12 Dec 2013
Winter Yoga Fun!
BRRRRRRR…it’s cold out there and now that we’ve had our first snowfall, I wanted to treat my students to some WINTER YOGA FUN!
I usually buy my books, but I decided to brave the cold, so I made it out to my local library and found the perfect book for this week’s lesson: WHEN WINTER COMES by Nancy Van Laan.
For CIRCLE TIME, each child shared what they love about WINTER and what they like to do in the wintertime. Then we did a cute warm-up that was a variation of the HOKEY POKEY, but instead we called it the WINTER POKEY!! (You can find the lyrics here or just have the kids make up what they want to put on.)
I told them that we needed to get dressed for the cold weather and asked “What could we wear?”
They all chimed in with their ideas and one by one we warmed up our body parts!
We put our gloves in
we take our gloves out
we put our gloves on (pretend to put gloves on hands)
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and we shake ’em (SHAKE HANDS) all about
We do the WINTER POKEY and we turn ourselves around
That’s what it’s all about!
After putting on our snow boots, coats, scarves, etc, some of my students even came up with silly ideas like being a REINDEER, putting antlers on, RUDOLPH (putting a red nose on) and SANTA (putting a beard on). I am always inspired by my kid’s imaginations, we laughed twirled around and had so much fun!
Then we had yoga story time. When Winter Comes is such a great book to teach kids about what happens to the natural world, the trees and flowers and animals too. After our Fun AUTUMN LEAVES LESSON last month, it was especially nice that the book started with the leaves falling to the ground…
It is full of poses: they pretended to be a TREE and the leaves falling to the ground, FLOWER wilting and then growing, crawling around like a CATERPILLAR going into its COCOON and turning into BUTTERFLY in Spring, Field MOUSE burrowing in a tunnel underground, FISH swimming to the bottom of a pond, DOG and ends with a child snuggled up warm in bed, which is the perfect prompt for Relaxation time.
I played a beautiful lullaby called If You Listen by Elizabeth Mitchell for the younger children and made up a guided visualization for the older ones. Maybe it’s because we tend to be more tired in the winter, but I was so happy to see my classes resting quietly and enjoying the stillness during SAVASANA.
18 Jan 2014
A Perfect SNOWY Day!
We has some more Snowy Yoga Fun with this great book A Perfect Day by Carin Berger.
On another trip to my local library (where I have been spending some time perusing the children’s books like I used to as a child), I discovered this great book to use in my classes this week. It never ceases to amaze me how a simple book can turn my yoga classes into a magical field trip to wild and wonderful places! Children just love it when they get to go out on a winter adventure even in the warmth & coziness of their own classroom…
We started class with a Winter’s Breath…I asked the children to take a deep breath in and place their hands out in front of their faces so they could feel the warm air as they exhaled. Then we did a cute SNOWFLAKE MOVEMENT warm-up where we pretended to move and twirl and fall like snowflakes to the ground to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star which can be found on the Intellidancing Youtube page.
The illustrations in A Perfect Day have a vintage collage and playful feel to them and the kids loved all the fun winter activities and yoga poses we got to explore together.
Here are just some of the fun YOGA POSES and MOVEMENTS they loved:
TREE
MOUNTAIN
Skiing in CHAIR
DOWNWARD DOG and UPWARD DOG
Snowball Fight
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Building Snowman GROUP POSE (children in CHILD’S POSE for base, some kneeling and making BALLOON BELLY BREATHS and the rest standing with arms outstretched in a circle around them)
Snow Fort (children lined up in two rows with arms outstretched to make a ROOFTOP while one child went inside FORT)
Sledding on our YOGA MAT SLEDS
Snow Angels (Movement then RECLINING STAR POSE)
Lanterns (CANDLE)
Warm Hugs (Give yourself a HUG)
Hot Chocolate (Stirring with ARM CIRCLES)
CRESCENT MOON
SAVASANA
Then I played some soothing music and did a guided visualization which they really enjoyed. Even a snowy day can be an opportunity to take kids on a magical yoga journey!