Instructor:  Kirsten Jamieson

Community: Ages 6-9, 6 children, Home Setting, 35 minutes

Plan Creation Date: October 20, 2013

Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding

Props/Music/Resources Required: CD, CD Player, Lavender eye pillows

Lesson Plan:

Calm

  • Belly Breathing – with Hoberman Sphere – Feel the ground firm and supportive beneath you.  One student to manipulate sphere other counts for 5-10 breaths – followed by compliments
  • 30 seconds quiet listening – Sitting cross legged press down through your sitting bones (quick description of what is meant by that!) Make your backbone long and imagine a balloon is attached by string to the top of your head and is helping you sit up tall and strong. Shrug your shoulders up and down to relax them. Open your chest wide and breath.

Activate

  • Cat/Cow – spread fingers wide and press down firmly through all your fingers, connecting you to the ground beneath you. Sink your belly down towards the ground and lift and expand through your chest as you inhale. As you breath out feel like you are pushing your belly button up toward the ceiling and make a big camel hump with your back.
  • Roots – lift up all your toes then try to spread them wide and press them strongly down into the ground. Feel your feet heavy, anchoring you to the floor. Press down through all 4 corners of the feet and stand tall.  Keep straight and strong but let your body rock back and forth like a tree standing strong in the wind. Make sure to keep your feet glued to the spot. – side to side – circles – in between remind children to press down through the toes, the ball and heels of both feet evenly. Growing up towards the top of the head extending and lengthening through the back.
  • Mat 20 – Mountain to Tree – emphasis on grounding in Mountain and in Tree – for both poses directing students to feel their feet as they did in roots pose pressing down heavily into the ground connecting and supporting them in the pose just as the trunk and branches of a tree are held safe and firm by it’s roots.
  • Eagle – keep your standing foot pressed down through all 4 corners and both legs strong and active, hug your legs in toward each other, open your arms up like great eagle wings and the fold them in by hooking your elbows around each other. Lift up your chest and breath fully into your back. Keep your gaze steady with your incredible eagle eyes. Imagine you can see tiny things from far far away.
  • Eagle on a cliff

Calm

  • Floor Twist
  • Guided Relaxation – the children are lying down, however they feel comfortable and are given lavender eye pillows if they wish them.  It is a very windy day. You can hear the wind howling and you go to look out of the window. The sun is shining in the sky and you see the trees swaying in the wind, the branches and leaves being buffeted. The tree trunks are anchored by their deep, strong roots and stay standing firm despite the wind. Small fluffy clouds are whizzing along the sky, the birds are soaring up high, their wings spread open lifted by the wind. This a is good day, you think, to fly your kite. You have a special person that you would like to bring with you to enjoy this adventure and you arrange to meet with them at the entrance to the park. You ride your bike to the park. It is really hard and tiring because the wind is blowing against you but you know what fun you will have when you get there so you keep turning the pedals and taking energizing breaths of the fresh air and finally you are there. Your special person is already waiting for you and together you go into the park. There is a gentle hill in the park and you decide that would be the best place to fly your kite from. You walk through the park, past flowers and bushes being pushed and pulled by the wind. Your hair is being blown all about by the wind but your steps are strong and you feel weighted to the ground. At the top of the hill the wind is at it’s strongest. Together you get the kite ready, imagine what color your kite is, perhaps it has a picture on it or is in special shape. You hold the end of the string your friend takes the kite and runs fast with it before letting it go. It soars up and up into the sky. You feel a strong pull on the string, you keep your grip firm and your arms steady. Your feet are firmly anchored to the ground. pressing heavily into the thick soft grass and you can feel the earth beneath you. You might feel like the trees you saw moving in the wind, as though you have roots that are holding you fast to the earth. No matter how strong the wind blows and how much the kite is twisted and pulled by the wind you are are holding tight to the string your feet planted on the ground, your legs strong. You let the string out a bit and the kite goes higher, you pull the string lower and the kite moves lower, you are able control it’s movements despite the strong wind. The kite dances in the sunshine, Your friend calls to you that it is time to leave. Together you wind in the string and fold up the kite. The wind is blowing a little more gently as you walk together down the hill and back through the park. You say goodbye to your special person as you leave the park. When you get back on your bike the wind is behind you and the journey home is much easier. You put your kite away ready for the next windy day.

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