Let’s Make Some JOYs!

Educators can use this activity to collaboratively create a machine in their classroom that generates and shares joy through movement and sounds.

Materials Needed: None

1. Invite students to sit in a large open circle or face an open space in audience formation. Begin by asking: What does the word joy mean to you? and ask them to brainstorm ideas of how people experience and share joy and happiness.
2. Ask students: What is a machine? Create a definition together, using examples of machines they know, like cars, dishwashers or computers.
   Guide the discussion toward understanding that machines have different parts working together in order to achieve a singular purpose.
3. Next, let them know that you’re going to collaborate to build a special kind of machine—a machine that makes and shares joy with the world!
   Ask them to think about what kinds of movements or sounds can be used to express joy.
4. Invite one volunteer to stand in the center and begin the machine by creating a simple, repetitive movement and sound that represents joy. For
   example, a clapping pattern with a little jump, or a soft hum with a spin. There are no wrong ways to express joy!
5. One by one, invite other students to add their own joyful movement and sound to the “machine.” Their movement and sound should respond to or interact with the movement before theirs. Each student should connect their action to the previous ones, like pieces of a Rube Goldberg machine working together.
6. When a majority of students have joined the machine, experiment with speed. Offer prompts like: Let’s see what happens when the joy machine
   speeds up! Encourage them to move faster. Then try slowing it down, asking: What does the joy machine look and sound like when it’s working
   very slowly? Note: Students who may not wish to participate in the center of the circle can help create soundscapes or complimentary movements from their seated position. Pause the machine and ask students who were watching to describe what they saw. Conversely, ask the participating students to describe what they noticed or felt while activating their machine.
7.  Finally, activate your machine one more time andsend some joyful noise out into the world

Reflection Questions

• How did we work together to create the joy machine?
• How did the different movements and sounds make you feel while participating or watching?