Creativity

Summer Yoga-A Day at the Beach!

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Remember all the childhood fun of a TRIP TO THE BEACH?

This week in my yoga classes, we used our imaginations to go to the beach.

I had a few songs and poses planned, but thought it would be fun to let the kids decide what THEY wanted to do at the beach. It’s amazing how many fun ideas, activities, sea creatures and more! they came up with!

First we got ready by dressing up and packing all the beach gear we needed.

We all pretended to dress up for a day at the beach…Bathing Suit, Sunglasses, a Hat, Flip Flops, and of course putting on some Sunscreen.  The children called out some of the essentials, including: Buckets and shovels, beach balls and toys, beach towels, blankets, umbrella, water and of course snacks!

We did some CHOO CHOO TRAIN BREATHING as we got on the train to the beach: “ALL ABOARD”.

When we got to the beach, we did some SUN SALUTATIONS to thank the sun for a beautiful day!

Then each child got a turn to share what they would like to do at the beach:

We swam, built sandcastles, played with our beachball, looked for seashells, flew like BUTTERFLIES and SEAGULLS, went scubadiving underwater and saw many sea creatures like SHARKS, WHALES, SEA HORSES and OCTOPUS (partner pose), crawled like CRABS, went fishing on a BOAT and caught some BIG FISH, and lots more!!

For my younger preschoolers, we sang the SONG SWIM AROUND THE SEA (to the tune of Ring Around the Rosie)

Swim around the sea, the fishies and me

splashing, splashing, we all get wet!

Then I let the children pick sea creatures for the CHORUS

SHARKS, DOLPHINS, LOBSTERS, etc, and we all did the POSES together.

We also went SURFING to a cool surfing/movement song called  RIDING THE BIG WAVES by Charity and the JAMBand:

runnin’ down to the water…
everybody’s ridin’ the big waves 

paddlin’ into the ocean… 
divin’ under the waves… 
chillin’ out, waitin’ for the set… 
paddlin’ hard, into your wave… 
standin’ up on your board 
droppin’ in and makin’ the bottom turn 
stallin’ and you’re deep in the barrel 
…WIPE OUT!

This catchy song has lots of actions, but we added some yoga poses to do on our surfboards DOWNWARD DOG and HERO!

By the end of class, the kids really were wiped out, so we did our STILL AS A STARFISH guided relaxation for SAVASANA and listened to the sounds of the ocean waves as we rested on our beach towels.

I love giving the children I teach the opportunity to generate ideas and make their own FUN in yoga class by using their creativity and enthusiasm.  The class was jam-paced with stretching, movement, play and lots of laughs!!

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

Following My Muse

Muse Bradbury Quote

I used to think that I needed inspiration to write poetry, to make art, to create something.  

Lately, I have been rather uninspired, waiting for the feelings to rush over me so I could make something out of them.  But, feelings don’t work that way…you can’t will them or force them to come, as much as you can’t tame and control them when they do.  The past few weeks, I have been allowing my feelings to “be”, to come and go, no resistance, no judgment…while easier said than done.

And so it is with inspiration.

I have been writing new poetry.  The words come slowly, sometimes I need to wait for them.  All this is new to me,  I am so used to just pouring my feelings out, channeling them into my writing.  Yet, I am evolving and so is my poetry.  I am learning to relish the sweet anticipation of what is to come…

My writing is a reflection of me, of my soul, I breathe life into my words.

Right now there is mostly silence inside, some waves, but no turbulence, this too is new.  I am riding the waves, and every once in a while, the words bubble up inside and I catch them with my pen.

I am letting my MUSE guide me, she knows where I am going…

By: Category: Blogging, Creativity, Inspiration, Peace, Poetry, Quotes, Self Development, Soul, Spirituality, Transformation, Writing

ABC Yoga

One of the best things about being a kids yoga teacher is coming up with creative lessons!

I have been having lots of fun in my yoga classes experimenting with some new props and yoga resources.

This week, I was excited to try out my new Rainbow Kids ABC Play Cards, which I bought online on the Rainbow Kids Yoga website!

Rainbow Kids ABC Yoga Cards

ABC Yoga is a great way for kids to learn about the alphabet AND explore yoga!

I introduced my lesson by asking:

Did you know we can use our bodies to make each letter of the alphabet?  I brought these very special cards for us to do some special ABC Yoga Poses.  Are you ready…what’s the first letter of the alphabet?

They all called out “A”!! and that’s where the fun began…

The A card was for ALIEN which is a modified DOWNWARD DOG, so I asked them what yoga pose it looked like and we started in Down Dog and lifted one arm to make the line across our “A”.  For some of the poses, such as BUTTERFLY, we did both the letter shape AND the actual yoga pose (Baddha Konasana).

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The kids loved the whimsical illustrations on the cards (A for ALIEN, F for FLAMINGO, M for MERMAID, U for UNICORN)  and trying to guess what pose came next!

They also came up with other favorite yoga poses that began with some of the letters, including as CAT, DOG, FROG, LION and more!

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After doing 26 yoga poses, they were more than ready for Savasana and now that the school year is almost over, I can see how much more relaxed and able to be still they are.  At the end of one of my classes, the children started singing the ABC’s song which warmed my heart because I know they enjoyed doing ABC YOGA!

Being a writer and word lover myself, the more I use books and other resources that reinforce literacy,  the more I appreciate being able to teach kids to develop a love of language, as well as yoga!

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

Yoga and Imagination~ Perfect Together

Imagine Colors

Kids Yoga is part poses, part play and ALL IMAGINATION!

In today’s yoga classes, my theme was simply YOGA.  I have been teaching yoga to this particular group of preschoolers for over  a year and a half and they have come a long way from the first day I walked into their classroom.  It’s amazing to see their development  physically, mentally and emotionally.  These kids are always so enthusiastic about yoga that they are constantly asking to share the new poses they made up.  So today, I allowed them to lead the class in doing their very own original yoga poses!

What is YOGA?

We began the class with a discussion on what YOGA is.  I got some really amazing answers from the children about why we do yoga and what they like about yoga:

“It helps us be strong.”

“It’s exercise and makes us healthy.”  

“To practice.”

“You get to be whatever you want to be”

Then we went through the sequence of our yoga class.  When I asked why we started class with OMs their responses  were:

“We chant our OMs so we can get ready for yoga.”

“We say OM so we can be calm.”

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Ready, Set, BREATHE

I then asked the children what came next in yoga class and they immediately called out “BREATHING”.  We talked about how important it is to breathe and how good it feels.  I asked what their favorite breathing exercise was, some liked Balloon (belly) Breathing and others liked Volcano, so we did both.

I can BE a Yoga Teacher!

I then turned the class over to the children and they each got a turn to teach their pose to the rest of the class.  It was amazing to see that they understood the concept that how each pose stretches a certain part of the body.  Some of the poses they made up were cheetah, fire truck, helicopter, and dinosaur while other children showed us new versions of their favorite poses, including tree, camel, and dog.  Letting them demonstrate the pose allowed them to learn leadership and you could tell how proud they were after we clapped our hands for our “teachers”.

Time to Relax

After our stretching, moving and trying out all hese creative new poses, the children were ready for Savasana.  I played Kira Willey’s Colors, which includes yoga poses in the many colors of the rainbow:

I am purple today, bright and happy like a butterfly in the air

I am yellow today, I shine my light out like the sun

I’m a rainbow today, all the colors of the world…are in me

The class was a huge success and it makes me so happy to see how much my kids have progressed in their yoga practice and to know that they really “get” how yoga helps them in their lives.

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By: Category: Children, Creativity, Inspiration, Kids Yoga, Self Development, Teaching, Theme Classes, Yoga

Be Like a Butterfly~ Becoming Who You Are

becoming a butterfly

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”                                                                                                                                                 ~Maya Angelou

Spring is a time of change and this week in my yoga classes, the children explored the life cycle of a butterfly.  I began by reading them a Butterfly poem.  Then we acted out how the little caterpillar grows inside its chrysalis and undergoes its transformation to become a beautiful butterfly.  We sang their favorite Butterfly song and then played a butterfly game with feathers.   The children paired up and one child would throw the feather gently in the air while the other tried to catch it carefully in the palm of their hand. They all enjoyed finding creative ways (like blowing on it) to pass the feather.

A butterfly symbolizes transformation and freedom. It represents hope for the future and stepping into a new life.  

Sometimes I forget how much I have grown and what I needed to let go of to have the life I have now.  As I continue to evolve into the woman I was meant to be, I am shedding old beliefs that no longer serve me, that have kept me from being “fully me”.  Every day, I take more risks, I become more comfortable in my own skin and I love who I am a little bit more.

butterfly

I teach yoga because I want all children to experience the freedom of the butterfly~ where they are  not afraid to be who they are and to reach for their dreams.

Like a butterfly, we are always changing…until one day we emerge from our cocoon, spread our wings and FLY!

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Freedom, Kids Yoga, Poetry, Self Love, Spirituality, Transformation, Yoga

Listening with Your Heart

Listen-with-your-heart-1

Listening is one of the most challenging lessons that educators are faced with when teaching children.

One of the themes we explored this month in my yoga classes was LISTENING.  After I introduced the theme, I asked the children to share why listening is so important and where they can listen.  Many of them responded that they listen to teachers  so they can learn and to their parents when they ask them to do something.  We discussed how listening was a great way of helping too.  Then I told them that we were going to practice our listening by reading 2 poems and asked them to “put on their listening ears”.

Poetry is such a wonderful resource for teaching.

Children are captivated by the sound of rhyming words and the singsong of your voice as you recite each verse.  After reading the first poem, I asked the children to help me with the next “action poem” where I read part of the poem and we pointed to different parts of our bodies and they filled in the missing words.

This is the poem I used:

I listen mostly with my _____ (ears, point to ears)

But I sometimes listen with my _____ (eyes, point to eyes)

I look at your _____ (face, point to face)

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I listen mostly with my  ______ (eyes, point to eyes)

That’s a really good place to start

But I learn a lot about you

When I listen with my ______ (heart, point to heart)

Playing listening games is a fun way to teach listening skills.

One was yoga telephone where the children sit in a circle and close their eyes. I placed a small animal puppet in one child’s hands and when they all opened their eyes, that child whispers the name of the animal to the next child and then each child whispers in the next child’s ear until it goes around the circle.  Then the last child names the puppet and we all do the yoga pose together. For younger kids, we passed the puppet around the circle and the children had to listen to when the music stopped and the child with the puppet in their hand led the class in that yoga pose.

Most importantly, children learn that listening is not something they only do with their ears, but also with their eyes, their hearts, their whole beings.  They understand the importance of listening to their teachers, parents, family and friends as a way to show that they care.

listen quote

image credit amtbweb.org

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Kids Yoga, Poetry, Self Development, Teaching, Yoga

Permeable Membrane- Inspired Poem

permeable membrane

©2008 Betty Larrea

“I A serious allergic reaction to this drug 20mg levitra canada is very useful. They can also lead to some severe psychological effects on the pulmonary hemodynamics. rx generic viagra The device is recommended by doctors for correcting curvature in penis viagra free sample click that during erection. Angina is a symptom of heart disease and can cause pain in your chest, india cheapest tadalafil jaw, or down your arm. am the permeable membrane” is a line from the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

By: Category: Books, Creativity, Feminine Power, Inspiration, Love, Poetry, Relationships, Self Development, Spirituality, Transformation, Writing

Partner Yoga Fun

This is a repost of a prior blog entry because my Partner Yoga poses have been quite popular.  

Here are some great ideas here for doing Partner Yoga with kids, tweens and teens. Enjoy!!

My niece has been doing yoga with her Auntie B (me) since she was a baby and is familiar with many of the kids’s versions of the poses.   Now that she is older, she has been more open to learning new poses and has even come to a yoga class with me.

The other night, my niece and I decided to do some yoga.

We set up our yoga mats in the living room and I had brought my Yoga Pretzel Deck which has lots of fun yoga activities for kids of all ages.  She looked through the cards and was immediately drawn to the Partner Poses, so she pulled out the cards and we gave them a try.

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Partner Yoga is FUN!

We started with Partner Warrior and then moved on to some sitting poses like See Saw and Partner Boat.  We had quite a few laughs trying to lift our legs up at the same time because my niece has extraordinarily long legs for a 12 year old!   We tried every single one of the partner poses, some more than once.

Our favorites were Double Downward Dog and Lizard on a Rock, where one person rests in Child’s Pose (the “Rock”) and the other (the “Lizard” lays  on their back…what an amazing back stretch!  And from the smile on her face, it’s easy to see how much she liked this pose.

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Lizard on a Rock

We had a hard time (and non-stop amusement) trying to get up off the floor from sitting back to back in Partner Chair, but my niece would not give up.   She was determined to figure out how we could lift each other up and we almost got up, but it didn’t happen.  We really enjoyed some flying poses where we lifted each other up in the air!

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Wheee!

Partner yoga is such a wonderful bonding experience for children and adults alike…it involves supporting your partner, helping each other stretch and looking at each other while in the pose. It was so much fun doing yoga together and hearing the sound of my niece’s laughter!

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Family, Love, Partner Yoga, Relationships, Yoga

Partner and Group Poses for Kids

A great way to teach children about working together is by doing partner poses.

Partner yoga teaches kids  to work together and be gentle with each other and kids love it too!  Begin with a discussion on how you can help others and then introduce how we can also help each other with our yoga poses.  Select a few poses that can be done with a partner or all together as a group and then start by doing each pose alone.  Some great poses to try together are TREE, FLOWER, BOAT, PRETZEL, and DOWNWARD DOG.  Then pair children up with a buddy for some poses and do others together as a group.  For example, when you do Tree or Flower with everyone holding hands in a circle, you can make a Forest of Tress or a Garden of Flowers together.

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A garden of flowers!

Downward Dog Tunnel is a great activity to teach kids about focus, body awareness and working together.  Children line up and come up into down dog together as one child goes under them through the “tunnel”.  They really enjoy watching their friends as they crawl under them and waiting their turn to go through the tunnel!

Downward Dog TunnelPartner poses are not only fun but can be a great platform for teaching children the importance of getting along, working together and being mindful when interacting with one another.  Doing yoga together teaches kids valuable life skills that they can use at school and at home and carry with them throughout their lives.

working together

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Partner Yoga, Relationships, Self Development, Teaching, Yoga

Teacher Thursdays- Imagination & Kids Yoga Props

Imagination

Photo Credit- Embellished Minds

This is the first in my weekly Blog Feature called TEACHER THURSDAYS for Yoga Teachers of all ages or Parents who want to teach their child yoga.

The best part part about teaching children yoga is that I get to use my CREATIVITY and IMAGINATION.

Just like the children use their imagination to BE a Frog or a Lion or a Tree, I get to use my imagination to make yoga FUN for my students.   There are so many amazing resources out there for kids yoga teachers, from Books to Yoga Card Decks to Games and Plush Toys. For some of my favorite resources and music, which are a staple in most of my yoga classes, you can take a look at my blog post Kids Yoga Playlist and Resources.  While I have invested in many of these books, CDs and instructional tools, I have found that some of my most popular lessons have been when I used simple toys or props as a springboard for yoga poses.

Here are some fun prop ideas you can use in Class:

Finger Puppets and Stuffed Animals

Last summer I found some Animal and Sea Creature finger puppets that have become a big hit with the kids.  I keep them in a bag and have each come up and pick a puppet from the bag and then we all do the yoga pose together.  The children get so excited when I bring the puppets in and they have fun using their imagination to make up their own poses for some of the animal puppets, such as Giraffe or Zebra. At the end of class, I give them a few minutes to play with their puppets or put on a puppet show.  They LOVE it!  The puppets are fun because during our relaxation time, I place the puppet on their bellies and tell them to close their eyes and take  deep breaths, feeling their bellies rise and fall as they give their puppets a ride.

Stuffed Animals are also great props for a kids yoga class and the variety of animals out there make them perfect for teaching new poses or playing yoga games.  You can play a game where each child gets to pick a stuffed animal from a bag and we do they pose together OR you have each child pick their favorite stuffed animal and DO YOGA with it.  The stuffed animal helps the child to keep their focus on their body while doing the pose..  For example, they can balance the stuffed animal on their head in TREE POSE or lift their stuffed animal on their belly while doing BRIDGE POSE…the possibilities are endless!

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One day while browsing through the dollar store, I saw a sticker sheet of jungle animals and another one of sea creatures.  So many of the animals were poses the children were learning in my classes, so I bought several sheets to try out in my classes.  All children love stickers, so when I brought them out during class, they were thrilled!  Each child gets a turn to pick their favorite sticker and we practice the yoga pose together!  The wide variety of stickers available makes them perfect for teaching all kinds of other poses too, such as AIRPLANE, FLOWER or SUN SALUTATIONS.

Soft Ball or Stuffed Pillow Games

Passing around a soft ball or small stuffed pillow during games or sharing time can be a fun way to help children focus.  Try playing a different variation of  “Hot Potato” where you play some music and keep passing the object around. When the music stops, the child who has the ball or pillow in their hands, gets to choose their favorite yoga pose to do with the class.

Imagination is such an important part of learning and letting children discover yoga through play will make it a practice they can carry with them throughout their lives because it’s FUN!

These are just some of the many ways to use CREATIVITY to design yoga classes that all your students will enjoy! Be sure to stop by next week for more teaching themes and resources.

If you have any other creative ideas to share, I would love to hear from you…

Namaste

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Family, Kids Yoga, Props, Teaching, Yoga
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