Kids Yoga week 3

Another week of Kids Yoga...and the Director was right. Week 3 they begin to test you!

I brought the drums out at the beginning today. Not the best idea! They were wild the rest of class. I have two boys that know each other well, so they spend much of their time running after each other. And today one mom brought both kids, so she was trying her best to be "good cop" to both of them.

It began to settle out when I brought the scarves out in the mystery box. I found two songs related to scarves to use. And to encourage the boys to return back to the circle, I challenged them to "paint" their mats with the scarves.

My Scarf Goes (Tune: Farmer in the Dell)
My scarf goes up, my scarf goes down, and then my scarf goes around, around, around.
My scarf goes in, my scarf comes out, and then my scarf likes to fly all about.

Scarfkin (Tune: where is Thumbkin?)
Where is Sadie, where is Sadie? [child hides under scarf] There she is! There she is! [pull scarf off]
Hello Miss Sadie, hello Miss Sadie. Hide again, hide again

Kids Yoga Week 2

I am quickly developing a lesson plan for the kids classes. We open with a greeting song, introduce the theme, do the Sun Salutation song, then some creative movement/pretend play with the poses. The Mystery Box always comes out, then transition to resting and finally goodbyes.

This week the theme was insects. I drew upon a song I learned in Four Winds this month.
Sung to "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"
Lyrics:
Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen.
Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen.
Two antennae, wings and six wiggly legs,
Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen!

I got some wooden insects for them to use and we pretended we were insects in a garden of trees and flowers (parents).

It was fun, but the insect part was way over their heads. Ah well.

Kids Yoga begins!

Today was my first "Creative Kids" Yoga class at Evolution Yoga. I am excited, nervous, happy, thrilled.

I am learning much about using the space, the music, the heat of the room, and mostly: the kids. 3- and 4-year-olds, happy and eager to play and do yoga.

I have a lot to learn about the songs. Evolution likes to keep some similar themes and flow so families know what to expect from each class. The Director has some songs she likes and they work, but it's all new to me so I'm learning quickly.

Every week I want to have a theme. This week I had an "Apples" theme. We began class with introductions and a song that uses each child's name. I asked them their favorite fruit. After that I taught them the sun salutation song that Evolution uses.

We did some exploring of the yoga mats, stretching. Then I dove into the theme. We did pretend play, like we were picking apples in an orchard. We squished them to make applesauce. Then we were animals in an orchard.

Evolution uses a Mystery Box with something inside to surprise the kids. I used some felt hearts this week. They stick nicely to the body and they can use them to rest with.

I closed the class out with a goodbye song. Then we give out stamps.