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!

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!

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!

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?