Thanks for attending the NJEA conference with us! We really enjoyed having such an enthusiastic group willing to try out everything. If you weren’t able to join us, feel free to look over the below. We have several upcoming teacher trainings in case you want to go more in-depth with bringing kids yoga to your classroom.
To refresh your memory, here are some of the effective yoga poses you can use in any small space (along with additional ideas) and that kids will love!
Mountain Pose: Standing Tall (Great for working on your posture); Sit down or stand up to work on posture going from a “happy back” into a “sad back”….the spine will open up and kids will learn to associate a tall spine with a positive emotional state!
Standing Forward Bend: helps elongate the spine, aid flexibility and de-stress
Warrior 2: Strength, Endurance, Focus
Triangle pose with middle school students
Triangle Pose: Core strength, flexibility, body awareness
You can also do triangle pose with a partner as we tried out in the workshop!
Downward Dog at age 2.5
Downward Dog: Build the nervous system and get blood to the brain
Tree Pose in a circle
Tree pose: Balance
In bigger spaces, this is fun to do while holding hands with a partner or practicing holding hands in a circle with the entire class. (Pictured left)
Child’s Pose: the magic pose for kids and teens
Child’s pose: a miracle pose! It nearly guarantees your students will be quiet. If you don’t have room to do a full child’s pose, consider having the student sit on his/her knees in a chair and lay forehead on desk.
There are many ways to combine yoga poses into easy sequences that kids can memorize and do on a regular basis. The ones below are what we covered in the training; taking up less space so you can do it next to a desk if need be.
Simple Routine #1
• 1. Mountain
• 2. Mountain Arms Up
• 3. Forward Bend
• 4. Mountain Arms Up
• 5. Mountain
Simple Routine #2
• 1. Mountain
• 2. Mountain Arms Up
• 3. Forward Bend
• 4. Mountain Arms Up
• 5. Mountain
• 6. Tree Pose
Simply Routine #3
• 1. Mountain
• 2. Mountain Arms Up
• 3. Forward Bend
• 4. Squat
• 5. Chair Pose
• 6. Mountain Arms Up
• 7. Mountain
Playing with calming yoga techniques is also advised and helpful for students on many levels. Sue demonstrated walking silently while holding a bell in your hand and we also “passed the squeeze” by holding hands and sending a squeeze from one end of the room to another. Perhaps the most authentic yoga technique that is used in Western therapy modalities now is Kirtan Kriya. Click on Kirtan and you’ll see a reminder video on how that goes. Finally, always a big hit is the BALLOON BREATH!
Additional Resources
Yogarilla 55 Yoga Cards by Kimberly Mielke
Make your own yoga flashcards from the yoga dictionary here: Yoga Journal (www.yogajournal.com/poses)
A whole wealth of kids yoga information here…we highly recommend this website! Omazing Kids (www.omazingllc.com)
Yogi and Yogette Learn the Asana Alphabet by Ann Robideaux…this is the one with 26 poses, one for each letter of the alphabet. Those who attended our NJEA workshop are eligible for our wholesalers discount (email us if interested).
Full-time school teachers always receive a discount on our teacher trainings. Our next one is coming up very soon, Nov. 16-17 at Kula Heart Yoga in Nazareth, PA. Also “local” to NJ is our next NYC training March 1-2. We are currently in discussion about our next NJ training…please be in touch if that is what would most interest you.
Namaste! Ann (with Sue)
Asana Alphabet 