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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: Listening

Lesson Plan:

Calm

  • Chime – listen carefully to the sound, try to hear how the sound changes; thumbs up when no longer hear it …share; students are asked to be ‘still like statues’ and close their eyes, teacher rings the chime again …was it easier or more difficult to hear the chime, how come? when could this come in handy? i.e. being still, focusing and shutting out other distractions when we really need to be listening to something…
  • Belly Breathing – student leader, he/she picks number of breaths, 5-7, and a student counter; emphasis upon very relaxed body, gentle , easy Belly Breaths , close eyes if want;
  • Pulse Count – teacher feel and count your pulse for 15 seconds; can you ‘hear’ your pulse? ( probably not, bodies are calm and relaxed )

 

 

Activate

  • Run in place, one minute
  • Repeat ‘Listening’ to Pulse Count – this time hands over ears; share…could you hear your pulse this time, how come? …. i.e. pulse faster, stronger, ears covered…..do you think we could stop, and ‘listen’ to our bodies during the day to see what they are telling us? …. can you think of times this might be helpful? i.e. getting anxious before a game, begin breathing; angry or too excited – breath, yoga pose, walk, talk to someone to calm down….
  • Block Creek – each student walks the line of blocks first with their eyes open; blocks are changed; (with large class 3 lines of blocks set up so students are not ‘standing around’); groups of 3 students; one with eyes closed, silent, walking blocks, the other two one on each side as guides, the guides give verbal directions to help the walking student; emphasis upon paying close attention and listening to each other; after students have switched places they give compliments to other members of the group of 3;
  • Sharing – Class shares their experience…as a block walker, was it easier/harder to ‘listen’ with your eyes closed, could you hear what the guides were telling you? did the two guides talk at the same time? if so, could you hear the directions? how did the guides work it out when this happened? guides, were you ‘listening’ to the walker even though he/she was silent? How? ….
  • Short flow with chair – to stretch, breath, and move, out of head and into body for relaxation- Mountain – to Upward Mountain – to Forward Bend, 2 breaths; Mountain – to Upward Mountain – this time to Chair Dog, 2 breaths, grounding your feet and stretching out; End in Mountain, 2 breaths;….feeling and listening to your bodies.

Calm

  • Seated Twist – in chair – 2 breaths each side – stacked fists on desk, head down, for Relaxation.
  • Changing Channels – emphasis upon listening carefully to the teacher’s description of each channel; when imagining each channel, students asked to ‘listen’ to the sounds of that channel, i.e. the city at rush hour; a forest late at night; a beautiful, rushing waterfall.

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