movement of c

A soda can rattles in the gutter above my head, as I sit in wonder of this 70 degree weather on this fine Halloween afternoon. Only 48 hours ago it was snowing, and pedestrians were shuffling dangerously amongst cars in the parking lot of Microcenter. The weather is crazy in New England, but luckily you only have to wait a day for it to change if it’s not to your liking.

It’s Monday afternoon, and I’m getting ready to head over to Newton to teach some Baby Ballerinas. It’s been 4 weeks since I last saw these kids, since the place I teach is a Jewish Community Center and High Holidays called for the cancellation of all October classes. 3 year old kids have short attention spans, and even shorter memories. It’s going to be like starting from scratch. But luckily, it’s Halloween today so our class will be filled with ghoulish games to suit the day.

Life has been lovely lately, and I’m so grateful to say so. My new students have warmed up to me, seeing that we’ve known eachother for 6 weeks now. I entered the mini-munchkin world with little knowledge, but have learned fast to grab their attention and run it until it can’t run anymore. The key to this success has mostly been animals.

Last week I did Jungle themes in all of my pre-school classes. Engaging the children’s knowledge of animals and different environments, I ultimately let them set up the scene. By setting up “stations” for each part of the jungle, the kids get to use their creativity and imagination rather than copy-catting me and just mimicking ideas that I may come up with.

The imagination of a 3 year old child is much greater than mine, and it’s been quite a trip seeing what these kids come up with. A friend of mine who also teaches children’s movement classes gave me a great idea recently. Bring in some pots and pans, and each child put in their own “ingredient”. Each ingredient is a type of movement that the child comes up with and when we mix them all together, it’s a wild amalgum of gyrating, sloping, and jumping. This is really fun. I mean, how often do you just let your body go wild and shake out every piece of pent up energy in your limbs?

If you don’t do this often, I strongly suggest you give it a try next time you’re in your bedroom. It’s good for the soul.

Gotta make this short. I’m on a mission today to find my sister a wig for her Halloween costume. She’s being Napolean Dynamite (along with every other teenager in Massachusetts, considering that every party store is sold out of wigs that look remotely like this). iParty has one that’s too long, so I’m going to have to do some wig-cutting this afternoon. Should be fun.

It reminds me of the time that I dressed up as Austin Powers for a dance in our recital three years ago. No stores had a wig that looked like his, so I bought a “Dorothy”-style wig (Wizard of Oz) and hacked it to look like a bumbling 70s Brit. Can you guess which one is me???

Hehe…