the person.  Learning to clue into the breath is a wonderful mind-body tool. 

Keep moving up down and all around with the children in your lives!

Sincerely,
Stacey