Instructor: Leah Shuyler
Community: Grade 4 Classroom
Plan Creation Date: April 13, 2010
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Stillness
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Belly Breathing – With the breathing bear for 10 breaths. Close your eyes and feel the stillness within your body, imagine you are a hibernating bear.
- Pulse Count – Find your pulse and listen to the beating of your heart.
Activate
- Trust Walk – Trust your friend to lead you around the room, the guide’s goal is to make you feel safe. Move very slowly and your friend will watch your feet and face for nonverbal cues that show whether you feel safe or not.
- Cat/Cow – Round and arch your back, imagining that your back is a flowing and calm wave in the ocean. Now imagine your hands and knees are anchored to the earth, beneath that calm ocean wave.
- Eagle – Be an eagle, sitting very still on your perch (fly and come back to your perch, on both sides).
Calm
- Twist – Close your eyes and allow the stretch to relax you. Then switch sides.
- Relaxation – Imagine you are whisked away to a beautiful place (a forest or a lake, for example). You are sitting very still and you are absolutely silent. You see a family of deer drinking from the lake and grazing in the grass. You stay very still so that you don’t scare them away. You feel happy and begin to think about other times you have been this happy. As the family of deer leave, you slowly come back to the room, and back to your mat.
- Happiness Recipe – Do a short breathing activity, and then have students complete the sentences on the Happiness Recipe Worksheet. This should be done with no talking. After they are done with the sheet, allow them to share what they have written.