Classroom, Grades K-1, Stillness & Strength Lesson Plan (Albin)

Instructor: Jeff Albin

Plan Creation Date: February 2, 2009

Community: Classroom, Grades K-1

Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Stillness & Strength

Introduction:

1. Intro: names
2. I tell class that their teacher has given me permission to come in once a week to do yoga.
3. I tell the class that the first two things we are going to work on are “stillness and strength.”
4. I talk about different kinds of strength: mental strength and physical strength.
5. I introduce the idea of “brain push ups” and the value of positive self-talk.
6. I introduce the idea of stillness and we brainstorm times when that might be valuable.

Stillness/Strength:

1. Seated on knees or “criss cross apple sauce”
2. Pulse count
3. Hoberman Sphere breathing x10
4. Repeat pulse count
5. Move to mountain pose (hands at heart center) focus on stillness and initial alignment
6. Chair/Standing Forward Bend x 5?
7. Reference back to strength and stillness and how they work together.

Community:

1. Partner Tree (supporting only)
2. Tree Circle

Strength/Stillness

1. Students attempt Tree on their own
2. Cover the importance of just putting a foot down instead of the tree falling like it’s just been chopped down
3. Return to Mountain
4. Introduce Standing Poses (just one)
5. Cover ankle alignment
6. Students practice moving back and forth from Mountain to Standing Poses (Warrior I)
7. Move from Warrior to hands to ground
8. Plank then Child’s Pose
9. Bring awareness to Belly breathing.
10. Instruct students that when they are breathing fully their belly will lift their body away from their legs.
11. Transition from from Child’s pose to Resting pose
12. RELAXATION: Changing Channels with one card from Stillness and one card from Strength
13. Instruct students to move from Resting pose with the breath to sitting on their knees or criss cross apple sauce
14. 3-5 Volcano breaths
15. Hands to belly: “Yummy yummy yummy I’ve got love in my tummy.” x 2

Debrief – Ask questions:

1. When are some times you might need strength?
2. When are some times you might need stillness?
3. When are some times you might need both together?

Follow-up notes: I am fine-tuning my introduction to Yoga Calm; considering some of the age groups and audiences I am working with I have decided to try introducing the five main themes incrementally when I am working with younger groups. I think this might anchor the concepts better than presenting them all at once. I think in my past introductions I have tried to introduce too much at once. The simple approach seemed to work well with this K-1 class. The other three themes are being taught but not voiced directly and will be introduced in the third week. For example, we are doing tree circle every time but not talking about that yet.