When my kids were younger I thought it would be fun to teach toddler and parents Yoga. I did a Rainbow kids training in Vancouver and spent a lot of time putting my class lessons together and I want to share them with you. I believe that kids Yoga needs to be fun, educational and interactive. This class was a parent participation class that was 45 minutes long. I have 6 different lesson plans that I want to share with you, they all have a different theme. The first one I shared was “In the garden”. The second plan lesson I shared was “African Safari”. The third one was “Going into Space theme.” The fourth Yoga class plan I shared was “Going at the Zoo and at The farm”. The Fifth Yoga class plan is “Going to the beach/ocean.” The last kid yoga plan class is “Weather and Season” theme.
When I teach little kids I first talk about my expectations: keep our hands to ourselves, use our words, say “Excuse me” and wait for our turn before talking and of course have fun. In the Rainbow Kids Yoga teacher training, we were placing our Yoga mats in a big circle all overlapping each other’s mat. I really like this way of setting up the class and usually had parent and kid using the same mat. I also tried to add different values to the theme. I would love to hear what you think about theses lesson plans and get feedback once you try teaching them.
2 class: African safari
Intro topic: What is yoga?
Its important to explain what is Yoga to little people in a simple way. This is how I explain it to them. It’s a way to exercise our bodies, breath and mind at the same time. Yoga makes you feel great! It also help you develop flexibility & strength in our bodies and happiness & peacefulness in our mind.
Value: Compassion & Empathy
Caring, helping, kindness…
Acknowledge another person’s feelings, thoughts & experiences. Compassion is a desire to help a person in distress. It also represents respect for all living things.
Game: try to guess the feeling another person expresses with his/her face.
Song: Rub your hand by Karma Kids Yoga
Name games: One person at the time says his/ her name and do a movement. Then everybody repeats the name and the movement they did.
Song: The Sun dance by Bari Koral Family rock band
Song: Shake my sillies out by Raffi
Poses with themes
How do you travel to Africa? Airplane (partner), helicopter, boat, bike
Climb Mountain (Kilimanjaro) – Tree pose and talk about king of tree you can find in Africa like the Baobab
Get your binocular, what do you see on this safari?
Monkey (swing kid side to side, swing arm side to side while making noise, eat bugs off each other)
Rhino (low squat with hand prayer pose over our nose)
Hippo (big mouth & eyes)
Cheetah (cat stretch)
Camel
Elephant (make trunk with arms, drink water, splash yourself)
Giraffe (standing side stretch with arms reach above head pretending to eating leaves wit fingers)
Ostrich (dancer pose)
Gazelle (holding hand running in circle)
Tarzan sound while doing thymus tap to boast immune system
Games: crossing a river full of alligators
All the parents spread around the room while laying on their belly. They make a big alligator jaw using their arms. The little ones have to cross the room without being captured by the “alligators”.
Song: Joggin’ Through the Jungle by Kidding Around Yoga
Book: Sophia’s Jungle Adventure
Relaxation dreaming about all the beautiful things we saw.