Creativity

Leaves are Falling!

I LOVE AUTUMN.

It’s my favorite season…the leaves changing colors and falling to the ground, the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves, and of course stomping or rolling around in the leaves…it makes me feel like a kid again!

Now that the foliage is at its peak, I wanted to do a lesson on LEAVES with the children.  I found this book in my home library and never really thought about using it before until I opened it and realized how many animal poses were in the book, I love it when that happens!

look what i did with a leaf

I also brought in some real maple leaves to use for breathing and creative movement.

After our OMs, I introduced the theme by asking the children what season it was.  When they all answered FALL, I asked them ” What is so special about this season?  They all replied…“the leaves change colors and are falling!”  Then I passed out the leaves to the children.

“We are going to use our leaves for our breathing today.”

I instructed them to place the leaves in front of their faces and begin breathing in deeply and exhaling slowly through their mouths “CHOO” like in our TRAIN BREATH . I asked them to notice what happens to their leaf with each breath.  This was a wonderful way to reinforce mindfulness, as they were very focused on their leaves, observing it and its movement.

Then we had some fun and each child gave ideas for other ways to make our leaves move.

They blew on the leaves, they twirled their leaves, they shook their leaves like it was a windy day.

Then I asked them where leaves came from and we did TREE POSE.
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They lifted their leaves above their heads, even on their heads and then made some branches with their arms and then let the leaves fall to the ground. So many creative ideas to f=do with the leaves…

Then we read the book and did our yoga poses:  BUTTERFLY, MOUSE, COW, FROG, LION, BIRD, TURTLE, PEACOCK and more!

The illustrations in the book are beautiful and show the many ways to make art with leaves!

leaf-collage-samples

There is also a page of all the shapes and colors or leaves, so it’s also a great way to reinforce these concepts with preschoolers.  They even had fun “seeing” different shapes in the leaves, like an umbrella, a mitten, a star, a surfboard!

For SAVASANA, I had them place their maple leaves over their eyes, like an eye mask, they fit perfectly!

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I told them a guided visualization about being outdoors in the cool, autumn air, watching the beautiful colors of the leaves and seeing them falling to the ground…

I am always amazed how a simple prop in yoga, especially one that costs nothing and can be found everywhere can transform yoga into a magical experience for children!

A child’s imagination is ripe with possibilities…what can you use in your classes to make learning yoga FUN?

By: Category: Art, Books, Children, Creativity, Fun, Inspiration, Kids Yoga, Meditation, Nature, Teaching, Theme Classes, Yoga

Soul Sketches and Poetic MUSEings

It’s been a while since I shared my MUSEings.

from my journal to you…

DIZZY ON DIVINITY

 

I am HOLY,

a sacred INCARNATION of love

 

inhaling only love

exhaling only love

exuding only love

emBODYing only love

 

Love is my RELIGION.

sacred image

ONE

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I am the sun and the shadows that it casts,

the moon and the darkness it illuminates,

the raging waves and the tiny ripples in the ocean

 

I am  every paradox, parallel,

polar opposite, twin flame,

every reflection

all wrapped into ONE,

ONE me which is you

which is ONE…

 

the ONEness of it all.

 

~ Betty Larrea © October 2013

By: Category: Creativity, Feminine Power, Freedom, Inspiration, Light, Love, Nature, Peace, Poetry, Quotes, Self Development, Self Love, Soul, Spirituality, Transformation, Writing

Halloween Monster Yoga

With Halloween coming up next week, I planned a fun Monster Yoga lesson for the kids.

I found the cutest Sesame Street video on YouTube  called Belly Breathe by Common & Colbie Caillat

Sometimes the monster that’s inside you
Is a monster that is mad
It’s a monster who is angry
It’s a monster who feels bad.
When your monster wants to throw things
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There’s a way to calm your monster and chill your inner monster out.

Belly breathe gonna breathe right through it
Belly breathe this is how you do it.

The kids LOVED the video and were mesmerized watching Elmo while doing their BALLOON (Belly) Breathing.

Next we did a Skeleton Warmup, where I went around the circle and asked each child what part of their skeleton body they wanted to warm up.  There was some head shaking, toe wiggling, arm raising, foot stomping with lots of laughter and fun going on!

I read them an adorable book called Where’s My Mummy? by Carolyn Crimi, which is about a little mummy who plays “Hide & Shriek” with his Mama Mummy and then he can’t find her.

wheres-my-mummy-book-cover

The Baby Mummy sets out to find his MUMMY and meets lots of friendly monsters along the way, like BONES, GLOB and DRAC the VAMPIRE, but he is not scared, her keeps looking for his MUMMY.  The book has lots of fun actions that the children can pretend to do along with the mummy and the other monsters, like TROMPING, BRUSHING your teeth, WIGGLING your head and FLAPPING your wings.  Of course, there are lots of other animals and yoga poses in the book, like FROG, TREE, BAT, and MOUSE too, so we got lots of yoga in too!  The book was perfect for the Halloween season and the children enjoyed the sound effects and illustrations in the book, as they waited for me to turn the page to see what happened next!

Stay tuned for another fun Halloween lesson plan next week…

By: Category: Books, Children, Creativity, Fun, Inspiration, Kids Yoga, Music, Teaching, Theme Classes, Yoga

Yoga Dance

After a month of Meditation and Mindfulness lessons, I wanted to treat my little yogis to a month of Imagination and Play!

Music and Dance are both good for the soul and music is always a big hit in my yoga classes~ so I decided to do a lesson where this kids could express themselves to music while doing yoga too!  Thanks to Angela’s wonderful review on OMazing Kids, I came across an awesome Kids Yoga CD called OMWORK by Kidding Around Yoga.

om_work_cd_cover

There are some really fun yoga dance and movement songs/games on the CD like Hip Hop Yoga Bop, which is a lot like a YOGA FREEZE DANCE.  The children free dance to a funky upbeat song and when the music stops, I call out a yoga pose and we all FREEZE in that pose!  The song even has a little rap with some positive messages about doing yoga:

If you wanna feel good and you wanna be strong, then do your yoga all day long…Breathe, Stretch and Meditate…Be peaceful and be really kind…You’re focused, kind and loving, it’s amazing what yoga brings to you…you see everything in a whole new light…remember to practice every day…

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The last song I used was If Your’e Happy and You Know It because it is a popular kids song that all kids love and it includes a sequence of posers that lead right into Savasana.  I began by singing the original chorus of the song with the children,  We sang and clapped our hands and then I told them we were going to hear a new song and learn some new yoga poses too! The children loved learning some new poses, like Rag Doll and Forward Bend. Then the song leads perfectly into quiet time:

If your’e happy and you know it, take a rest…

The OM WORK CD also has two soothing relaxation songs, one called Garden Dreams is instrumental and has flute and nature sounds, so I played this in the background as I guided them through a visualization of being in their own beautiful garden and engaged all their sense by asking what they see see and hear and feel there.

When they came out of their meditation, we sang a closing song and then I asked the children to share about what they saw in their “garden“.  I got some beautiful responses, like they were planting in their garden, flowers, bunnies and fairies. Some children were more descriptive and it was amazing to hear that they had a positive experience during Savasana.

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Fun, Kids Yoga, Music, Theme Classes, Yoga

Peaceful Piggy Meditation

IMG_6698

PEACEFUL PIGGY sits on his meditation cushion and BREATHES…

One of my favorite yoga books is called PEACEFUL PIGGY MEDITATION!

Continuing with the theme of Meditation and Mindfulness, last week I brought in my PIGGY puppet and he read the book Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Kerry MacLean to the children!  We started with a discussion about all the ways we had been learning about how to calm our “busy” minds.  These are some of the responses I received when I asked them “So, what can we do to quiet our busy, busy minds?”:

“We can do our Balloon Breath”

“We can chant OMs”

We can be QUIET and listen”

“We can do yoga”

It was amazing to hear all the great responses they came up with and to see that they really made the connection between yoga and breathing and being quiet and peaceful inside.

I also brought in a meditation jar I had made with some glitter, water and a bit of blue food coloring.  I had the children gather around in a circle on their bellies to watch, then I shook the jar vigorously and placed it on the floor.   I explained that the glitter in the jar was like all the thoughts going around in our head.   I asked them to watch was happening to the pieces of glitter in the jar.  They told me they were falling and down down and how they stopped moving.  I told them that as the pieces were settling down, the water was becoming clear and still, just like our minds when we do our meditation and quiet time.
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IMG_6690

 The kids LOVED it and wanted me to shake it again and again and were so focused on watching the glitter swirling around then settling down.  It really helped them to understand the idea of how our thoughts can become STILL like the water in the jar when we do our breathing and meditation. To make your own meditation jar, click HERE.

Then we did some yoga poses of animals and objects we found in the book.   In the book, Piggy says:  “it can be hard not to lose your temper when you’re angry” so I passed the PIGGY puppet around and asked each child to share what makes them angry and upset.  Children are not often given a safe place to express what makes the upset or angry, so I wanted to give them a place to be heard in this way with acceptance and love.

After they shared their frustrations, I let them know it was ok to get angry and a good thing to do when we are feeling angry or upset is BREATHE!  I taught them the LION’s BREATH, where they make an angry scrunched up face and then take a deep breath in and stick their tongues out and say “AHHHH” when they breath out!  They all loved it and started laughing.

Peaceful Piggy Meditation helps teach kids that they can find their own PEACEFUL PLACE INSIDE through meditation.

For more Yoga Lesson Ideas on Meditation, see my previous posts:

Teaching Children About Meditation

Taming the Monkey Mind

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Kids Yoga, Meditation, Peace, Props, Spirituality, Teaching, Theme Classes, Yoga

Falling in Love

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By: Category: Creativity, Feminine Power, Inspiration, Light, Love, Poetry, Self Development, Self Love, Soul, Spirituality, Transformation, Writing

Teaching Children about Meditation

peace child

This month’s theme in my yoga classes is Mindfulness and Meditation.

Since I work mostly with preschoolers, ages 2 to 5, the idea of calming the mind can be a lofty and challenging concept to teach.  Young children may not really understand how  the mind is always going, but they DO understand that sometimes it can be hard to LISTEN or to FOCUS on learning  or SIT STILL in school.

Last week, I taught the children about the many ways to QUIET their BUSY MINDS by having the experience in their bodies of moving and dancing and then standing STILL…using their BREATH, LISTENING and VISUALIZATION to help their minds become CALM.  The Busy Minds Song I used helped show the contrast between the constant movement and “busyness” of the mind and the peace and quiet that we can learn to cultivate through these simple techniques of BREATHING, MEDITATION and YOGA.

This week, I explored MINDFULNESS and what it means to be mindful in our THOUGHTS, WORDS and ACTIONS.

mindfulmovements

I used the book Mindful Movements by Thich Nhat Hanh to explain how yoga is about the connection of our BREATH with MOVEMENT. There are 10 mindful movements in the book and many of them are similar to some of the yoga poses that the children are familiar with, so we practiced taking deep breaths in and out as we did each mindful movement 3 times.

I cued them before each breath…
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Take a deep breath in and lift your arms up, breath out as you bring your arms back to your side.      

BREATHE IN….BREATHE OUT.

I explained that the movements were slow, which helps us bring our attention to our breath and our body, so we can be CALM inside.

The children really enjoyed breathing and following me, as we did the movements together.  I also added in some of their favorite yoga songs during class to mix it up a bit.

We ended class with a quiet guided visualization and the children were able to rest in Savasana, using their breath to send a calm, feeling from the top of their heads all the way down to their tip toes.

I just started an amazing CHILD MEDITATION FACILITATORS TRAINING and CERTIFICATION PROGRAM led by Sarah Wood Vallely to teach meditation to children and look forward to learning some new, creative ways to integrate meditation techniques into my classes!

By: Category: Books, Children, Creativity, Fun, Inspiration, Kids Yoga, Meditation, Music, Peace, Spirituality, Teaching, Theme Classes, Transformation, Yoga

Taming the Monkey Mind

crazy monkey

Ever feel like this? How do we calm our MONKEY MIND?

Back to school…my favorite time of year!  New Students and new lessons to explore together!

I wanted to begin the school year with a lesson about the many ways we can quiet our “monkey minds”.

After chanting OMs at the beginning of class,  I brought out one of my favorite stuffed animals CURIOUS GEORGE and explained to the children that our minds can be all over the place.  We call this a monkey mind because like monkeys are always playing and jumping and swinging around, sometimes we have so many busy, busy thoughts and ideas going around in our minds.

“Today, we are going to learn some ways to help us calm and quiet our busy minds…are you ready?”

As a warmup, I used Sara Marlowe’s wonderful mindfulness song called “Busy Minds”, which are available for download on her site.  The children did a “busy mind dance” when she was singing and when the music stopped, they had to freeze and listen, as they practiced some ways of keeping our busy minds still.   From all the laughter and smiling faces, it was easy to see that the children absolutely LOVED this activity and song!

After we discussed some of the ways (mentioned in the song) that we can calm our busy minds…breathing, listening, visualization…I told them that of course yoga is one of the best ways to do this too!

i-love-monkey-book

Next I read the book I LOVE MONKEY by Suzanne Kaufmann.  The book is about a monkey who wants to be special and tries to be all kinds of animals and objects, which were great prompts for yoga poses and movement: BUNNY (Rabbit Pose), ELEPHANT (Elephant BREATH) SQUIRREL, CHICKEN, ROBOT, BEE (Bumble Bee BREATH) and many other silly things, like Monster, Corn, Cucumber, Sushi, etc.!

While there are not many traditional yoga poses in the book, they children really enjoyed the book and making up movements for the animals, creatures and objects in the story.

Monkey Bumble Bee

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At the end of the book, the monkey decides that there is ONE thing that he is really good at being and that is… HIMSELF!  The children had fun pretending to be a MONKEY, jumping and making monkey sounds!!

I really LOVE the message in this book, that everyone is special and you can just BE WHO YOU ARE because that is what makes YOU special! Then I passed Curious George around the room and asked them to share one thing that makes them special, something they like to do or are good at…they shared so many great responses, from baseball to swimming to playing the drums to gardening to yoga even!

 For RELAXATION, I told them “Now we are going to put our busy monkey minds to sleep and enjoy some quiet time.  

In a soothing voice, I read them the last few lyrics from a song called Playing Monkey’s Lullaby by Caroline Cotter

Monkeys playing have more fun

They’re fancy free and tra la la

but even playing monkeys see

the light that shines inside of me

so close your eyes and clear your mind

and find the peace you have inside

and let those monkeys go to sleep

By: Category: Books, Children, Creativity, Fun, Inspiration, Kids Yoga, Meditation, Music, Props, Spirituality, Teaching, Theme Classes, Yoga

Growing Your Fruitful Kids Yoga Business

little girl gardening

Hello blog readers!  I have been away from blogging for a couple of weeks enjoying a much needed vacation.

Now that I am back, I am excited to share that for the past month and a half, I have been busy developing my online training series. It will be a new, improved version of my live Growing Your Kids Yoga Business Organically Playshop offered in NYC a few months ago.  I received several messages from readers interested in an online version of the playshop and with the support of my amazing coach Rebecca Snowball, I am bringing my vision into reality.  More details to come soon…

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It’s back to school time and I have lots of fun lesson planned for this month, so stay tuned!

Kids Messy Hands

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Inspiration, Kids Yoga, Teaching, Transformation, Yoga

Why I Love Teaching Kids Yoga

Betty Reading Smile

First Annual Kids Yoga Held at the Livingston Public Library

by Danielle Santola       Saturday, August 3, 2013 • 6:55am

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LIVINGSTON, NJ – This summer at the Livingston Public Library, certified Children’s Yoga Instructor Betty Larrea ran the first annual Kids’ Yoga program, which attracted an average of 20 children per session. The four-week program invited local youth to come together and expand their minds and creativity through yoga.

At first, the program was available to children in grades K-4, but as the weeks progressed parents began to participate in sessions alongside their children. Attendance also extended to infants as young as eight months old.

Each week, Larrea incorporated music and picture books to teach the children about breathing techniques, stretches and balance. Using a story for guidance, she asked the kids how they think a certain character might look and perform different actions accordingly. Many books have been written intentionally with instructional yoga references, but Larrea found that free form stories, like Marion Dane Bauer’s “How Do I Love You?” allow for greater imagination amongst the kids.

The Librarians often attempt to expand their involvement in the community by offering new and exciting activities. After hearing positive results from the yoga programs in surrounding towns, the Livingston Librarians decided to look into it.

“Yoga is something that enables kids to be creative and express themselves,” said Youth Service Librarian Gina Vaccaro. “We knew people would be interested and since we’re more of a cultural center rather than a traditional library, we’re always looking for new and exciting things.”

Larrea has been teaching yoga to kids for 13 years. She said the difference between adult and child yoga programs is that for kids it is about discovery first and poses later. When children are given the opportunity to express their creativity, she said, they are not only connecting with themselves but discovering new things about themselves as well.

“The connection of integrating the mind and the imagination is a holistic aspect that is already so natural to them,” Larrea said. “At the end there is a state of inner peace, being in their own space and finding a connection with themselves and that’s a beautiful thing.”

Vaccaro said that there was such a positive response from parents that the library intends on continuing the yoga program in the fall and expanding it to interested adults. One child even asked Larrea if she would be interested in helping him throw a yoga-themed birthday party.

“My favorite part of this summer’s experience was seeing the parents engaged,” Larrea said. “We played and had fun and it was a very bonding experience for the families.”

Triangle Pose

By: Category: Books, Children, Creativity, Family, Fun, Kids Yoga, Self Development, Teaching, Theme Classes, Yoga
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