Minnesota Children's Museum is dedicated to supporting and honoring children's creative expression. Children learn and make sense of their world through play, and creative expression is a critical component in a young child's learning by supporting and enhancing their physical, social-emotional, and cognitive development. The Museum's daily programs, exhibits, and community partnerships all provide ample opportunity for children and families to engage in self-expression and creative experiences. As you explore the Museum, notice the children's art work is displayed in prominent and meaningful exhibits throughout the Museum.
Six years ago, in response to this reduced time spent on arts education in schools, Minnesota Children's Museum developed a community partnership program that sends visual artists into elementary classrooms to engage children in hands-on artistic experiences. (If funding is not available to hire a local artist, the museum will partner with the school's art teacher to deliver the art program). After each residency, the entire project is exhibited for at least six months in the Community Gallery in the Our World permanent gallery. The exhibits highlight the cross-disciplinary nature of the projects, display the children's final art creations as well as writing the science-inquiry that are often important parts of the project.
"Monkey Mind" is a popular yoga phrase to describe when the brain swings from thought to thought, unable to focus. Left to the wilds, Monkey Mind can provoke intense distraction that hijacks the brain and veers humans towards increased agitation. Unfortunately, the fast pace of people's daily lives combined with widespread mental health conditions (ADD, ADHD, depression, anxiety, etc.) can cause children and adults to feel frequently overwhelmed. However, simple techniques of breathing, visualization, and movement can clear distraction, quiet the mind, and bring a sense of calm. But how do you engage children in the practice of mindfulness? Play...with the Monkey Mind Pirates method!
Monkey Mind Pirates is an innovative approach to combining playfulness with mindfulness that is based in simple ideas you can try at home with your children to cultivate calm.
Turning into senses:
Many meditation sessions begin by ringing a chime or a bell that produces a sustained tones. focusing attention on the sound can clear the mind of distracting or aggravating thoughts. Children can practice closing their eyes and listening to the bell, raising their hands when they first hear the ringing disappear and the silence emerge. In a group of children, each can take turns ringing the chime or bell and describing their experience of listening to quiet.
Seeing the Breath:
Breathing is one of the most powerful tools to combat stress bu may not be an activity that interests children on its own. Children make deeper connections to their breath when they can see and feel the action of the breath. Ask children to hold an imaginary ball with both hands. Using your own hands, demonstrate how the ball expands on the inhale and contracts on the exhale. Encourage the children to match the size of the ball's expansion and contraction with the length of their inhaling and exhaling. The Hoberman Sphere, available in toy stores (and seen in the Museum lobby!) is a collapsible plastic ball that also can mimic this expanding, contracting action.
Moving Meditation:
Often, meditative practices state stillness as an objective towards reaching the goal of calm. Although complete stillness may be difficult for young people to attain, many children like to play with moving in different speeds -- including slow motion. You can guide children to slow down by making it a game. Begin by turning on music and asking them to walk around the room in any pattern without talking. Periodically, call out instructions, such as, "As slow as you're moving, slow it down," until they are barely moving. To extend the experience, experiment with moving back and forth between slow and fast, always ending with slow motion. Afterward, ask children to describe the experience and what they noticed at the different speeds.
Drawing on the power of image and metaphor:
Metaphors such as Monkey Mind Pirates can provide children with language to talk about stressors in their lives in a story-based way. For example, children can create a character that represents how they feel when they are stressed. The character can take any form that the child suggests -- an imaginary creature, an animal, a person. Adults can encourage the child by asking questions: What is the character's name? What does it look and sound like? How does it move? What does it like to say? The child can draw pictures, tell stories, and act out events to bring the character to life. Adults can then refer to the character as a base for on-going conversations about the child's stress level.
An added benefit to practicing mindfulness with your children is that you get to develop some of the same skills along with them. The next time you find yourself at the end of your rope, take a moment to focus your awareness on your breathing. see if you can slow down and identify what type of character best depicts the way you feel. Talking with your children about your own challenges with Monkey Mind will encourage them to talk with you about their own as well.
-Shari Aronson
Shari is an exhibit developer at Minnesota Children's Museum, a yoga teacher for youth and adults, and a puppeteer with Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, an award-winning performance company that is one of the collaborators of Monkey Mind Pirates.
Monkey Mind Pirates is a puppetry, rock n' roll yoga adventure to help families reclaim calm -- beginning with a camp for kids ages 8-11 at the Camden Music School in North Minneapolis July 19-23 and culminating with public performances July 23-24.
This activity is best for children four-years-old and older.
Supplies needed:
balloon
a cup or bowl to balance the balloon
newspaper torn roughly into 1/2" strips (do not use any paper that has a glossy coating)
Paper mache paste mixture
2 cups of water
1 cup of flour
blender
mixing bowl
Process:
Adults assist children in pouring flour and water in blender and process until a smooth paste is formed. Pour mixed paste into a bowl.
Take a stripe of newspaper and dip it into the paper mache mixture. Place the paper between your fingers and pull the paper through like a squeegee. Smooth the wet newspaper over the balloon. Continue dipping and smoothing till the balloon is entirely covered. Allow the paper mache to dry overnight. Any leftover paper mache mixture can be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator to be used the next day.
The next day, repeat the above process for a second layer of paper. If desired, wait one more day and add a third layer for a stronger finished creation.
Once the paper mache is completely dry, the egg can be decorated. Tempera, acrylic, and poster paint can all be used to paint the egg. The egg can also be decorated with collage materials -- items such as feathers, paper scraps, tissue paper, foil, or other recyclable material can all be adhered with glue to the egg.
Eggs can also be cut in half and a small stuffed dinosaur can be placed inside.
Suggested adult interactions:
Challenge the children to think what else final paper mache creation can be.
Discuss with children how dinosaur mothers and fathers took of their children. Check out the Adult Resources for books about that subject.
Skills developed:
Mathematics skills through measuring
Small motor skills through manipulation of materials
Creative thinking skills through decorating of paper mache
Literacy connection:
Encourage children to write and illustrate a story to go along with the dinosaur egg.
Reading books:
Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs (board book) by Sandra Boynton
Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp by Carol Diggory Shields
Dinosaur Bones by Bob Barner
Adult references:
Baby Dinosaurs by Don Lessem
The Art and Craft of Papier Mache by Juliet Bawden
Next time you are here:
Check out Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice to travel back in time to explore the late Cretaceous Period (when the last dinosaurs lived).
Create your baby’s first book using photographs of recognizable people and objects in your baby’s life. Photos could include siblings, caregivers, a favorite stuffed toy, etc.
- Place photographs between sheets of clear contact paper.
- Round the corners to make them smooth and safe.
- Punch a hole in the corner and bind pages together with yarn.
This recent article in Educational Leadership magazine has the Museum's Learning Experience team excited. The piece takes a look at creativity and critical thinking as being essential 21st century skills.
At the Museum, we so often hear visiting parents say "I'm not creative." This article suggests that we can all learn to be creative, and challenges many misconceptions -- such as the idea that creativity is only found in the arts.
Sir Ken Robinson, who is interviewed in the article, calls for the current education system to focus more on encouraging children to explore, experiment, and to find their own answer -- instead of adults giving the answer to them. These are all things that we encourage here at the Museum, and find to be so important in children's development.
It's an article that makes us cheer. Check it out and let us know what you think.
