Instructor: Carolyn Mosiman

Community: Grade 3, Full Class

Plan Creation Date: April 7, 2009

Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Listening

Lesson Plan:

This class was developed to address the needs of one particular student. The student is relatively new in his third grade class. He moved from Virginia and joined his current class in late-February. The student has an IEP and is working on “personal space issues”. He is very smart and rather analytical but doesn’t naturally pick up on social cues. The teacher wanted to put him on a behavior plan to track his behavior related to personal space, but it wasn’t clear that the concepts have been directly taught or practiced. We agreed to start with teaching the skill by making it a whole-class lesson with individual and/or small group follow-ups with the targeted student. Note: This class just spent several weeks studying the rainforest. They’ve also had an introduction to yoga to include belly breathing, pulse count, Chair 15 and Mat 20 (mountain to mountain but without the mats).

1. Center

  • Belly breathing with the Hoberman Sphere
  • One-minute reflection (use rainforest tape): Close your eyes, continue to slow your breathing, inhale through your nose, and exhale very quietly, very slowly; see how long your breath will last. Continue to breathe as we take a moment and imagine the sounds of the rainforest. Can you hear the sounds of the howler monkeys, the parrots, the quetzals, the rainfall? … Do you hear the sound of the dripping from the bromeliads down onto the foliage of the forest floor? Do the leaf-cutler ants make any noise at all? How do they make their presence known? What else do you see or hear? The parrot snake has its mouth wide open … what is it telling you?

2. Educate

  • Introduce the concept of listening.
    • Talk about what we hear when we listen with our ears. Use the rainforest context then use examples within the classroom.
    • Talk about listening with our eyes and brainstorm what “hear” by using our eyes. What messages are being sent? Emphasize body language/nonverbal communication, give examples and have students put words to the gestures.
  • Introduce the concept of “personal space” (tap into prior knowledge)
    • What do you think of when someone says “personal space”?
    • Is personal space the same for everyone all the time?

3. Activate

  • Follow the lesson plan for Personal Space (Yoga Calm, page 121)
    • Demonstrate with teacher
    • Two volunteers
    • Additional volunteers (make sure targeted student is in one of the groups)
    • Compliments

4. Integrate

  • Group discussion with connections/personal experiences
    • Double messages (words and body)
    • Feelings
    • Different space bubble for different people at different times
    • What factors impact our space needs (other ways ofinvading the personal space of others

5. Combine with Mountain and Star pose and conversation about the centerline ofthe body. Physical self-awareness, (information from Yoga Calm, page 54-55).

6. Wrap up with another breathing exercise. Lead approx. 30 seconds of breathing while students reflect back on today’s lesson. Final question: Who would like to share one important idea they learned in today’s lesson.

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