Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly

and Self Expression through Creativity Arts for Development Specialist

FACILITATING CHILDREN’S

REFLECTION AND SELF- EXPRESSION

THROUGH CREATIVITY

This document only serves as a rough description of the practical exercises

conducted for participants who had attended the workshop (June 2008) and does
not include the technical aspects of a facilitator and other theories of the arts-for-
development approach integrated in the workshop.
You are most encouraged to use these exercises in your work but please retain the
copyrights of this document and its lessons plan when distribute. For those of you
who participated the workshop, please feel free to ask for advices or suggestions
regarding any aspects (facilitation, designing an exercise…etc).
My email phanyly@yahoo.com

Workshop designed and conducted by

Phan Y Ly
Arts for Development Specialist

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
and Self Expression through Creativity Arts for Development Specialist

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DAY 1. KNOWING EACH OTHER, LOOSEN UP BODY AND MIND 3

EXERCISE 1: NAME AND MOVEMENT 3

EXERCISE 2: CIRCLE, CLAP , WALK, FREEZE 3
EXERCISE 3: HAND TO NOSE 4
EXERCISE 4: BODY AS OBJECT 4
EXERCISE 5: KEY RING 4
EXERCISE 6: GUIDED IMAGINARY 5

DAY 2. TEAM WORK, CREATIVITY, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION 6

EXERCISE 1: GRANDMOTHER’S FOOTSTEP 6

EXERCISE 2: HUMAN ORCHESTRA 6
EXERCISE 3: JUNGLE WALK 7
EXERCISE 4: WORD GAME 7
EXERCISE 5: COMPLETING THE IMAGE 8

DAY 3. SELF AWARENESS, TRUST, SHARING AND SENSITIVITY 9

EXERCISE 1: PASSING THE CLAP 9

EXERCISE 2: BLIND WALK 9
EXERCISE 3: MIRROR 9
EXERCISE 4: LIFE MAP 10
EXERCISE 5: STORY BOARD 10
EXERCISE 6: LIVE IMAGE 11

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
and Self Expression through Creativity Arts for Development Specialist

DAY 1. KNOWING EACH OTHER, LOOSEN UP BODY AND MIND

Exercise 1: Name and movement

Participants stand in circle with the facilitator. Each person speaks out loud his/her
name and make a movement. The whole circle will repeat the name and movement,
then move on to the next person.
Purpose
 Ice breaker
 Warm-up body
 Learning each other’s name and “character”
 Introduction to group harmony, rhyming

Exercise 2: circle, clap, walk, freeze

Circle, clap Facilitator claps in a simple rhythm for everyone to hear, showing the
expectation of response from the participants. The participants claps together with
the same rhythm and stand in circle with the facilitator.
Purpose
 Introduce circle (equal participation, group harmony, usual formation of the
class gathering)
 Introduce the signal of “rhythm clapping” by the facilitator (sign for stopping
what you were doing, join the clap with everyone and form a circle, start of a
session)

Walk Participants walk around the room in free space, keeping silence, aware of
people around and space in the room. Participants should be instructed to walk in
casual pace, various directions, with energy and awareness, not disturbing or
talking to other people. Participants are encouraged to greet each other with eye
contact or smile. The atmosphere should be calm and alive.
Purpose
 To introduce a sense of calm and self-content without making group “dopey”
 To get group aware of each other using other senses
 To familiarize the participants with the space around them
 To introduce “silence”
 To prepare for next exercise

Freeze When participants are moving, the facilitator claps (or give any agreed
signal) and the participants freeze (hold themselves still) no matter what they are

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
and Self Expression through Creativity Arts for Development Specialist

doing, maintaining the same body position, as if we pause a movie. The “freeze”
should be sharp and very still. At the next clap, participants carry on their
movement from the position.
Purpose
 Alertness
 Concentration
 Body awareness
 Introduce the concept (freeze) for more future exercises

Exercise 3: Hand to nose

Participants walk around the room, when the facilitator says “Hand to hand”,
participants greet each other (maintain silence) with smile and eye-contact by
touching one’s hand to other’s hand. The facilitator can then say “Hand to nose”
and participants touch hand to each other’s nose. The signal words can vary.., for
eg. “Bottom to bottom”, “Ankle to shoulder”.. with the difficulty level ascending.
Purpose
 Ice breaker
 Another level of knowing each other (touching)

Exercise 4: Body as object

Facilitator gives a theme to the participants and ask them to portray it using their
own bodies. The theme can be an animal, a scene, a phenomena, a metaphor, a
symbol, themselves.. Depends on the objective, the participants can be instructed
to work individually or as a group. Participants will review each other’s work and
give their observation. In a similar exercise, facilitator can ask the groups/ individual
to project their thought/story/etc.. using bodies, instead of giving them a theme.
Purpose
 Body exploration
 Team work
 Creativity
 Self awareness/ expression
 Reading symbols.., interpreting, understanding the underlining message..

Exercise 5: Key ring

A volunteer is blind-folded and sat on a chair, under the chair is a key ring. The
group sit away from the chair, and only 1 person each time try to approach the chair
to get the key ring without being pointed at. The blind-folded person will point at

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
and Self Expression through Creativity Arts for Development Specialist

the direction that the noise/sound suggests her/him. If the point is correct, the
person who is approaching should return and give chance to other person to
approach.
Purpose
 Concentration
 Body control
 Alertness
 Sensory development

Exercise 6: Guided imaginary

Facilitator instructs the individuals to find their own space in the room and to sit
comfortably. The facilitator asks the participants to close their eyes, and leading
them through a “guided imaginary”. In this exercise the “imaginary” is the past, the
present, and the future of each individual. To do a guided imaginary, usually the
facilitator needs to create a very relaxing and safe ambient (silence, deemed light,
soothing music, soft voice.. unless the imaginary is meant to put participants in a
different mood). The facilitator will then speak out loud the guidance while the
participants are sitting still with their eyes closed. After setting the mood in the
participants’ mind, the guidance will be given in form of open questions, helping the
participants to “imagine” or reflect different aspects, depth of their past, present
and future. When the imaginary is finished, the participants are instructed to open
their eyes and maintain the ambience of the room. They will then draw what they
reflect on given paper and share these drawings with each other.
Purpose
 bring calmness into the room
 encourage reflection/ deep thinking about certain experience/ issue
 share personal experience or thoughts
 self expression, story telling through drawing
 respecting and gaining insight about each other’s experience

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
and Self Expression through Creativity Arts for Development Specialist

DAY 2. TEAM WORK, CREATIVITY, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Exercise 1: Grandmother’s footstep

One volunteer acts as a “strict” grandmother who stands about 2 -3mettres and
facing away from the rest of the group (the grandchildren). The grandchildren’s
goal is to touch the grandmother and not caught by her while moving (even lips,
fingers..etc..). The grandmother’s goal is to not let the children touch her and to
catch them moving. She should face away from them to give them some chance to
move forward. When a grandchild is caught while moving, the grandmother can
send him/her back to the start. Depends on the rule, the grandchildren can move as
a group, individually, or as many smaller groups. This exercise is effective when the
rule and the grandmother are very strict. A funny grandmother is very “dangerous”
to the grandchildren because she can trigger laughter and catch them. The
grandchild who touches the grandmother will then become the grandmother.
Purposes
 warm up
 break the ice
 alertness
 concentration
 stillness
 body control
 team work

Exercise 2: Human orchestra

The group sit in circle, one person or 2 (depends on the size of the group) is
appointed to make a repetitive sound that he invent, this sound will be considered
as “rhythm” keeper for the group. One by one, the group member will add their own
sound, creating an orchestra. Facilitator can try deducting or adding the sounds
one by one by tapping shoulders of group member, s/he can also try
increase/reduce the volume and speed with his hand gesture.. to test different
effects it can bring to the orchestra.
Purpose
 warm up
 ending a session
 Sense of rhythm
 Team work

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
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 Concentration
 Relaxation

Exercise 3: Jungle walk

Participants walk around the room at normal walking pace. The facilitator says to the
group “I will read out a story and you will demonstrate it..”. The facilitator speak out
the story line by line (made-up story) “ Once upon a time, there was a little girl…”
and watch the individual demonstrating “a little girl”. The next story line can be “..
who loves ice-cream..”, and “.. One day, she goes to a jungle ..” “..to pick
mushroom..” .. After a few lines and seeing that the group has understood the
exercise, the facilitator instructs that s/he now will tap somebody on the shoulder
and that person will say ONE line to continue the story and the group will
demonstrate the story as they are walking around. To end the story, the facilitator
instructs “4 more lines/ person and the story should be finished”.
Note
1. The first few lines of the facilitator should give an interesting set-up for the story,
triggering the imagination of the participants.
2. Story tellers shouldn’t “kill” each other’s idea, such as: “.. she opens the door,
and it was a monster!!!” and the next person says: “.. so, she closes the door”.
Instead, story tellers should use each other’s idea, the next person can say “..the
monster is very big, it has 10 arms”
Purpose
 Improvisation
 Spontaneity
 story telling
 accepting ideas
 verbal skill

Exercise 4: Word game

Word game is similar but more difficult than the previous exercise. Participants sit in
a circle, their goal is to say something meaningful, but each can say only one word.
The next word should make the sentence meaningful, even if it’s not a sentence yet.
For eg. the first person says “Yesterday”, the next person: “I/it/she/he”, next
person: “went/ slept/ate/walked..”.. The group should not tempt each other, or
insist other to carry out the sentence they want. This exercise is difficult because
each “next” word has many possibility and the group should and build on, even if it
makes the story weird.

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
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Purpose
 Story telling
 Accepting ideas
 Verbal, grammar skill

Exercise 5: Completing the image

The group stands in circle. One volunteer come to the middle of the circle, make one
action (in silence) and freeze. Other member will voluntarily step in, pose in another
position and thus give another meaning to the scene. For example: A’s action could
be to demonstrate a person cleaning a window, when A freezes, B steps in, faces A
from a distance and bows. Thus, B changes the scene from “a person cleaning a
window” to “a person waving at somebody else”… etc.. After B freezes, C will step
in and replace either A or B, and with C’s frozen position, changes the scene to
another meaning again. As in many other exercises that requires improvisation,
participants should allow the situation to give them ideas, in stead of planning
ahead what they would say/do..
Purpose
 Creativity
 Spontaneity
 Accepting ideas
 Building scenario

Exercise 6: Improvising scenario

This exercise can be introduced as the development of the previous exercise where
participants are already used to certain acting and improvising scenes. From an
“image”, the actors are encouraged to develop the image by adding dialogues that
lead the scene further. The facilitator can also give or discuss with the participants
about some conditions of the scene, such as “A is bullied by B in the school,
however B is the son of the principal, what should A do?” and the scene can be
tried out with different options and different actors who volunteer.
Purpose:
 Improvisation
 Study in depth an issue/ situation
 Putting one-self in other’s shoes

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
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DAY 3. SELF AWARENESS, TRUST, SHARING AND SENSITIVITY

Exercise 1: Passing the clap

The participants stand in circle. One person can “give” a clap to the person next to
him, and “she” should “receive” the clap by clapping at the same time with him. To
obtain this harmony, the giver and receiver should maintain eye contacts, giving
signal not verbally but with body and arm gesture. If the pair is in harmony (not
competition), they will clap together at once. The clap will then passed on to the
next person. Variation: the receiver can give back the clap to the giver, in this case
the clap will be passed to the opposite direction. While doing this exercise, the
group should maintain the rhythm, eye contact, and harmony.
Purpose
 warm up
 concentration
 alertness
 sense of rhythm
 sense of harmony with partner, group
 body gesture

Exercise 2: Blind walk

Groups are divided in pairs and each pair decides who is A and who is B. A will
close eyes and let B guide him/her through the room gently. The roles switch.
Purpose
 taking care of each other
 building trust

Exercise 3: Mirror
Participants sit in pair, facing each other, at their own comfortable spot in the room.
Each pair draw a mirror in between themselves, decide who is the person, and who
is the person’s reflection. The facilitator gives a simple theme such as “Combing
hair”, “Putting make-up”.. to the “person” for the pair to practice mirroring each
other. When the group is used to the exercise, the facilitator introduces the next
level. The “person” will move freely (sitting at the same spot) and very slowly so
that the “reflection” can mirror. The pair should maintain eye-contact instead of
looking at the moving part (arms, feet..). The exercise should be done in silence,
with high level of concentration and connection between the pair. The pair can then

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
and Self Expression through Creativity Arts for Development Specialist

switch. Once the group is used to the exercise, the facilitator introduces the next
level. The pairs now close their eyes, keeping the image of their partner in their
imagination and use it as a guide to “mirror” to what they see in their mind.
Purpose
 Develop deep connection between partners
 Increase sense of safety, acceptance and love
 Seeing self through other, self awareness
 Reflecting self and other
 Coming out of the “shell”, connect with other

Exercise 4: Life map

Life map is a line that goes up and down, with colorful symbols (sunshine, smiling
face, thunder, crying face, hearts ..etc..) help explaining each important turning point
in one’s life. Generally, the line goes up when that event/ moment in life is a positive
one (to the owner), and goes down when it’s negative. Participants are given large
size paper and color crayons to draw their own “life map”. After everyone finishes,
each member share with the group their life-map, at the same time tell the story of
their lives. Participants don’t have to draw/ talk about anything in their life that they
don’t want to share.
Purpose
 life reflection
 self awareness
 sharing, listening
 understanding other

Exercise 5: Story board

The story board can consist of 3-5 frames, 3 is easier. Each frame is a square on the
paper that contain drawing of the “moment” in true detail. The drawing can be very
simple but need to show rough ideas of the scene, who are in it, where are they,
what are they doing/ saying, what are their emotions. If done right after “life map”,
the facilitator can guide the participants to “zoom in” one moment in their life maps,
pick the one that they want to share most or more in detail and draw a story board
for that moment.
The story boards are then exhibited for everyone in the room to see, with
explanation from each owner.
Purpose
 story telling in detail
 visualizing the story

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Facilitating Children’s Reflection Phan Y Ly
and Self Expression through Creativity Arts for Development Specialist

 creating scenario

Exercise 6: Live image

Live image means an image that is formed by actors. In this workshop it means the
participants demonstrate a scene using themselves, but not moving. Live image can
be used to share and visualize in detail any “reflection” or “experience” of the
participants (past, present, future). If done after storyboarding, the facilitator guides
the owner of the chosen story board to choose from the rest of the group whoever
s/he thinks is suitable to the character in the story board. The story owner will then
explain in detail the moment, emotions, goal of the character and help the actor to
stay in that position. The “image” formed by the actors should be as realistic as
possible.
Purpose
 observation
 interpreting gesture, being sensitive to expression
 sharing story
 visualizing experience

THE END

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