Instructor: Lorilee Virnig
Community: Grades 3-5, School Setting, 40 minutes
Plan Creation Date: January 29, 2016
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Chime – Listen to Chime – Become as quiet as snowflakes touching the earth, gently close eyes (or look downward toward ground.) Listen closely to the sound of the chime. Put both hands on heart when sound has completely disappeared into silence.
- Belly Breathing – Imagine you are wearing a very special crown. The crown is extremely heavy! It is made of glass and decorated with beautiful quartz and agate stones. Feel the weight of the crown. Sit tall and steady so your crown doesn’t fall when practicing belly breathing. Ask a volunteer to pick a number from 3-5 for how many breaths to practice today.
Activate
- Mountain – Press down through all four corners of feet and feel gravity root body to the earth. Stand proud and strong like a magnificent mountain.
- Upward Mountain/Crescent Moon – Reach arms up into the bright sky, feel the warmth of the sun radiating down toward you on earth. The sun has set. It is a clear, cool night. Reach up and over to one side and become a crescent moon shining in the night sky, now make your crescent moon shine in the other side of the night sky.
- Star – Slowly breathe deeply in the cool night air, activate your muscles and expand out through your arms, legs and top of head. Twinkle brightly through every fingertip. Make eye contact with and smile at another star in our classroom galaxy.
- Activate/Relax Woodchopper – Feel steady drumbeat in your body. Walk to beat and activate wood chop on loud drumbeat. Make loud “huh” from deep in belly. Repeat 4 times, changing pace and length of steady/relax beat.
Calm
- Forward Bend – Feel the ground beneath your feet and the pull of gravity. Slowly bend knees deeply and let gravity bring your body back to the ground in a sitting position.
- Volcano Breath – Think of people or places that help you feel grounded. Ask if anyone would like to share his or her thoughts with the class.
- Relaxation – Read Mindful Moment Card on Grounding – “Picture a large old tree with big branches. Sit with your back against the tree and watch the things around you.”