Field Trip

Last Wednesday Mrs.Cordero's 1st grade class from Celerity Nascent Charter School came to Sat Naam for a field trip. I must admit, Lance and I were a little nervous having 20 7-yr olds running around the space, but everything ended up going great!! We split the kids up in 2 groups of 10. Ten kids had an hour long yoga class with me where we talked about where yoga came from, how old the practice was, and where India was in relationship to California. Because Sat Naam's decor is very much influenced by India, where my family is from, we have some statues of Lord Ganesh and other figures dominant in Indian culture in the space. One kid asked what Ganesh was. I wasn't exactly sure of how to answer that question - sometimes people (usually adults) are reluctant to talk about cultures they're not familiar with, I mean I didn't want to offend anyone. I answered the question the best I could and talked to them about how Ganesh got an elephant head and what he represented to people that were Hindu and how they could relate it to what some of them may know about.
While I was teaching yoga, Lance took the kids into the back room to make Mandalas. He explained to them what a Mandala was and it's history and then gave them each a circle to color and make their own. After they were finished they had to tell the group what the drawings were and what it meant to them. When 1 hour has passed the groups switched - that way both groups had a chance to make a mandala and take a yoga class. We finished the field trip off by giving the kids a snack - BURFI and Indian sweet kind of like cheese-cake. We had carrot, pistachio, and plain. Some of the kids totally loved it and others were not into it at all. The next day I asked the kids what their favorite part of the field trip was most of them said Savasana - Rest Pose:)