Susan Williams s229131

ETL411 Teaching the Curriculum Assignment 1 MODIFED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL

Meditation Capsules: A Mindfulness Program for Children

By Janet Etty-Leal, published by Meditation Capsules 2010, www.meditationcapsules.com

My aim has been to use this published book as a backdrop for a unique learning experience which addresses specific Science outcomes for Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS), Level 4 (Grade 5 students) in a way which is relevant, useful, pleasurable and interesting (Richards, 2001). The activities described below also cover specific standards for English (Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening), with additional links to standards for The Arts, Health and Physical Education, Interpersonal Development, Communication and Design, Creativity and Technology. The key focus of this learning experience is to teach students how systems operate; for example the human body as a large system consisting of smaller separate systems (circulatory, respiratory, digestive, skeletal, reproductive and nervous) working together (Level 4 VELS Science). This unit is to be used in conjunction with the book.

WEEK 1 Learning Focus: Life and the potential for growth

(Activity supplement to Capsule 1 PDF)

CLASS DISCUSSION: Is a seed alive or dead? Take a class vote on whether a seed is a living thing. Follow with a discussion to identify the characteristics of a living thing (e.g. it grows, moves, feeds etc), and the potential for growth which lies within the seed. Plant a bean. Students work in groups to plant a bean and are responsible for its ongoing care (watering, ensuring adequate sun etc). Each group will agree on a fun name for their group (and their plant!) related to the body. Each student will be assigned a role for each group activity (see Teaching Guide). They make a chart to record its growth. (Optional: Make it a competition where the group whose bean reaches 10cm height first wins a prize!) Create a mandala. Like a seed, there is potential for life within us. Class discussion about aspirations, hopes, dreams and the resources, support and personal attributes students think they will need to achieve these future goals. Using a range of materials, students create their own mandala to reflect their personal wishlist. Prepare body posters. Create a body outline by tracing around a student who lies on a large sheet of paper. Display the poster. Class creates a common drawing of what they know about the human body. Students can take turns to draw in where they think each body part/system is located. Keep the poster to revisit at the end of the unit. Students then work in groups to create group posters which will be used for most sessions.

WEEK 2 Learning Focus: Muscular and skeletal systems (Activity supplement to Capsule 2 PDF)
Rubber band activity: Activity as per outlined on 13 of the book (refer p3 of PDF), but moved into this session to demonstrate the sensation of muscular contraction and relaxation.

Susan Williams s229131

ETL411 Teaching the Curriculum Assignment 1 MODIFED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL

Research into Muscular and Skeletal systems. Using a range of resources (internet, books) students work in groups to collect information and mark the muscular and skeletal systems (use different colours) onto the posters (Week 1). Transitional activity Bones COMPUTER GAME. Students who finish can play this computer game.

WEEK 3 Learning Focus: Respiratory system (Activity supplement to Capsule 3 PDF)

Components of the respiratory system. Each group is assigned a body part nose, trachea, mouth, lungs etc to investigate. Students may choose their own resource (e.g internet, books). Return to class for sharing and feedback. Groups then draw these body parts onto the group posters, paying attention to size, shape and location. Drama activity: Discuss the interrelationship between the breath, physical exertion and feelings. Look at different levels of activity and how the breath changes. Then focus on emotions fear, anger, sadness, joy etc and how they affect our breathing. Students work in pairs to prepare a short skit based on their choice of emotion, focusing on how their breath will change. Skits are presented to the class can they guess the emotion depicted by each group?

WEEK 4 Learning Focus: Key internal organs (Activity supplement to Capsule 4 PDF)
Internal organs. Each group is assigned an organ (brain, liver, bladder, kidneys, heart, stomach, intestines) to investigate, following the same research process as above. These body parts are added to group posters. CLASS DISCUSSION: Stress and its triggers, following by groupwork in which students mark stress spots on group posters in their choice of colour to represent tension. Drama activity: Brainstorm ideas about situations which commonly cause stress. Practice responses to a range of emotive sentences stressful and calm. Can students classify the sentences into two groups? (Encourage the conclusion that there are stressful and relaxing activities.) Discuss the characteristics of each group of phrases/words. Follow with a game of Charades to identify stressed and relaxed.

WEEK 5 Learning Focus: Words & their emotional power (Activity supplement to Capsule 5 PDF)
Charlottes Web extension activities. Discuss what might have happened if negative words had been used instead of positive, as in the book? How would that impact on Wilburs sense of self and would that have influenced other peoples opinion of him? Working in groups, extend the authors Word Dish activity, students select an emotion and create a mind map (word web) using words which might result in people feeling this emotion. Diary writing: Extension of Word Dish activity. Students select a word from the dish and prepare a journal entry based on that emotion. Today Im feeling ....?

Susan Williams s229131

ETL411 Teaching the Curriculum Assignment 1 MODIFED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL

Writing activity: Extension of The Word Party activity. Students write their own poem, focusing on selecting nouns to represent emotive words. Follow with group sharing, where the class highlights the words used to demonstrate the emotion. (Alternatively, make it an art activity, in which students create an artwork based on this feeling.)

WEEK 6 Learning Focus: The senses (Activity supplement to Capsules 6 & 7 PDFs)
I have combined these two Capsules to cover all five senses sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste and also extended the idea of sense of humour to encompass a sense of perspective (i.e. promote the idea that while we cannot control everything that happens to us in life, we can control the way we look at things and how we respond). Also promote the idea that everyones perspective differs and we should respect the opinions of others. Homework activity: Sense of smell and touch. Students choose an emotion from the Word Dish and prepare a sensory box to depict that emotion. Highlight the fact that everyones interpretation will differ, based on their experiences. Students present the sensory boxes to the class can they identify the emotion depicted by each presenter? Art activity: Sense of sight. Teacher holds up a flower. Students study it for a few minutes, then it is put away. Students draw the flower. Then each student is given their own flower (same type) and asked to draw another version, based on an examination at close range. Class discusses the differences between their two drawings. Highlight how images vary according to our perspective close up or from a distance. (Draw analogy with how we view our life circumstances.) Drama activity (Sense of humour/perspective) Exploring emotions through role play. Brainstorm a range of hypothetical situations in groups (e.g. The school sports day has been postponed until next week. You are invited to a birthday party but you cant go because you fall ill.) Each group prepares a short skit depicting how this situation could be handled. Encourage students to discover that our expectations can change the way we feel about something, for better or worse, drawing attention to the fact our perspective changes according to our point of view.

WEEK 7 Learning Focus: The brain (Activity supplement to Capsule 8 PDF)

The brain. Following the class discussion activity outlined in the book each group draws the brain and its components onto group poster. Focus attention on neural pathways as the connecting agents within the nervous system.

WEEK 8 Learning Focus: Our magic minds (Activity supplement to Capsule 9 PDF)
CLASS DEBATE: Imagination is more important than knowledge. Commence with a class discussion about what Einstein might have meant by this. Brainstorm to create an Agree and Disagree list on the whiteboard. Divide into
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Susan Williams s229131

ETL411 Teaching the Curriculum Assignment 1 MODIFED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL

two groups (For and Against) and prepare arguments to support their chosen position. Use Fishbowl strategy to conduct the debate (refer Teaching guide). Imagination exercise create your own Magic place. Students create a representation of their own safe place using items from all the senses: e.g. flowers, photos, essential oils, seashells, material, items from the garden, kitchen etc. Students write their own meditation to guide listeners to their magic place.

WEEK 9 Learning Focus: Reflection, consolidation and assessment

CLASS DISCUSSION: Consolidation of inner potential. Extension of the idea about the potential within us analogy with the seed and extent to which you can discard anything negative to get to your core potential. Revist the mandala created at the beginning of the unit. Students brainstorm ideas about what layers/barriers exist to them realizing their dreams/goals expressed in the mandala. Students to type our and print their own perceived barriers with action plans to overcome these to be placed on the mandala. Mandalas to be displayed for viewing by the school community. Assessment: Body challenge! Working independently, students are given a blank outline of a human body. Each student is given a set of prepared body parts which must be attached to the body correctly. Teacher to provide sufficient thinking time, before reassembling class for feedback and checking answers.