After the East Wing revised their classroom intention focusing on communication and perspective Ilaan and Sam wondered how to incorporate this into the movement sessions. We started with talking to the group about feelings, and how they communicate what they are feeling with their bodies . The children talked about mad, happy, grumpy, and sad. The group explored how they would move their bodies to communicate these feelings. We then put tape on the ground to separate the space into four different sections, each having a letter in them. H (for happy) M (for mad), G (for grumpy) and S (for sad) The purpose was for the group to move in any square they wanted while expressing the emotion that that square represented, and move freely from square to square. I noticed during this activity the children’s focus as they changed the emotion they were conveying with their bodies. The group then began describing what they were observing while feeling themselves move and what they were observing from their peers movements. Ilaan taped a large piece of paper on the wall to write all of their descriptive words.
Lucy C: When I move mad it feels tight. Like struggling.
Lena: I stomp and kick.
Ryan: Georgia’s hands are doing happy rants.
Lena: Georgia is shaking her hands
Lucy C.: Shes flapping her hands.
Ilaan and Sam plan on exploring communicating emotions through movement further with this group, with the possibilities of kinesthetic story making, or choreography of emotions. Learning to read others body language is a skill that must be learned in order to communicate with others. We feel that by the children describing and observing their peers movements, they are gaining a greater sense of all aspects of communication.