Instructor: Holly Hansen
Community: Grades K-6, Gym setting, 30 minutes on yoga mats
Plan Creation Date: August 28, 2012
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Strength
Lesson Plan:
Calm (sitting on mats)
- Belly breathing with child leading using the Hoberman sphere and another child counting to 10.
Activate (now standing)
- Cat/Cow – Come to all 4’s and make sure your knees are hip-width apart and your arms are directly beneath your shoulders. Inhale, and on the exhale, round your back and look at your knees like a cat. Now, inhale and lift your head and heart and drop your belly like a cow. Let’s do this again smoothly and slowly making the motions equal in both cat and cow,
- Balance with Cat/Cow – Let’s test our core strength and balance by lifting your right leg straight back and flexing your heel. Now, with your opposite arm (left arm) reach out in front of you as far as you can and keep your balance. Look straight ahead. To keep our body balanced, let’s do the other side: left leg and right arm.
- Downward Dog – Let’s push up into Downward Dog and make the shape of the letter “A” with our body by curling our toes under and pushing up with our arms keeping them straight and activating them making sure our fingers are pointing straight ahead. Press thighs and hips towards the wall behind you. And, create a flat back from head to hips.
- Plank – Shift your weight forward to your arms into plank creating a flat line from your head to your toes. Make sure your shoulders are directly over your wrists. Keep your tails tucked and reach out through the top of your head and your heels. Breathe! Try not to let your hips drop by focusing on breathing into your lower back.
- Side Plank – Pull your legs together, roll to outer edge of right foot while lifting the left arm up to the sky and reach. Keep your hips lifted. Imagine as though you are between 2 panes of glass. Let’s do this on the other side.
- Cobra – Bend elbows and slowly lower yourself to the floor. Place palms on mat under your shoulders with your fingers pointing forward. Keep your toes touching together and press into 4 corners of hands. Hiss like a cobra as you lift your head, heart and belly. Focus on keeping your shoulders back and down with elbows close to your body. Lower your body back to your mats while lengthening at the same time and repeat 2 more times.
- Downward Dog – Let’s push back into downward dog and this time let’s kick back our right leg and try to keep our pinkie toe facing toward the ground to work on our alignment. Lower right leg and now let’s do the same with our left leg.
- Forward Bend – Walk our feet to reach our hands at the center of our mat making sure our feet are hip-width apart. Touch the floor as you let your arms and head hang like a waterfall. If you are having trouble, bend your knees. Continue to breathe. To come out of the pose, bend knees, hands on hips and slowly roll up to standing.
- Chair – Make sure legs are hip-width apart. Inhale and raise and straighten arms overhead. Keep the arms parallel while palms facing each other. Exhale, bend knees and sit back in an imaginary chair. Continue to keep knees in alignment with your feet and make sure you are pressing into all 4 corners of each foot. Lift your heart, head and belly. Feel your strength! To come out of this pose, inhale, press down thru your feet and reach up to the sky while straightening your legs.
- Roots – Look to see if your feet are hip-width apart and pointing straight ahead. Rock forward and back with your body and feet firm on the floor. Make the movement smaller until you are back to center. Now let’s rock side to side and slowly return to center. Start to make big circles to your right and pay attention to your weight shifting to the 4 edges of your feet and then make circle small until back at center. Let’s go to the left and do the same thing in this direction.
- Warrior I – Step back with your right leg, keeping it straight and be sure to keep your heel lifted off the ground. Bend your front knee over your ankle and make sure your knee is in alignment with your foot. Put your hands on hips and rotate them to the front of the room. Bring your arms overhead with palms facing each other. Left your heart, head and belly.
- Warrior II – Drop your back foot to the ground and bring your arms parallel to the ground. Extend your arms out both in front and back and look over your front fingers. Continue to keep your body long and not lean into your forward arm.
- Reverse Warrior (Rising Moon) – Flip your front palm to face the sky and windmill your front arm to the ceiling and your back arm to your back thigh. Reach to the sky and feel strong in your core.
- Warrior II – Windmill your arms back to parallel into Warrior II.
- Triangle – Let’s take it one step further into Triangle by straightening your front leg. Next, reach out over your front leg and then windmill your front arm to your front leg and your back arm up to the sky. Spread your fingers wide and reach to the sky. Press out through your head and arms and imagine as though you are between two panes of glass. Feel the strength in your core holding you up. To come out of the pose, use your arm in the sky to windmill your body up to standing.
- Complete Warrior I, Warrior II, Reverse Warrior (Rising Moon) and Triangle on the other side.
- Eagle Pose – Take your right leg and cross it over your left as you bend your knees. Spread your arms wide as you find a point on the wall to help you with your balance. Now, wrap your right arm under left and bend at the elbows as you also lift your elbows and squeeze. Once you have your balance, spread your arms wide and if you want to take it one step further, unwrap your legs and kick back with your top leg. Imagine you are now an eagle soaring over trees. Look below and tell me what you see all the while keeping your balance. Come back to your perch by wrapping your legs and your arms and come to standing. Shake out your standing leg and let’s do the other side.
Calm (sitting on mats)
- Seated Twist – While sitting on your mat with feet crossed, place your left arm on your right knee. Place your other arm behind you. Inhale, and lengthen. Exhale and look over your right shoulder towards the back of the room. One more time on this side and see if you can twist a little further on the exhale. Now, let’s do the other side.
- Changing Channels – Lay flat on your backs with your eyes closed. We are going to Change Channels. Take notice of how you are feeling right now and the sensations in your body. Let’s Change the Channel and imagine you are outside on a cold, snowy day. You have all your snow clothes on to stay warm and maybe you are having a snowball fight or building a snowman. What sounds do you hear…the sound of your boots crunching on the snow? Have you tasted the snow yet? What does that feel like? Ok, let’s Change the Channel again and imagine you are at the swimming pool. It’s sunny and warm outside. Maybe you are on a towel lying in the sun or swimming in the pool playing. What sounds do you hear…water splashing? How does the water feel on your skin? And, one last time let’s change the channel and go to your most favorite place. Is it in your room or somewhere in your house? Maybe it’s somewhere outside? You get to pick. Are there any smells or sounds? It could be cookies in the oven or birds chirping outside? Take notice of how it feels to be in your most favorite place.