Instructor: Faith Schulze
Community: Grade 1 Special Education & Grade 2 General Education, School Setting, 30 minutes
Plan Creation Date: January 4, 2016
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Community
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Belly Breathing – Hoberman Sphere Breathing. Ask for student volunteer to lead breathing and counting. Ask student to select number of breaths needed. Request compliments for both volunteers. Discuss how all students started out breathing at different speeds, but then all students breathed together. The sphere provided a visual reminder, which acted as a guide for the community to connect to.
- Volcano Breath – Tell students to think of a person that loves and supports them. Think about how happy you are to have them in your life. As you hold your hands at heart center think of that person. As you breathe in and lift your hands up, send them your thanks and let them know that you love them too. Repeat at least 3 times.
Activate
- Yoga Movement – Standing in a circle, lead kids through Mountain Pose, Upward Mountain, Forward Fold, Chair Pose (repeat 3 times, holding each pose for three breaths). Then have students do tree pose on each side. Holding the pose for three long belly breaths. During poses encourage kids to Activate their muscles to feel their strength, the strength they need to use so they can support each other.
- Tree Circle – While in tree pose have kids think about the 4 corners of their hand and match it up with the 4 corners of their neighbor’s hand. Lead a discussion about how the kids felt while doing tree pose alone and then with the “community circle.” Was it easier or harder when the community was there to support them?
- Individual Sharing and Group Discussion – Have each child share one person who helps support them? Have each child share one person that they support and what they do to support them?
Calm
- Calm Yoga Flow – Have kids transition to the floor by doing a mountain pose, forward fold, down dog and child pose. Then have them lay down on back for belly breathing.
- Belly Breathing – Prone. One hand on heart and one on belly. Breathe into your belly so that your hands go up and down with each breath, like the branches blowing in the wind.
- Individualized Relaxation Story – Talk about the quality of courage and how we need courage to try new things, try things that we think are hard or do something that we did not do well at before. Have students lay down on mats and guide them through a story telling experience of using their community (friends, family, and neighbors) to help them through an unknown forest of trees. Encourage them to be strong and courageous by closing their eyes and let me protect and support them. Noticing the beauty in the colors (sky, trees, flowers), feel the heat of the sun, hearing the noises (branches blowing in the wind, water in the stream, animals playing), traveling down a new path together, getting lost and asking a friend for help, getting scared and going to the house of a neighbor for support.