Andrea Skyberg

This was my first week working with West Side Academy’s 1st-3rd graders and I was so impressed with the work they did! I explained to them the residency and read them the manuscript and showed them the storyboards for Shimmerling. Then they got a chance to show me what the Shimmerling should look like.

The next session we started by doing a guided medication and then talked about self-acceptance. We also explored feeling left our or being teased, how that makes us feel, and talked about seeing ourselves for who we really are. I asked them to talk about some tough emotions, and I was really proud of how they committed to telling their truth. We talked about the importance of exploring our feelings, even when it’s hard, and trying to understand why we feel hurt. We also discussed how journaling can help us do this.

The next day we did another guided meditation to try and clear any of the negative energy from the day before when we talked about hurt feelings. Then the students began to design a symbol that could show their unique selves. To do this they chose a word that best described them, picked an animal that they felt best represented them, and a color that felt was most truly them. They mixed up aspects of all of those things to design a unique symbol. Next week we start engraving their symbols into metal feathers!