Masks, Yoga, and Cool-Downs.

Sometimes when I am planning a class, it happens all it once. I get a creative surge and I just have to go with it and it completely consumes all my thoughts. Sometimes that happens the day before the class I am going to teach, like today.

I was thinking about building-off of last week's yoga book with Peaceful Piggy Yoga by Kerry Lee MacLean (read more about it in book recommendations). I originally wanted to bring in a stuffed animal pig to embody "peaceful piggy," but on the day I went to search for one, I came up empty handed. Now here I am the day before the class with no little piggy to bring. So I start rummaging. Because I have been doing this for 10 years, I have accumulated many odd things, because in the mind of a drama teacher - I could use this one day! Today, that day came.

I pulled out one of my "bins-o-things" and what do I see staring back at me? Two pig masks that I made years ago! yes! These were prototype masks, but perfectly usable. They are made from a soft pink foam and already cut to shape. I added the noses, and some features with pink felt, to try to soften them up (pig masks are a little creepy, but hopefully in the context of the book, it will all go ok). As I continued to rummage, I found enough other props so that the peaceful piggies can get into their characters that appear through the story. For instance, I have kerchiefs for the cowboy peaceful piggies, I have fancy waist wraps for the ballerina peaceful piggies (in lieu of tutus), and I have fancy scarves for the movie star peaceful piggies. Throughout the book,  I will call up two students at a time to put on the peaceful piggy mask and accompanying costume pieces, and teach the class the pose.

And then we end class with a dance party of course! Since yoga freeze dance went so well and we are still on this yoga theme right now, I will probably end with that.  After the dance party, I will have them do "corpse pose" from the book. Having students lie down on their backs at the end of physical activities like this is good to help them calm down and breath properly.

When I was training with the teachers at Dell'Arte, one of my mentors ended her elementary aged drama classes with "Graveyard." In this game, everyone lies down on their backs and they cannot move. If you move, even a subtle inch, she would go over to the student and tap them out. This goes on until there is one (or two) students left and they "win." Some kids would have total meltdowns if they got tapped out. I eventually took this idea and reshaped it into a different game for preschoolers, I call the "People Garden."

In the People Garden, everyone lies down on their backs and creates pathways using their bodies. Each student has a turn to "wake-up" and walk through the garden paths as anything they want to be - a butterfly, a cat, a train, a tiger, once a kid wanted to be a roller coaster. They walk all through the garden, they have their moment, they have all the attention, then tap the foot of someone else; they stand up and become whatever they want to be and the other student lies down in their spot. I love this end of class cool-down, but it is time consuming. There is no rushing the garden, so it is something that has to be planned for.

I am very curious how the kids will react to the masks tomorrow. My prediction is that some will love it and some are going to be like "no way," and hopefully, no one will be terrified and cry
(fingers crossed!).