11 COLORS
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Materials needed: 1”x1” construction paper (about 40 squares per color) with the colors black, white, red, brown, purple, yellow, blue, green, pink
Red represents anger.
Black represents all of the feelings combined.
Green represents envy
Brown represents the wild card (feelings beyond or not covered by these basics)
Blue represents peaceful.
Yellow represents newness or starting over.
Pink represents feeling mellow.
Purple represents courage and not being rattled by everyday events.
Procedure: Make loose piles of each color, Instruct students to pick 1-4 squares for whichever emotions they are feeling at that moment. The number of squares represents the intensity of the emotion. For example One red square means that student is a little bit angry; four squares means extremely angry.
Notes: You can do this activity without assigning meaning to each color or let students assign their own individual or collective associations. Cultural interpretations may vary. In western culture red is often associated with anger. In another culture it represents the color of blood which people of all races share and therefore means unity. Purple has come to be associated with gay pride but it also connects to the the crown chakra, royalty and enlightenment. You can also use poker chips, tiddly winks or any tangible item which you have enough variety of colors.
12 STRESS STRINGS
Preparation time: Five- ten minutes
Materials: One 3 foot piece of ¼ inch rope or parachute cord person
Procedure:
(a) Distribute one piece of rope per person
(b) Explain to participants that the rope represents our bodies and minds
(c) Ask participants to tie one knot for every stressful event that occurred so far that day.
(d) One at a time, participants untie each knot and explain what that knot represents.
Alternatives:
Notes: Depending on time, I sometime front load this check in by explaining that our bodies interpret stress as an injury. When our defenses are on high alert, our muscles tense up, our breathing quickens and we walk around in a state or perpetual preparedness. This creates stress spots in our body and we need to work to constantly release them. The rope can provide a visual example of stress. As an example tie one rope full of knots and show how difficult it is for the rope to move. Untie all the knots and show how easily the rope moves.
13 STUFFED ANIMALS
“The eagle never wasted so much time as when he stopped to learn from the crow.”
Gary Farmer, The movie “Dead Man”
Time needed: Five minutes
Materials: A variety of stuffed animals. Deer, turtle, fish, shark, bear, squirrel, skunk, porcupine, snake, mole, eagle, raven, vulture, worm, ant, slug, frog, wolf, horse, mouse, elk, buffalo. Stuffed animals are ridiculously expensive, To start gathering them I would suggest thrift stores, garage sales and perhaps staff who are willing to part with clutter
SUGGESTED ANIMALS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Deer: Becomes invisible easily, even in a crowd, sees all
Turtle: Pulls into shell when threatened, lives in two worlds, water and land
Shark: King/Queen of the ocean hunters, some now endangered because of shark fin soup
Bear: Stands tall when threatened, knows all the medicine roots, eats anything, a healer, father will kill the young, mother will die for the young
Squirrel: The early warning system of the forest, always busy, plans ahead, last animal to starve in hard times
Skunk: A survivor. Small but with big power
Porcupine: Slow moving, never in a hurry, the preferred adornment of many pow wow dancers but you can gather its quills without harming it, also small but powerful
Snake: Sleepy in the winter, sun lover, connected to the lightning, most people are afraid of it but few are harmful and more are helpful
Mole: Intimately connected with the earth, because it lives in the earth it knows more than most what is happening under the surface
Eagle: Sees all, knows all, flies closest to the sun and the creator, spiritual connection in many native cultures
Raven: Trickster in some cultures, sacred in others, bringer of the light in coastal PNW culture
Procedure:
Vulture: Cleans up everybody else's messes, World would be stinky and ugly without them
Worm: Makes soil which helps grow plants which in turn brings life to us all, like mole knows what's happening with the earth
Ant: Highly organized and efficient, everybody knows their job but cannot change their job, community/tribe more important than self
Slug: Makes the rain forest function, like vulture and worm
Frog: Amphibious, lives in two worlds, great singers, sings for love, joy and brings great pleasure to the spring and summer evening
Wolf: Unnecessarily feared, protector of the herd because it removes the sick and diseased, all about family but has rigid social structure
Horse: Recognizable symbol of freedom, one of few animals which always adopts, like wolf all about family
Mouse: Sees the unseen night time world, gets into crack and crevices where few can go
Elk: Lovers, love medicine
Buffalo: Because they provided, food, clothing and shelter to the people of the Plains of North America they are often seen as provider.
Alternatives: In some areas, groups of people may have their own animals and associations. In those situations I would let them come up with their own meanings. For older audiences I would let them come up with their own animals. If you cannot gather enough stuffed animals you can also do this as a visual image activity or do it with no props at all
Notes: In indigenous cultures, animals are some of our first teachers. In many cases they are better teachers than humans. I learned early on I had more to learn from the deer and the crow than I would ever learn in school. With younger, more concrete audiences it is best to provide a list with references at least as a starting point.
