Instructor: Allyson Copachino
Community: Grades 3-6, Setting?, 60 minutes
Plan Creation Date: February 1, 2015
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Grounding
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Pulse Count – students find their pulse and count the beats for 1 minute. Students share their pulse count with the group. What did they notice? When is their pulse faster/slower?
Activate
- Alternate Arm/Leg kicks
- Activate/Relax – After 2-3 minutes when students have warmed their bodies, add postures to the activity.
- Pulse Count standing in Mountain – Students share their pulse counts with the group, noticing the difference from their first count
- Roots – Students stand in mountain pose, feet strong in the ground, noticing their breath. Students rock forward, side and back on their feet creating circles that become smaller until they return to center and stillness.
- Sharing – Have students share how their body feels when they are “centered/grounded”. Ask students if their body feels grounded in balancing poses? What helps them feel grounded in balancing poses? Have students share their strategies.
- Yoga Flow – Move through Balancing Sequence inviting students to try the shared strategies – Tree, Dancer, Eagle.
- Tree Circle –Students stand in a circle in Tree pose with palms touching. Volunteer students come into the center of the circle to be animals in the circle forest, creating a challenge for those in tree poses. Invite students to try their grounding strategies in this situation.
- Discussion – Discuss when they could use the balancing/grounding strategies off of the mat (eg. On the playground, when in an argument with a friend, during a test, etc.)
Calm
- Child’s Pose
- Relaxation – Turn on relaxing music, and lead students through a body scan (relaxing individual parts of the body).