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Instructor: Joyce Marienfeld
Community: 4th Grade, School Setting, 30-45 minutes
Plan Creation Date: April 1, 2015
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding
Words: “I can ground myself ”
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Chime – listen carefully to the sound of the chime, thumbs up when you no longer hear it.
- Belly Breathing – with Hoberman Sphere – student leads, picks counter and number of breaths, 5-7; compliments.
- Belly Breathing – Sitting in your chair with a tall spine, “spreading and lifting toes then planting your feet on the floor, like railroad tracks; closing eyes or looking downward, take a long, smooth breath in and out your nose – … imagine your feet…with roots coming out of the soles of your feet and going down into the earth ..…what color are your roots .… are they grounding your feet to the Earth…where are they spreading to?”
- Seated Volcano Breath – same student leads – 3 breaths, feeling your feet and legs, steady , strong, grounded; heart thoughts to someone who helps keep you grounded and safe; would anyone like to share? compliments.
Activate
- Mountain to Upward Mountain to Star – stand into Mountain pose, thinking of your body as a strong tree, close your eyes, if comfortable, or look downward – begin at your roots … activate up your strong trunk , legs, hips, chest, shoulders; stretch your ‘branches’/arms up as tall as you can into Upward Mountain, take two deep breaths…feeling your full height and strength, reaching for the sun; (making food in your leaves with the water and nutrients coming up from the roots); with your roots still grounded, stretch your branches out from your shoulders into Star arms and expand, feel how wide and steady your tree/body is.
- Arm Swings – up , “I can ground myself when I need to” – fold into Forward Bend , hold two breaths ; Arm Swings up wide from Forward Bend to standing – Forward Bend, hold two breaths – up to Mountain.
- Tree Pose – student leader – strong, grounded feet, focus and move into Tree pose, hands at heart or extend ‘branches’ upward ; switch sides compliments for leader
- Partner Tree – 1st, Tree pose both sides with partner; next, while the drum beats, “see if you can move your ‘branches’ but stay grounded as your partner pretends to be a windy, rainy storm … without touching you ; switch.
- Sharing – what helped you stay grounded? can you think of any other situations where this might come in handy?
- Yoga Calm Chair 15 – complete Mountain to Mountain, two times; emphasis upon grounding the feet each time they are moved to secure a strong, stable base before continuing into the pose; Stop in each Mountain , 5 seconds , to ground – Do you think it would be helpful to take a breath and ground ourselves before we do especially difficult things?
Calm
- Chair Twist – again grounding hips, legs and feet to twist at the waist, three breaths each side.
- Relaxation – with heads on fists on desk – read Grounding Mindful Moment Card, with the option of adding more time with the tree being visited by different kinds of weather and still standing strong ‘would anyone like to share?’