Props

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

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

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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