February, 13th, 2014 - Report
Participants:
18 kids of the Yellow class
Trainers: Sara, Nancy, Sotar, Uli, Susanne, Mara, Benedetta
1) Introduction
Music, Vivaldi
Sara introduced herself, Susanne, Benedetta and Mara; subsequently she asked the children if they could guess where they are from.
The kids had fun and were participative, while trying to guess the Countries.
2) Rhythmical circle:
First, Sara did the movements/rhythms.
Then the children stood in a circle taking turns in clapping rhythms/noises/movements.
The rest of the children followed.
The kids were a bit shy, but all of them made a movement/sound. They seemed to enjoy it.
3) Ball-name game
The children stood in a circle; they threw a ball to each other and they said their own name loudly; then they threw the ball to a friend and say his/her name loudly.
4) Music without or with emotion
All the kids looked at Sara.
She played music first without conveying emotion and then conveying emotion.
Comments from the kids:
• J: 1st not sad. 2nd sad
• De and R: the way of playing is different
• M: 1st happy, 2nd sad
• A: it sounds like different music because of the different ways of playing it
• E: 1st soft way of playing. 2nd faster
• I: 1st sounds simpler
• Em: 1st slow, 2nd louder
• M and Ri: 2nd happier
5) Looking at body/face Sara while she plays with expression:
All agreed that “body language” is different between the 1st and 2nd performance
• Em: movements follow the music, slow and fast
• Ti: It looks like Sara enjoys the music. Eyes are closed
• Ri: Sara's emotion shows the mood of the music. During 1st way there were no movement.
• Eki: movements show Sara's emotion
• Ika: the 1st looks like a robot
6) Talking without or with emotion
Listened again to the 2 ways of speaking
Question: is the only sound of the music important?
All agreed that body language, facial expression and closeness/distance to another person are very important while communicating
Which version did they like the most?
• De, Em and A: preferred the 1st version.
• The rest of the kids preferred the 2nd version
Explanation:
We get important information in our communication through emotions.
(90% of our communication is non-verbal)
7) Expressing without words
Mara showed an example of communication without using words.
She rubbed her belly and she looked a bit sad.
• De: Mara is sad because she is hungry
• Ri: Mara doesn't have any money, she is tired and she doesn't have anything to eat.
• Ss: Mara is very hungry
Kids can give example of non verbal communication
• A: looks angry, slaps her fist
• Em: A is very angry with someone, wants to slap him
• J: A is fighting
• De: A wants to fight with someone
8) Angry dance
Sara played music, kids made an angry dance.
They enjoyed while doing it very much. But, especially the boys, seemed to lose control fast and pretend to fight roughly with each other.
9) Paper Ball
Material: scrap paper made into a ball
Need space
The children stood in a circle, a little less than the length of an arm apart.
They hit the ball with the palm of their hands in order to pass it throughout the circle as many times as possible. The group counted out loudly every time the ball was hit. The goal was to get to the highest possible number.
The kids loved this game.
10) Talking with hands
Children sat in groups of 2 and 3 members each and they communicated using only their hands.
They had a lot of fun while carrying out this activity and they did their best to convey their story to their mate(s). They were very focused.
• D and J seemed a bit shy
• Sy and Ti had a fluent conversation and they joked around. They had a lot of fun while doing the exercise.
• Nanda and Mara: Nanda looked very relaxed, she made expressive movements.
• E, Ri, De and A were in 2 different groups but they sat so close that they seemed to be only one group
• Em, A: made significant gestures, they seemed to have made up a big story
• D: talked about how happy she is to buy a balloon
• I and Em walked around meanwhile they were talking in a very intense conversation
They had a good time but they said it's easier to write on a computer.
• Ti and Sy were saying that they are hungry, but it's not lunchtime yet.
• A and De wanted to be soccer players and go to Brazil
• Sa and Susanne: talked about their hobbies/things they like: playing the piano and the violin; moreover they like singing. They were also thirsty.
11) Talking with feet
Most of the attempts ended up in foot fighting
Question: what does it feel like?
• Em: fighting
• De: playing soccer
• Sa: cycling with her friend
• Ti: walking together with her friend
12) Conversation in numbers:
• Nanda and Mara: very expressive
• Benedetta and J: J seemed shy, she made small movements
• Ti and Sy: had a lot of fun
• Em and Tk: they walked around, sat down, walked around again and covered intensely
• De and A: sang to each other
13) Small scene by So and Nancy:
They acted out the following scenes, and then the kids were asked about the emotions they felt. (Also body language)
1. Scared:
Person 1: "Y is coming..."
Person 2: "really?"
2. Sad:
Person 1:"We will eat nasi goreng today"
Person 2: "really?"
3. Angry:
Person 1:"I am wearing this T-shirt today"
Person 2:"really?"
4. Happy:
Person 1:"He/she was smiling at me"
Person 2:"really?"
Explanation: the information we get through emotions sometimes is different from the words we pronounce. It is important to understand the meaning of emotions as well as the meaning of words.
1. Sad:
• Em: Murung: sad/disappointed. She Doesn't like nasi goring
• E: fed up of nasi goring
2. Happy:
• Em: Nancy is happy for So because someone has smiled at him. You can see this because Nancy smiled.
3. Angry
• J: Nancy looked surprised that So was wearing the t-shirt
Overall:
Kids were very cooperative and seemed to have fun.
D held her distance (sat apart from the group) at the beginning of the session. Subsequently, she got more involved, but didn't say much.
Em was fighting with two of the boys during the break. The first accidentally bumped into her and she responded by punching and she kept on chasing him. She also punched the 2nd boy for some reason and she spoke violently to him. During each session, she has been very active in responding to questions.
