ON the Mat Toolbox
BREATHING
Title:
Activity:
Feather Breath
Use colorful feathers to explore the breath. Invite students to inhale
through their nose and exhale through their mouth. Instruct the
students to hold the feather in front of their mouth to see if their
breath can move the feather. Have students blow softly to move the
fluffy part of the feather. Then, have them blow harder to move the
stiffer part of the feather. Have them observe if their feather moves
fast or slow depending on how they are breathing. How does slow
breathing make you feel? How does fast breathing make you feel?
Encourage the students to hold the feather under their noses while
practicing yoga breathing. Notice how the feather holds on the inhale
and floats away on the exhale. Using only breath, play a game and
try to keep the feather afloat without touching the ground.
As an added element, when taking rest at the end, have children use
the feathers and softly move them over different parts of their face to
relax. *Use the guided image of a feather softly floating down from
the sky.
Title:
Activity:
Ping Pong Fun
Invite students to lie on their bellies. Toss one ping-pong ball into
the circle. Encourage students to try and keep the ball moving with
just their breath. Slowly, add more ping-pong balls to the
circle. Remind students not to over do it, to avoid becoming light
headed from over exhaling.
Title:
Activity:
Can You Hear It?
Instruct students to sit in a comfortable position, cover their ears with
their thumbs and place the rest of their fingers on their eyes to cover
them. Invite students to inhale and exhale through their nose. Ask
them if they can hear their breath? Does it have a rhythm? Try the
exercise again, this time asking students to hum with their mouths
closed as they exhale. What does this sound like?
Title:
Activity:
Draw Your Breath
Break class into groups of 4 students. Instruct students to use a
piece of chart paper to draw their breaths. Using a marker, invite
students to take turns breathing deeply for five breaths. An upward
movement will represent inhaling and a downward movement will
represent exhaling. Each student will use a different colored marker
to represent their breath. After each student has had a turn, invite
students to compare results.
1 Blowing in the Wind
Have students sit in a circle and give each student a leaf. Instruct
students to hold the leaf in the palm of their hand and gently blow on
the leaf. Will it move? Have them vary their breath and blow harder,
like a giant storm. What happens?
BREATHING
Title:
Activity:
2 BALANCE
Title:
Activity:
Wind in the Trees
Invite all students to take tree pose. Assign one student to be the
wind and move around the class without touching any other
students. The other students will be the trees, standing strong and
rooted while trying to withstand the wind. After letting a few students
be the wind, you can then grow a forest where students remain in
tree pose and each row extends their hands out to connect with one
another, building trust as they all balance together.
OR
Instruct students to stand together in a circle and pretend they are
trees. Have them stand with their feet flat and arms out like a big
tree. Instruct them to cross one foot over the other while balancing
their weight. Then, invite students to raise their arms up and down
like branches blowing in the wind. Have students breathe in and out,
making the sound of the wind. Because they are trees, they will have
to maintain their balance and continue to stay standing
Title:
Activity:
Five Little Speckled Frogs
Have students sit in a large circle and number them 1-5. Teacher
Tip: Write number on hands to avoid any confusion. Show students
how to squat, bend their knees out to the sides and hop like a frog.
Sing “Five Little Speckled Frogs”:
Five Little Speckled Frogs (all students hop like frogs around
outskirts of circle)
Sat on a speckled log
Eating the most delicious bugs. Yum! Yum! (invite students to stick
their tongue in and out)
One jumped into the pool (instruct number 1’s to jump into the middle
of circle and sit criss cross applesauce watching the other frogs.)
Where it was nice and cool
Now there are four green speckled frogs.
*Repeat song until all students are in the middle of the circle..
3 OPENING SEQUENCES
Title:
Activity:
The Wave
Set up yoga mats in a circle. Have students practice a simple task,
like lifting up their right arm one at a time as they go around in a
circle. Introduce more complex movements and use “The Wave” to
practice Opening Sequences. Instruct the first person to begin in
Mountain Pose and have the second person fold forward. The third
person will fold forward and look up. Continue around the circle
following the poses from Opening Sequence A or Opening Sequence
B, repeating the sequence as many times as possible.
Title:
Activity:
Itsy, Bitsy Spider
Stand in a circle and break down “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” song while
taking students through the Opening Sequence.
The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout.
Climb spiders by reaching arms upward.
Down came the rain…
Exhale to rag doll. Hold the note of the song and use fingertips to
make pitter patter rain sounds on the floor. Inhale, head up - all look
up at one another.
And washed the spider out.
Come onto bellies while still making rain sounds on the floor.
Up came the sun …
Come into Up Dog
And dried up all the rain
Come into Down Dog and walk the feet back to Rag Doll.
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again
Get out “spider fingers” and crawl them up the arms.
Title:
Activity:
Practice That Posture
Arrange yoga mats in rows. Use pose flashcards or pre-write
postures from Opening Sequence A and/or B on index cards. Use
different colored ink to distinguish between inhale poses and exhale
poses. If desired, draw a stick figure on the cards for younger
learners. Tape a card to each mat. Instruct the students to move
from mat to mat performing the posture on the cards. Teacher Tip:
Have them stay in each pose for 3 breaths before moving to the next
mat, or ring a bell to signal when to switch.
4 Title:
Activity:
Partner Practice
Invite students to work with a partner and practice Opening
Sequence A and/or B. Instruct one student to be the “caller” and the
other student to be the “mover”. The mover will perform the
sequence as the caller instructs the mover through the postures in
the sequence. The mover and the caller may switch roles.
Encourage partners to help one another. If desired, use pose
flashcards or write and/or draw the postures on the board.
OPENING SEQUENCES
Yoga Class
Break class into groups of 5-6 students. Arrange yoga mats in a row
with one mat in front of the group as the “teacher mat”. Students will
take turns acting as the teacher and leading the other students in the
group through various poses or Opening Sequences.
Sparkle
Invite all students to begin at the front of their mats. The instructor
will walk around the room and tap a student on the shoulder. The
student tapped must do the next step of Opening Sequence A or B,
depending on what was assigned by the teacher. For example: a
teacher may begin by saying “Opening Sequence A” and then tap
the first student. That student would inhale and lift their arms over
their head. The next student tapped would exhale and fold forward. If
a student doesn’t know the next step when they receive a tap, they
forgo their turn. When the student with the last step completes their
posture, they say the name “Sparkle” and that round ends.
5 Title:
Activity:
Duck, Duck, Yoga Pose
Begin with all students sitting in a circle. Choose one student to go
around tapping heads (“duck, duck, duck”). Instead of saying,
“goose”, a yoga pose will be called out. The one who’s been tapped
chases after the other child around the circle until caught or back in
their seat. Then, the rest of the circle takes the yoga pose called out
during the chase.
Title:
Activity:
I’m a Little Teapot
Use the song to teach younger students triangle pose. Start in a wide
stance with hand on the hips doing a soft bounce. Sing “I’m a Little
Tea Pot” with these variations:
VARIOUS PPSES
I’m a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle here is my spout.
Make a handle with one hand on the hips, make a spout with the
other hand and turn that toe out.
When I get all steamed up, I reach out
Extend the spout /arm out
Tip me over and pour me out
Come into triangle pose.
Do one version and break the song down, step by step. Then, work
on getting the sequence smooth while practicing on the other side.
Repeat both sides again with a more fluid version of the song and
steps.
Title:
Activity:
Yogi Says
One person will play the role of “Yogi”, typically the teacher, although
more advanced groups of students can take turns playing “Yogi”.
When “Yogi” says to do a pose, the children must do the named
pose. If “Yogi” doesn’t say to do it, then the players should remain in
the previous pose. This game can be utilized to learn differences
between left and right (i.e. “Yogi says Triangle Pose on the right
side”.) Additionally, it can be used for entire sequences like “Yogi
says do Opening Sequence A”.
Title:
Activity:
Bear Crawling
Bring students to Downward Facing Dog. Have them travel around
the room in a circle, by keeping arms and legs straight and “walking”
in downward dog position
6 Downward Facing Dog Ladders Choose one person to start. Ask the remaining students to come to
downward facing dog in a row, so that they are almost touching. The
person starting has to crawl under all of the downward facing dogs.
As they finish passing under all of the down dogs, have them do an
upward facing dog, and then come to downward facing dog. Then,
the person at the front of the row starts crawling under the down
dogs. Allow for all children to have a chance to crawl under the
downward facing dog bridge.
Title:
Activity:
Yoga Charades
On small pieces of paper, write down the names of all the poses
learned and place the papers in a bag. For younger learners, pose
flashcards or drawings may work best. Break the students into teams
of 4-6 people. Choose one person in the group to pick a card out of
the bag and do the chosen pose. The other team members must
guess the name of the pose and the team with the most points wins.
Title:
Activity:
Musical Yoga Mats
Set up a pose flashcard or other image of a yoga pose on each
student’s yoga mat. Ring a bell or play music to begin. The children
will work their way around the room during the music or the bell.
When the music/bell stops, they will land on a mat and take the
appropriate posture. Take away the photos/images on the yoga mats
one at a time to represent a “closed” mat. If a child lands on the
closed mat, they are out. The last person to lose a spot wins the
game.
Title:
Activity:
Freeze Dance
Begin by reviewing a few suggested yoga poses (i.e. Mountain,
Warrior, Tree, etc.). Next, turn on some music and invite everyone
to freestyle dance around the room. When the music stops, everyone
must freeze in a yoga pose and become a statue. The teacher can
then go around and provide adjustments or give suggestions on how
to better perform the pose. As an added challenge, make a rule that
each child may not do the same pose twice.
VARIOUS POSES
Title:
Activity:
7 MISCELANEOUS
Title:
Activity:
Alphabet Yoga
Have students use their bodies to make different letters of the
alphabet. See how many words the class can create!
T- Arms extended shoulder height, feet together
A- Volcano pose-palms touching overhead, legs out to the side
V -Boat pose
L- Staff pose, making an H with two people
d or b- Tree pose with arms down
J- Up Dog
a- Child’s Pose / Mouse Pose
O- Bow Pose
C- Rounded back, chin to chest, arms forward
X- Legs open, arms open
M- Cat pose, belly dropped, head and chest up
N- Cat pose, back rounded, chin to chest
l- Mountain pose
Y- Feet together, arms open at an angle
As an option for older children, write words on cards (Cat, Van, Hat,
Ox, Job, Dot, Boat, Lama, Joy) and have teams of students work
together to create the word. A second team may guess the words
and vice versa.
Title:
Activity:
Toe-Ga
Gather small bowls and colorful, different-sized craft pom-pom balls.
Begin with toe exercises (toe wiggles, spreading out the toes while
standing, gripping the mat with toes, and weaving hands through
toes as a gentle massage and stretch). In a crab walk, have
students pick up the pom-pom with their toes and drop them in the
bowls. Designate some bowls based on size and color of pom-poms.
(Younger children can focus on playing and sorting.) As an additional
element, older students can do relay races this while sorting colors
with their toes as teams. At the end of the game invite children to
give each other a crabby high five with their feet. “Toe” Yoga J
Title:
Mirror Mirror
Activity:
Partner students (preferably close in height) and instruct them to sit
facing each other with palms up, close together, but not touching.
One person leads the movements as they mirror each other and then
invite them to switch turns. Do circles up, down, side-to-side,
exploring slow and fast; make a square, a heart, diamonds, etc. As
an added element, have them do partnering yoga poses (standing
trees with opposite knees out to the side and palms touching, boat
pose with feet touching and hands connected, partner twists, back to
back chair pose, etc.)
8 Yogi Benders
All students begin in Mountain pose. The teacher calls out a direction
that can be interpreted in many different ways, encouraging students
to think about different types of poses that fit the direction. For
example:
“Belly on the floor”
Ÿ Airplane pose
Ÿ Fish pose
Ÿ Bow
“Both hands and both feet”
Ÿ Gorilla Pose
Ÿ Wide leg forward fold
Ÿ A variation of pyramid pose where the hands are on the floor
MISCELANEOUS
Title:
Activity:
9