Instructor: Susan Wolfram
Community: Grade 3, School Setting, 30 minutes
Plan Creation Date: September 28-30, 2015
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Strength
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Chime – Ring the chime- focus on the sound; strong minds are focused.
- Breathing with Arm Circles – Talk through the slow, relaxed breathing through the nose, pausing between inhale and exhale.
- Discussion – Discuss the necessity of strong minds (focused, in control) for great athletes and everyone.
Activate
- Discussion – Discuss what it means to be strong inside; in their bodies, minds, and heart (aware of their emotional state) during the poses.
- Mountain – Practice mountain, demonstrate weak and strong foot stance with the teacher or a student. Stronger with feet shoulder width apart followed by 3 deep breaths.
- Warrior I – (what is a warrior; how are they strong) Focus across the circle , then right foot forward, bend the knee slightly, left foot back on toes, arms up fingers straight up, 3 breaths then back to Mountain, then left foot back, 3 breaths then back to Mountain (need to break Warrior into small steps with feedback).
- Roots – Have students come into their center and anchor into their strength followed by 3 breaths.
- Tree Circle – Have students practice tree in 2 circles/boys and girls, helping each other stay grounded. Pretend you are a tree in a park or forest; strong and helpful to the environment. Discuss the steps to get to tree and 3 breaths when they are steady; emphasize the need to focus their eyes across the room.
- Activate/Relax Walk – First just(relax) walk when they hear the drum and stop(Activate) if it stops. Beat a drum to different paces for them to follow. Have the students move from relaxed to activated. Talk to them about the importance of being able to activate or calm our nervous systems.
Calm
- Relaxation – Mindful Minute – sit back down (desk, table or rug) close eyes and – Think about how they can be strong in a good way today at school; in the classroom, playground, bus and/or Pretend they are watching the waves by the ocean as they get stronger and bigger and then smaller and more calm until you can barely hear them. If you have wave sounds available, play them having the volume go up and then down to calm.