Teaching Yoga in An Educate Together School

 Learn Together Curriculum  Benefits  Short Yoga Breaks  30 minute class  Resources

 Meditations and visualisations develop self-awareness  Affirmations help to build self- confidence  Breathing and relaxation techniques help children to feel relaxed and calm

 Introduces children to exercise in a non- competitive and fun way  Increases endorphins, elevates mood and positive emotions  Encourages all children to explore their full range of abilities

 Stretches and tones the muscles  Creates flexibility  Improves balance.  Improves posture and teaches children to be able to sit properly  Builds strong muscles and helps improve performance in other sports.

 Encourages creativity  Deepens understanding of all areas of curriculum  Improves concentration and memory skills  Reduces anxiety

 In the Classroom: Sitting at the desk, on the carpet area of the classroom, beside their desks  In the Hall  On the playground or grass

When to Take a Yoga Break?  First thing in the morning  Between activities  When waiting in a line  Before and after lunch  Before a test  At the end of the day.  Teachers and special needs assistants also benefit by doing yoga during the day  It helps children to assimilate knowledge learned

 Energising Pose: A volcano  Energising Sequence of Poses: Sun Salutation  Breathing Exercise: dragon breath or elephant breath

 Balancing pose like the tree or the eagle  Breathing exercise: the bunny breath

Breathing Exercise: Bear breath or Bee breath Child’s pose: curl up like a mouse Visualisations and Meditations

 Tarzan’s Tap: Tap all over the skull to energise the three parts of the brain.  Eyes around the clock: Helps to balance the brain. Keeping head still, just move the eyes to 1 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 11 o’clock etc.  Use a song ‘I’m a little teapot’ and do the triangle pose as a variation to the usual actions.

Star Cards!  Put the Star Cards in a draw-string bag and let children pick on out at the start of the day. Tell them that is their magic power or special quality for the day.  Ask one child to pick one for the class and write it up on the white board as that day’s theme.

 Longer sequences can be taught as part of a P.E. class under both the dance and gymnastics strand.  30 minutes, with extra time for set up and tidying up.  Props: Yoga mats and eye pillows It should be fun, dynamic, creative and stimulating to the child’s imagination

 PE  Strand: Dance  Strand Unit: Explore and develop a greater range of movements of body parts and body actions  Strand: Gymnastics  Strand Unit: Movement  SPHE  Strand: Myself  S.Units: Self Awareness/  Developing Self Confidence/Taking care of my body  Strand: Myself and others  S.Units: My friends and other people/relating to others

 Postures can be standing, sitting, balancing, forward bends, backbends, twistings  Have children work with a partner to create new postures  Change the classical names to suit a story. A lot of postures already are named after parts of nature or have a meaning, eg mountain, cobra, dancer, warrior

 Beginning:  Sit in a circle. Children tune in and centre themselves using a breathing exercise and possibly an affirmation/key message  Middle:  Do the postures. Use a story or topical theme as a stimulus. Use games and partner yoga. Find animals, parts of nature, an action or emotion and match it to a posture. Have children make up their own posture.  End:  Children lie on the floor. Bring them to a still and peaceful place. Read a meditation or visualisation from the CD

Meditations & Visualisations Relax Kids: The Wishing Star, by Marneta Vegas (book) 52 guided meditations based around traditional stories Enchanted Meditations for Kids, by Christiane Kerr (CD) This 1-hour CD has 8 short story meditations. Each meditation story has subtle sound effects and gentle music, and are preceded by a relaxation exercise, which can be used separately.

Yoga Games for Children – Fun and Fitness with Postures, Movements and Breath (SmartFun Activity Books) For children aged 6 and up – The games involve relaxation, trust, and cooperation. Included are over 50 illustrations and 16 structured lessons based on themes like the seasons, rain, snow, and animals. Once Upon a Pose: A Guide to Yoga Adventure Stories for Children, Donna Freeman Lots of fun yoga games and activities, and a section on yoga for special needs children. Each of the ten yoga adventure stories have French translations and take minutes to complete. Also included are 108 classroom applications for Preschool to 6 th YogaKids: Educating the Whole Child through Yoga, Marsha Wenig An American programme designed especially for children and for their varied learning styles. It blends traditional yoga and its benefits with new theories of multiple learning styles. The book is visually appealing and the information is easily accessed when researching ideas.

 Yoga Pretzels – 50 Fun Yoga Activities for children and grown ups.  A colourful set of illustrated cards, showing kids doing yoga poses, games and breathing exercises, bigger than other decks  Relax Kids Star Cards  The Relax Kids pack of Star Cards is a set of 52 cards for helping your class develop their self- esteem. Examples include: I am a happy star, I am a patient star, I am a lucky star, I am a loving star, I am a confident star.  Yoga Sutra Cards (5x7)  This set of 18 cards encourage values and behaviours such as honesty, cleanliness, hard work, and the importance of learning. A cross section of the yoga sutras in a kid-friendly way so that kids can exercise and play as they learn core values.  The Yoga Garden Game(Yoga Kids)  The objective of The Yoga Garden Game is to plant a flower garden before night falls. As players move their bumblebee marker around the board they learn classic yoga poses, as well as have the chance to make up their own  Yoga In Motion DVD and CD  A blend of music, meditation, dance, and yoga that anyone can do.

BOOK Yoga for the Special Child: A Therapeutic Approach for Infants and Children with Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and Learning Disabilities, By Sonia Sumar  This is an innovative and easy-to-follow programme of yoga poses designed to increase cognitive and motor skills in children with learning and developmental disabilities.  Specialised breathing exercises and relaxation techniques to improve concentration and reduce hyperactivity.

   Free stories and newsletter  Article on yoga and ADD  Yoga mats and eye pillows