Instructor: Cindy Happe
Community: Grades 3-6 Summer Care Program
Plan Creation Date: July 2012
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Stillness
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Mountain: “What would it feel like to be a mountain?…..connected to the earth…your feet are still and legs are strong as you feel your muscles pull to your bones….connected to the sky as your head is tall, expanding through your chest, feeling your shoulders come back towards one another. Able to see as far as you can, and no matter what is happening around you…you remain still.
- Volcano Breaths: 10 breaths
Activate
- Mountain: Upward mountain
- Forward Bend: “On the next exhale, expand your arms out to your sides as you bring your arms, head, neck and spine towards the floor, like a waterfall on your mountain, flowing your arms down toward your feet. Take a moment to notice how that stillness feels in your body.
- Chair:“Now inhale as you bring your arms back over head, palms facing each other, and bend at your knees as if you’re sitting in a chair or on a rock on your mountain. Your legs remain activated, and your arms are expanded overhead, and your breath is moving quietly in and out of your nose…let’s see if you can find stillness in your face, relaxing it now.
- Mountain: As you push back up into mountain, feel your arms expand overhead and down to your sides as your chest expands, noticing your breath as it continues to move quietly in/out of your nose.
Use mindfulness bell to cue short series combining mountain, upward mountain, forward bend, chair, back to mountain.
- Calm Voice Activity
- Tree Pose: “What would it feel like to be a tree on your mountain? Sometimes the wind would blow, and sometimes it would be still and quiet” (alternate between movement and stillness). Play a game with the children trying to distract one another. “Listen to your calm voice…how does it help you to remain still?”
Calm
- Guided relaxation in resting pose: Imagine that your favorite animal is now on your mountain….what does it look like? What is it doing? Imagine it is looking at you…keep still so you don’t scare it away. Keep watching it now and notice what it does next.