42 Dinosaurs
Preparation time: Five minutes and a shopping trip to the dollar store
Materials: Plastic dinosaurs
Procedure:
(1) Tell your young audience to close their eyes and imagine they are living in the time of dinosaurs.
(2) Instruct them to look up and to the right with their eyes closed. This accesses the creative centers of the brain.
(3) With their eyes still in this position ask them to imagine they are a dinosaur.
(4) Place your plastic dinosaurs in the center of the circle.
(5) Ask them to choose a dinosaur which most closely resembles the one they saw in their mind.
(6) Ask each student in turn to explain how they are like that particular dinosaur today.
Alternatives:
Notes: This is really for my grandson (4 at this writing) and children in that age group. I have noticed for some years that young children are fascinated by dinosaurs. Retailers have also known this for years. Visit any children's clothing store and you will find a plethora of dinosaur pajamas, t-shirts and even underwear. We could speculate on this. New-agers claim these children are reincarnated Lemurians and Atlanteans. They recall their ancient association with the dinosaurs. I think this is nonsense but it does make for a good story.
Spiritual
43 Angel Cards
Preparation Time: Five minutes
Materials: Angel Cards*
Procedure:
(a) Place the Angel Cards face down in the center of your circle.
(b) Instruct participants to turn inward for awhile and reflect on the experience of the last hour.
(c) After about 30 seconds to one minute of internal reflection ask participants to select the card that most draws their attention.
(d) One at a time either in the round or “popcorn” style ask participants to share the word they chose and how it reflects on their experience.
Alternatives: Follow the above procedure but have students solicit feedback from each member of the group as to how that word reflects upon them.
Notes: Although more creative types can make their own angel cards I highly suggest purchasing the original set.
*Angel Cards are available at most major bookstores.
You can facilitate this check in either with the above handout or images on cards that you make yourself. Since probably few people still practice the old Norse religion anymore you can most likely present this as another archetypal model, Distribute the hand out and give participants enough time to familiarize themselves with the various gods and goddesses. To make this check in more effective you may want to use it several times in a row.
Alternatives: If you are lucky enough to have a group of artistic students, you can distribute art supplies and 3x5 cards and have your group make their own set for your permanent collection,
Notes: It might be said that the old Norse God represented different aspects of the human psyche. There could certainly be found parallels within human society. Maybe they were the saints of a now mostly lost religion. Perhaps they were real Norse interpretations of Archangels. There is of course the possibility they are merely the tales invented by yet another people struggling to understand the mystery of existence. With the large numbers of Germanic people living here on Turtle Island they are now part of our collective heritage. If you use the Bible character as character education and deities and observances from other cultures in your students will begin to discover that the human tribe has much in common. Loki is the Judas. Our modern culture is much criticized in our quest for eternal youth but the tale of Iounn reveals that humans have obsessed on this for a long time. Like the indigenous people of the northern plains who still sundance yearly, Odin, pierced in the chest and hung from a tree as a way of praying.
Activity Credit: Inspired by Lynn Duus
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