Brain Maps

Today we were having one of those "down" moments that mean nothing is ever going right. I wished I could get inside his head. This sparked and idea. I gave Matthew a piece of paper and asked him to draw me a map of his brain.

The result was quite shocking. A big "BLANK" word in the center, "UNCONTROLABLE THOUGHTS" across the scalp and a HOLE in the back of the head where all the "Thoughts and Ideas" just poured away behind.

The stem of the brain had a line across and when I asked which part of his brain loved his family, it was below the stem. He then drew another line about quarter way up the brain and put all the bad thoughts in there.

We compared Matthews Brain map to my own and Heidi's, we managed to adapt Matthew's brain to accomodate a hoover!

Sounds Wierd right? But this is no ordinary hoover. Now the pipe that drains away all the good thoughts was moved and put into the bad thoughts. The pipe then leads into one of those suction bags that you put quilts and things in, then the hoover sucks all the air out, shrinking all the troubles down into a smaller package. Now there is more room for the good thoughts.

We also talked about it being like the trap they used in Ghost Busters to lock all the bad spirits away and Matthew's mood lifted visibly. Next we rubbed out the 'UN' leaving 'Controlable Toughts' across the top (just visible in the picture) and we also rubbed out the big 'Blank' and after vacuuming the problems out, we now had room to fit in 'Love, Fun and Goodness'.

I then drew my version of Matthew's brain, being a book with pages. I said if you don't like one page, turn it over and read another better page. He liked that and saw it as very fitting with his love of books. We call him "The biggest book worm in the world".

Next we all watched the film "Batteries Not Included". Afterwards I folded three pieces of A4 paper in half and stapled the spine. I wrote the names of the film's main characters, one on each page of my home made workbook. The children then wrote about the characters "freestyle" with amazing insight. It was a good follow up exercise, having to think about your own brain, then reading into other characters without prompts.

What would your brain look like?

Till next time :-)