Instructor: Kelly Gorder
Community: School Setting, 30 minutes
Plan Creation Date: March 31, 2016
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Stillness
Class Intention: To increase student’s ability to quiet their mind and body; to be selfaware; to develop sensitivity, self control and self regulation. The students are in a small group, quiet classroom setting with minimal distractions and have been working on developing rapport with one another. There will be quiet music playing and the lights will be turned off to increase comfort levels. Challenging behaviors include anxiety, Autism, communication disorders and learning disorders. Students are all on Individualized Education Plans and receive a variety of special education services.
Lesson Plan:
Calm
Breathing Techniques
- Chime – We are going to start our class today by sitting or lying on your mat with our eyes closed. Everything will be still. Pay attention to your breath and mindful of the sounds around you. You will hear the chime. Your job is to listen as carefully as you can to the sound of the chime. When you can no longer hear the chime, show me a thumbs up being careful not to disturb others around you. Listen. Let’s try it one more time. This time, keeping your body as still as possible, pay attention to whether or not you can hear the sound for the same amount of time.
- Belly Breathing – Feel the weight of your body in your chair and place your hands on your belly. Make everything feel heavy. Breathe into your belly so that hands go up and out when you breath in and that your hands go down when you breathe out. Who would like to be the leader? How many breaths should we take? Do you want to use the breathing ball too? Compliments.
Activate
Yoga Based Movement
- Glitter Ball – We are going to begin by moving our bodies around in one place as fast as we can. Be careful not to touch anyone else or enter their personal space. Your job is to move in one place as quickly as you can when you see the glitterball moving. When the glitterball stops, I want you to become as still as the night air. Feel your breath slow. Feel your body calm. What does it feel like to you to have your glitter settle? How do we help to have the glitter settle? Where do we feel the glitter in our own body?
- Cat/Cow – Now that our glitter is settled we are going to come to all fours with your hands under shoulders and knees under hips. Breathe out, lower head and tuck tail. Your back will round up like a cat’s. Breathe in, look up, and lift head and collarbones. Your belly will drop like a cow’s. Breath smoothly and slowly, moving from Cat to Cow and matching the motion with your breath. Find what feels good and become still at the top and bottom of every move.
- Child – Kneel on the floor. With the tops of feet on the floor, touch the big toes together and sit back on the heels. Stack hands on the floor to make a pillow, or pull arms alongside body. Relax your neck, hips and back. Let your head be heavy. Breathe into your back and let it puff like a parachute. Focus on your breath in through your nose and out through your mouth. How still can you keep your body? 1 second? 5 seconds? 30 seconds? Repeat silently, “I am still. I am in control of my body. I can keep my body calm. I can breathe to help my body stay still.”
- Downward Dog – Come to all fours with hands under shoulders and knees under and slightly behind hips. Point fingers straight ahead and spread them like rays of the sun. Press down through the four corners of the hands and feet. Activate
and straighten arms. Turn toes under and press thighs and hips toward the wall behind you, creating an “A” shape. Keep arms straight with head and chest slightly lifting up to create a flat back from head to hips. Knees can be slightly bent to keep back from rounding up. If you can feel this in your lower back, be sure to lift your child and look up through the window that your arms are making to remain still. Since we have been concentrating on being still, I will time us to see how long we can hold this pose. If you need to come down to your knees into Child, you may do this and stay still. - Mountain – From Downward Dog, walk your hands back to meet your feet. Slowly roll your body up one vertebrae over the next until your head is the last thing to come up. Stand with your feet hip width apart, pointing straight ahead, and press them down into the earth.. Hands can be down at your sides or palms together at your heart. Lift your belly, head and heart. Shoulders should be back and down. Look straight ahead. Your body is now activated. The top of your head should be reaching to the sky to feel the warmth of the sun and your feet should be pressed into the ground like a strong, heavy rock. Be still. Be calm. Be focused on your breath. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale….
Calm
- Back Breathing – Find your elbow buddy and one of you will get into Child pose while the other partner will kneel alongside and place their hands gently on your elbow buddy’s back. For the partner in child pose, breathe slowly into your lower back and into your partner’s hands. Feeling the rise and fall like waves in an ocean. Keep breathing until you hear the chime. Move your hands up to mid back and repeat until you hear the chime. Now move your hands to your upper back and repeat. Switch roles.
- One Minute Exploration – Lie on the floor. I want you to picture yourself in a stressful situation (taking a test, meeting a new friend, going to the doctor). What can you do to keep your body still, calm, focused? What can you do with your breath? What can you do with your body? How can you let your glitter settle?. Lie there as still as you can focusing on your breath. Continue to repeat your power words of choice “I am still. I am in control of my body. I can keep my body calm. I can breathe to help my body stay still” until you hear the chime. Give me a thumbs up when you can no longer hear the chime.