Today I would like to tell you a story about my friend Judy and magic crayons.
The previous week Judy needed her students to stand in line for a short period of time. Though within a few minutes she could feel several of her students beginning to have a meltdown.
In a flash of genius she stuck her hands in her pockets and then pulled them out and exclaimed, “…WOW! Look what I found! Her students immediately turned and looked at her. “Magic crayons!” She continued. And then she reached up and pulled down an imaginary piece of paper and said, “ I think I am going to scribble on my paper…” And then she immediately began scribbling on an invisible piece of paper with her magic crayons with an exceptional amount of glee. The children continued to stare at her.
Then she stopped and turned to them and said, “Look in your pockets!” “Check your pockets to see if you have magic crayons too!” She said as she continued to scribble on her imaginary piece of paper.
Within a minute they all discovered they too had imaginary crayons and were enthusiastically scribbling on their own imaginary piece of paper.
No complaining, no tears, no meltdowns, no fights, no hassles—just a lot of happy children using their imagination to active their conscious mind.
How was that possible?
When you activate the conscious mind your brain automatically dumps oxytocin and dopamine into your blood stream. Those are the feel good hormones. So with her magical crayon game she moved all of her students from stress (the subconscious mind) to joy and delight (the conscious mind) quickly and effectively.
With this in mind, I invite you to explore some of the ICWIB! art activities and videos for FREE, because they are a wonderful way to activate the conscious mind and in the process reduce stress and place your mind in a learning ready state.