Instructor: Carolyn Mosiman
Community: Grade 1, ADHD Small Group
Plan Creation Date: April 20, 2009
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Stillness
Lesson Plan:
1. Stillness / Listening
- Belly breathing with Hoberman Sphere (student leads): Talk about being relaxed, give your body a chance to rest and be still.
- Belly Breathing on back. Put your hands on your belly and feel your belly move up and down with your breath – in and out, up and down. Relax your toes, your feet, your legs. Feel the weight of your body on your mat. Close your eyes and imagine floating like a rubber ducky on the waves in the ocean. Your hands are moving up and down with the waves.
- Leg Stretches: Bend one knee and left the leg … straighten the leg … circle the toes … other way … write your name in the air. Bend your leg again and lower it to the floor. Now the other leg … same series. Both legs down, shake those legs out.
2. Grounding
Lie back again. Relax. Breathe in, out. Slow breath in. Slow breath out. Let’s see if we can count our breaths. Listen as you breathe in and out. Listen for the sound of your heart beat. (count 5 breaths)
Rock and Roll and Boat:
- Bend your knees toward your chest. Gently hold the back of your thighs, feet off floor. We’re like a boat floating in the water. Open your hearts. Shoulders down. When the waves come by we start to rock back and forth. Let’s try.
- Rock forward and back slowly.
- Let’s rock back and forth five times and try not to let our feet touch the floor.
- This time when I say “freeze” I want you to stop your boat.
- Feel the bones of your bottom push into the mat. Stop right on those bones and hold … hold, look around, did you see a fish jump? Listen very quietly, hold still, maybe he’ll come back! Nope, let’s rock the boat.
- Freeze! There’s that fish again …. Listen very quietly. Keep very still, let’s look for him. Hold your muscles tight. Keep breathing.
- Try to have the students follow along with hand movements. If time, have a student lead.
3. Strength
Practice Tree, talk about activating the muscles, being strong, still, focus.
Transformer Mice (Child). Let’s pretend we’re a family of mice. We’re not just any ordinary mice, we’re TRANSFORMER mice. For now, we’re very still. We’re listening and making sure it’s safe to explore and start our adventure. We peek our head up and explore with our eyes. We look to the left, we look to the right. It’s very quiet in our world so it’s safe to say the magic words. What’s the magic word Kayla? “__” Ok, ” __” and we transform into a lazy cat. As a lazy (Cat) we stretch our backs up to the sky. We relax. Then we stretch again. We stretch our back leg out. We stretch our other back leg out. Then one arm, then the other. We take another deep breath and stretch our backs up into the sky. Enough of this, we want an adventure. Kayla says the magic word “__”, we curl our toes under, push our hips up into the air and become a (Dog). We look between our legs and what do we see? A big bear! Oh no! We need to be strong. With the magic word our right leg will come forward and we we’ll become a strong (Warrior) princes. Ready? “__”. Take your right leg forward, your knee is over your ankle. Hands up. We are strong. We are in control. We look to the right, and we look to the left. What? There’s no bear. We say the magic word “__” and we’re a (Dog) again. Looking once again through our legs and sure enough … it is a bear! He is there and meaner than ever. “__” Our left leg comes forward, we’re (Warrior) princesses again. Our muscles are activated. We are strong. This time we roar at the bear. Say “I am strong”. Say “I am in control”. We relax into (Forward Bend) and the big mean bear scurries away like a scared little mouse (Child).
4. Community and relaxation
- Volcano Breath: walking and exchanging mats, activating and expanding.
- Tree Circle: using each other for support, still, focus (add animals to distract if time, challenge the trees to maintain stillness and don’t let the animals interfere with their control)
5. Stillness: Emphasize body and voice control
Relaxation
K’s story:
- A surprise vacation to Mexico
- Sitting on the beach, listening to the waves, lying back in the sand and feeling the warm sun on our skin
- Color blue (beach towel … swimsuit)
- Mittens sleeping on Kayla’s stomach, moving up and down with her breaths
- Kayla very still as to not wake Mittens
- Mom, grandma
- Donuts
- Emphasize being still and watching a sailboat go past
– OR –
Pg. 64, Breath In Breath Out, Ready…Set…R.E.L.A.X. book