Instructor: Betsey Ashley
Community: Preschool Ages, School Setting, 30 minutes
Plan Creation Date: February 3, 2016
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Stillness
Lesson Plan:
Calm
- Belly Breathing – on Backs – Have the children lay on their backs with a small paper boat to place on their bellies. Ask the children to watch the boats rise and fall as they breathe in and out. Talk about boats floating on the waves.
- One Minute Exploration – While the children are still on their backs making the boats rising and falling, lead them in a one minute exploration. Imagine you are riding on your boat in the middle of the ocean. The waves lift you gently up and down. You see an island up ahead. As your boat gets closer to this island you see many beautiful animals on the shore. Your boat drifts up on the sand, and you have to be very quiet and still to not scare the animals away. Take a deep breath, and listen to their different sounds.
Activate
- Rock and Roll – Ask for a student leader. From laying on their backs, have the children bring their knees up to their chest and grab their shins. Next gently roll back and forth up and down your spine. Then rock side to side. Ask for compliments for the student leader.
- Boat – Ask for a student leader. Instruct students to sit on the floor, bending knees toward the chest. Grab backs of the thighs and balance on sitting bones. Lifting the lower back, heart, and head, pulling the shoulders back. While holding the backs of the legs, alternately stretch out one leg at a time, then both together.
- Repeat Rock and Roll – Lead a discussion about the different feeling in the body when it is moving in Rock and Roll, and when it is in stillness during Boat,
- Calm Voice – Students lay down on the floor, and play calming music. Ask students to place the breathing boats on their bellies again, and take some deep belly breathes. Read the sentences on the Calm Voice Worksheet. Ask students to open their eyes and come back to the circle. Discuss what their calm voice sounds like inside.
Calm
- Back Drawing – Draw the ocean on the person’s back in front of you. The waves going up and down. Now draw a boat on the waves, with the sail. Draw the sun shining up above. Now take a breath, and draw the wind blowing the sails. Now brush the drawing away gently with your fingertips.