Into the Garden of Dreams – Pathways to Imagination for 5-8 Year Olds

Description

Into the Garden of Dreams offers a range of enjoyable activities and games to help raise self-esteem and expression in the classroom. Through relaxation techniques and visualizations, pathways are traced into the ‘Garden of Dreams’ – an avenue into the imagination of children aged 5-8. Linda-Jane Simpson originally developed the ideas for use in her own classroom. Using the daily exercises and breathing brings a calmness and alertness into her classroom, which helps facilitate development and learning across the curriculum.

The aim of this book is to offer a range of enjoyable activities and games to help raise self-esteem and expression in the classroom. Through relaxation techniques and visualizations, pathways are followed into the ‘Garden of Dreams’ – a gateway into the imagination of children, aged 5–8.

The book is divided into three parts:

1) The Teacher’s handbook should be read first. It explains the value of self-esteem in the curriculum and provides helpful explanation and background to each of the activities:

• Self-esteem activities and games
• Visualizations to explore the ‘Garden of Dreams’ Creative ideas for expressive work

2) The photocopiable sheets give detailed instructions for each of the 32 Pathways. These can be photocopied for easy use in the classroom or as an in-school teacher training resource.

3) The visualizations, which introduce meditative moments to the school day, are best used in the sequence in which they appear. The basic journey must be used first, since it introduces the children not only to features of the garden, but also to basic meditative behaviour, stillness and silence with closed eyes.