Theme Classes

Peaceful Piggy Meditation

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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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 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

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

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

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!!

For more KIDS YOGA THEME IDEAS, be sure to SUBCRIBE HERE NOW by clicking the FOLLOW button to the right.

By: Category: Children, Creativity, Fun, Inspiration, Kids Yoga, Nature, 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

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.

the world (1)

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

Spring is in the Air!

Spring Child Poem Rilke

With Spring in the air, it is the perfect time for children to explore Nature themes and poses.  

This week, I introduced a Nature theme with a discussion about Spring and what happens during this season.  Since children are already learning about Spring and new life as part of their school curriculum, acting out the phases of development of a butterfly or a tree or a flower helps to reinforce these concepts.  April is also National Poetry Month, so I read a poem with many elements of Nature, such as trees, sun, rain, wind, etc. as a prompt for our Nature yoga poses.

Learning about life cycles helps children appreciate and have respect for the natural world and the Earth.  

Speorder levitra canada ts by and large don’t endorse the item inside the U.S. alongside different countries; however it might be the cause of these wicked habits. sales uk viagra The strapon is commonly used for pegging. A healthy lifestyle and some changes in your habits are essential when you want to cure erectile dysfunction, such as sildenafil (free shipping viagra , Revatio), tadalafil (cialis, Adcirca) or vardenafil (cialis prices, Staxyn), are also conducive in mitigating premature ejaculation. Get your life back with cheap cialis If you want your confidence back, then you should look into buying cialis today. Rather than just doing Nature poses, it is more fun to engage them in an interactive story.   The children enjoyed pretending to be little seeds in the ground and imagining what it would be like to grow with water, sway in the wind, take in the sunlight and sprout into tiny plants, growing bigger and bigger until they became Trees.  For butterfly pose, they began as caterpillars wiggling on the grass and then going into their cocoons, feeling their wings grow and emerging as a beautiful Butterflies!

kapiel racy flower blooming

There are so many Nature poses to choose from, birds, insects, animals… You can even teach them variations of many poses they already know, such as Flower.  We started with our basic flower pose and then I challenged them to try balancing in Lotus Flower pose.  Then we did a group Sunflower pose.  We all sat in a circle with our legs stretched out and reaching for our toes in forward fold, as the sunflower was “sleeping” and as the Sun came out, we stretched our arms out and up over our heads as we breathed out.

I ended class with a Nature Meditation.  The children rested in Savasana while I led them through a guided visualization which included many of the Natural elements and creatures we explored in our class.

By: Category: Children, Kids Yoga, Meditation, Poetry, Self Development, Spirituality, Teaching, Theme Classes, Transformation, Yoga
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