Instructor: Michele Mayer
Community: Preschool Ages, School Setting, 30-40 minutes
Plan Creation Date: May 16, 2016
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Community
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Teach Belly Breathing – Initially have the group sit on chairs or on the floor in a grounded position. First teach belly breathing with one hand on the heart and the other on the belly. Next have student try laying on the ground with beanie babies or a small toy on their belly and make the object move up and down. Use imagery like the waves of the ocean to help calm.
- Belly Breathing – with Hoberman Sphere – Allowing several participants to lead choosing between 1-10 breaths as well as their counter. Each student will call on two other children for compliments and compliment their counter.
Activate
- Tree Pose – Instruct children to stand tall like a king or a queen. Shift their weight to one side ground all four corners of the foot into the ground. Imagine someone you love is holding your ankle and foot firmly. Slowly move the other foot to the thigh or the calf. If anyone has trouble balancing they can place their foot out like a kick stand or against a wall. Switch sides.
- Tree Circle – Instruct children to stand in a circle several feet apart. Again talk about grounding and activating. Have children press hand together palms facing up. Shift weight to one side, and raise other foot to the thigh, calf, or kickstand. Talk about how trees support each other in the forest shielding each other from wind and rain. Switch sides and talk about how we support each other by being good friends, by being kind, and by caring about each other. Continue with a few rounds of animals in the forest.
- Compliment Game – Remaining in the circle, have students hold onto a rope. Take turns having children come into the center of the circle and other’s give complements. The student receiving the compliment should make eye contact and say thank you. Before beginning give examples of specific compliments about the person such as things they do well or that they have one recently that where admired.
- Yoga Obstacle Course – Remaining in the circle fan out a deck of yoga cards. Have each student draw a card and place it on the floor in front of them. Ask everyone to hold their pose. Student’s then take turns one at a time going around the circle and interacting with the pose. For example “I’m going to pet the dog (pets downward dog on the head). I’m going to go under the bridge (crawls under bridge or crab). I’m going to sit under the tree (sits near the tree) ext. Have students pass their card to the right every time so that they are not holding the same pose for the whole game. It is important that before beginning this game students are reminded of the rules and that we are good friends which means we are kind and gentle with each other.
Calm
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation – Wet noodle/dry noodle – Have children lay in corps pose. Instruct them to make their whole body very stiff and tight like an uncooked dry noodle. Next have them wiggle and be loose like a wet or cooked noodle. Do this several times. Talk about how together they are like a bowl of spaghetti. If the bowl of spaghetti is all dry stiff noodles then the pasta is not very good to eat, but if all the noodles are cooked it tastes good and is fun to eat. As a class sometimes one uncooked noodle can make all the other noodles get tight and tense. Let’s try and practice being kind to each other and if one of us is an uncooked noodles lets be extra kind to help them loosen up! End with one minute of relaxation noticing how heavy their body feels.