The morning light is shining softly through the windows of the CMR as the second graders make their way to the stage and form a circle. They are joined by Sammy Spriggs, an FSA alum, parent, teacher, and independent dance artist. Sammy is here to guide them through a Creative Movement class linking their work in SEE (Social, Emotional, and Ethical) Learning and body awareness.
Silliness ensues as they make their way through some morning brain dances to connect to their bodies. They spin, they roll to their backs and imitate dead bugs, they curl up tight and then stretch out as far as they can…each time noticing what they feel with the movements and where in their bodies they feel it.
As they come back to the circle Sammy asks the class if they know what empathy is and invites them to describe it… “It’s when you notice someone is sad and don’t just keep playing kickball” says one second grader. “Sometimes it means you feel what other people are feeling, but sometimes it means that you need to not feel it because it could put you in a bad mood and that might not be helpful,” says another. Sammy then poses the question “How can you tell what someone else might be feeling?” “Notice what their body is doing!!” second grade responds almost in unison. They begin to play a game of emotion charades, where each student is invited to the middle of the circle to act out an emotion while the rest of the class try to guess what it is. This is where the magic happens, where the groundwork laid by their work with Jillian Minarich in SEE learning and the connection to their body comes together. They take their turn in the circle modeling emotions ranging from tired, to furious to “that moment when I feel excited that I might get a puppy, but that I am anxious about what might happen and that I am jumping in my skin and heart” and their classmates guess their emotions one after the other.
“You might have noticed that many of us feel the same body sensations for certain emotions..” Sammy says as they settle back down, “And while it’s important to remember that feelings aren’t a problem let’s try some things that might help your body feel better while you’re having big feelings.” They are invited to close their eyes and quickly blow all of the air out of their lungs, then fill back up by trying to only take little sips of air into their bellies. On the exhale they try to take as long as they can, blowing gently, imagining a candle in front of them and only allowing it to flicker not blow out. Eyes around the circle open and they are invited to share the emotions or sensations they experienced after or during the activity. They transition into sharing what other ways they like to channel their big feelings especially when they are trying to pay attention in class. “For me, I channel all the feels into my hands and use that energy to write down the math problem” shares one second grader. “Well.. for me it helps to wobble on my wobble seat so my body can’t distract me from learning” shares another.
They share one final group dance before making their way down the hall to the classroom having spent the morning taking steps towards a core goal of SEE Learning building body awareness and resilience.