Instructor: Nancy Johnson
Community: Grade 3, Classroom Setting, 45 minutes
Plan Creation Date: December 19, 2013
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Stillness
Academic/Therapeutic/Other Goals: Students will begin to understand stillness, Develop a strong sense of self, Listening Skills, Communicate their thoughts and feelings, Tune into what they want and feel, Connect to the world around them, Greater self-control and sensitivity to others.
Props/Music Resources required: Music and CD Player, Chime, Mats, Hoberman Sphere
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Belly Breathing – with Hoberman Sphere 10 Breaths (5 Minutes) – Sit on the edge of your chair with both feet on the ground. One student in front with the Hoberman Sphere and one student counting out loud. Rest one hand on lower belly and other on upper chest. Close eyes. Breathe.
- Pulse Count (2 Minutes) – Find your pulse on the side of your neck (Carotid) or on your wrist. Count the number of beats per minute you feel with your fingers on your pulse. Think about how amazing your body is as your heart beats and pumps oxygen, nutrients and blood throughout your body. You are healthy, strong, and amazing.
- Back Breathing (5 Minutes) – Find a partner. One student in Child pose the partner kneeling next to her/him. Place hand on the (Child Pose) partner on the low back. The student in Child Pose breathes slowly into the low back and their partners hands. Move hands to mid back and repeat. Switch partners.
Activate
- Mountain (1 Minute) – Stand with feet hip width apart. Picture your feet becoming one with the floor below. You are strong and able to move with the wind, but not fall over. Head, abdomen, heart, shoulders, are lifted up. Look straight ahead and think of a straight line going through your body from your head down. You are a tall and strong mountain standing on the middle of an island. You are surrounded by beautiful blue water. Listen to the calming sound of the waves moving back and forth from the body of water to the sandy shore.
- Chair Flow 15 – from Mountain to Mountain (17 Minutes) – We are working on stillness. Mountain to second Mountain – Sun Salutation – repeat twice thinking of a place where you feel safe and calm.
- Roots (2 Minutes) – Stand with feet width apart like you did in Mountain. Activate your body by making it firmer and straighter. Your feet are planted firmly on the ground. Slowly rock back and forth keeping your feet on the ground. Picture yourself moving with a gentle wind. You are swaying back and forth, but are staying grounded peacefully in the earth. Your roots are deep into the earth.
- Volcano Breath (2 Minutes) – Keep your feet shoulder/hip width apart. Put your palms together at the center of your heart. Take a slow and deep breath through your nose and pause for a moment when your lungs are full. Bring your arms up over your head. Exhale and slowly “your volcano explodes” as you move your arms out to the side and then back together at the heart. Any tension or stress left in your body is pushed out. Send positive thoughts to someone special in your life as you work through the Volcano pose.
Calm
- Visualization Activity (5-8 Minutes) – Sit on the edge of your chair and lean forward resting your head on top of your crossed arms on your desk. Slowly breath in and out through your nose. Imagine a place where your have felt safe and calm. It could be the same place you pictured earlier. I will take the class on a visualization exercise where they take in the sights, sounds and smells in this place. They will sit down and take it all in thinking about how it makes them feel. Why do they like this place? What does it remind them of? etc. After 3 to 5 minutes… take 5 slow breaths. You have to come back to class after the fifth breath. You can return to this safe place when you want or need to. Slowly open your eyes and sit up in your desk.
- Open Class Sharing (3-5 Minutes) – Does anyone wish to share where their safe and calming place is. How did you feel? What was is like?