Volcano Breath

I include a breathing activity either in the beginning or end of every class I teach. Today's activity was the Volcano Breath. Sitting in a cross legged position, inhaling deeply, the children were instructed to fill the belly with air followed by the lungs right up into their throats until they couldn't hold anymore air. They were also to move their arms, starting with hands at hearts center, mirroring their breath, until their arms were straight up to the sky when they could hold no more air. And that's when the volcano explodes! They let all the air rush out, folding forward, letting their arms float to the ground. We talked about what our volcanoes could be filled with, if they could be filled with anything. A popular choice was money, but I wanted our volcanoes to be filled with LOVE. I told the children to imagine what it would be like if volcanoes exploded with LOVE instead of lava. To make it personal, I had them focus on somebody in their life who meant a lot to them. When they all had a picture of that person in their heads, they filled up their whole selves with LOVE, and then exploded once again releasing that LOVE out to that someone special. And then we drew....