Last week we welcomed our new art teacher Nicha from Upenn to do more art with the children. We started the day with the preschoolers doing meditation. Most people were really into this activity and the teachers liked it because meditation help calm them down.
We did similar activities with the afterschoolers, whose ages range from five to ten years old. Some of the older kids seemed to already understand meditation and took it really seriously, which was a surprise to me.
Then we talked to the students about the five animal groups: mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians. Because of the warmer weather, we talked about amphibians, especially frogs since they are coming out of hibernation. We then handed out paper to the children and showed them step by step how to fold an origami frog.
I would say that both meditation and origami were a huge success. The kids were really interested and were focused during both activities.