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The Container of Learning

The main intention is to capitalize on what neuroscientists know about the brain, and  how to learning is a container, not a one way road from the outside in.

Awareness of this “container” diffuses anxiety, frustration, or anger by balancing incoming information conflicting with what is going on inside. To learn the container children have to turn their outer attention inward. Together, their inner attention can just to understand how to balance with their outer attention and “who” is reacting.

The two-way road between the brain and body processings information from sensory-motor circuits. These “circuits” ARE perception. For the brain to learn, sensory feedback senses the situation. The “feedback” is literally a feeling of what will be termed a Sensory Body.

Children 8 to 10 Years of Age

Intro to What the Body Knows the Brain Doesn’t

Fourth and fifth-grade children need a little coercion to get them curious about their Sensory Bodies. So we start a Science of the brain lesson with a Muscle Testing lesson. (Found in the book, A New SENSORY Self Awareness.) The Muscle Testing lesson is a fun way to help children feel what their bodies’ know their brains don’t. The lesson uses the body strength to the relationship of being able to listen.

How do the two, muscles and listening, come together? The feeling of being or not being hydrated. The brain and nerves need water to dissolve salts in the blood and help new information assimilate. (See more information in “Notes and Background” at the back of the book, A New Sensory Self Awareness.)

Note: Kindergartners to third graders are more open-minded and can play with being silly, like doing the Personal Bubbles Freeze Dance or the Home Breath lesson. These lessons are accessible online: Get Sensational Attention.

Children 10 and Older

Lesson 1 The Brain and the Sensory Body

Pick a child from the class and look at how big his/her head is, then use a water balloon to represent the size of the brain. Share with the children the brain is also full of water, and drinks more water than any other organ. As a result, if students did not feel they needed water, they may not know why they have difficulty with attention, listening, or memory. And their muscles knew before their brains the brain isn’t hydrated. Ta-da! You just stimulated their curiosity to learn about the Sensory Body. 

The older elementary school kids are in for a treat with the game Hula Relay“(p. 58), a more grown-up version of Personal Bubbles Freeze Dance. This relay game is not just any game, like Personal Bubbles Freeze Dance; it’s a fun-filled adventure that introduces the Sensory Body by first teaching spatial awareness around them and then inside their bodies. 

In the Hula Relay game, participants run around an obstacle course of hula-hoops. They cannot step on a hula-hoop or bump into each other. The movement activity helps give participants the sensation of spatial awareness. The participants are then directed inside their bodies by introducing the Home Breath lesson. The inner attention of “Home” provides sensory feedback that opens awareness to the internal space of the self. This “internal self” then helps balance with the external environment. Participants get a chance to feel the differences between how they move with each other with and without internal awareness. 

Introducing participants to the “who” that is learning, is like introducing them to their best friend, the Sensory Body. The uniqueness of who they are comes into awareness through the Sensory Body. No two Sensory Bodies function the same way. As their awareness grows, they learn not just from their minds but also from their hearts, sparking a curiosity that leads to a broader sense of exploration of learning.

Lesson 2 Writing Lesson, Home Breath, and Sensory Body

The Sensory Body is your child’s best friend. We teach the difference between what is happening inside and how behavior interacts “out there.” The key is to feel what is between the two: awareness inside the body and the situation or circumstances around them. “Home” is the container that develops who we become. “Home” finds the container that teaches each individual how to grow, think, and change.

First, teach the Home Breath lesson (finding Home)

Second, give writing prompts to find “Home” and the Sensory Body.

Providing children with opportunities to feel their bodies in and out of Home is crucial. Whether playing from ‘Home’ during physical education activities or learning through physical movement, these experiences are invaluable in developing self-awareness of the Sensory Body.

The writing prompts are suggested to be once-a-week sessions so children can sense themselves throughout the week in daily occurrences. Awareness of the differences in and out of Home is KEY!

Writing Prompts for Home

(Week 1)  Finding Home