Are you ready for a new and fun idea that will get kids to listen? The Listening Game is one of my favorite new mindfulness games to use in my kids yoga classes. This simple game works like magic in getting your student’s attention while helping them be quiet and mindful.
I have used this with kids ages 2-16 and it is amazing how it completely calms and focuses them.
This is also a good game to use as a teacher to transition from a loud large group activity to a more calming and mindful time.
This chime is also the perfect size for popping into my kids yoga bag to take to class or in my teacher bag to use at school.
What I Would Say to the Kids: How many of you think you are really good at listening? Children raise hands
Great! We are going to see what great listeners we can be and play The Listening Game!
Sit up nice in tall in your seat with your hands resting in your lap. Now I am going to play a chime. I want you to listen for as long as you can. When you do not hear the chime anymore than raise your hand. Are you ready?
Play the chime once. Notice when the children raise their hands when they cannot hear the chime anymore. They can also open their eyes.
Oh, you are such great listeners AND you look so relaxed!
Have the children take two or three rounds of breath together and then play again. A note from experience, remember to not overplay this game so it will not lose its effectiveness. 2-4 rounds is enough at one time.
We sense it as we step outdoors. Animals and plants all around us are beginning to transform and change. Celebrate with kids this wonderful season of spring with some transformation yoga!
Caterpillar to Butterfly
Begin in cobra yoga pose. Pretend to be a hungry caterpillar, lifting your head to munch on a leaf as you raise in cobra yoga pose.
Move into plank pose. This is the caterpillar on a branch, getting ready to form a cocoon.
Lower into child’s pose and become a safe little cocoon. Be still. Breathe deeply and get ready for an exciting change to happen!
Finally become butterflies! Practice butterfly pose and flutter your wings. Talk with the children about what color of wings their butterflies have and where they would fly to. How fast or slow can they flap their wings?
Begin in child’s pose as that represents the tiny egg.
Slowly inch onto your stomach and “swim” while moving your arms and leg up and down to be the tadpole.
Then take frog pose (malasana), with your feet on the floor and your legs in a deep squat. See if you can try out your new frog legs with frog hops on your mat.
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Seed to Flower
Begin in child’s pose and pretend to be a tiny seed in the ground.
Lift one arm as you imagine a tiny stem beginning to poke through the Earth.
Sit up straight and tall in lotus (flower) pose with your legs crossed. Raise your arms up into a flower shape toward the sun. Can you sway in the breeze?
Have fun with these spring yoga kid ideas. See if your children can come up with any other changes that happen in the spring such as weather, animals or plants. The possibilities are endless and putting these springtime changes into yoga postures makes them all the more memorable.
Want more Spring Family Yoga fun? Let’s celebrate Spring and our Earth with our fun Family Spring Yoga Sequence. This is a sequence of Spring yoga poses that will help get us ready for Spring and all of the changes happening outside!
How to Teach our Spring Sequence to Kids:
What is happening outside right now? The grass is getting green. Trees and flowers are growing and sprouting their leaves. Baby birds are hatching and animals are coming out of hibernation. There are many plants and animals that are changing by the day at this time of year! It is very, very exciting with all of the things that are happening with our Earth during Spring.
This Spring Yoga Sequence can be done with kids of any age. You can also practice this yoga sequence by yourself. It just feels good in your body for sure and a fun way to celebrate Earth.
You do not need any materials or resources just a place to move your body! I will be using our Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards that have yoga pose visuals for the poses we will be practicing. It is always good to have visuals when practicing yoga with kids.
The Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards will challenge you and children with balance, flexibility, mindfulness, and more. This card deck includes 40 poses including partner poses, confidence-building pose mantras, and fun games to play together using these cards.
The Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards include:
40 progressive yoga poses including partner poses
Empowering pose mantras for beginners and meditation
Poses rated from 1-5 stars based on difficulty
Easy to follow poses to create many original yoga flows
15 Bonus Games to play using these pose cards
Tested and proven yoga poses to bring most mental and physical benefit
Takes only minutes each day to gain lifelong skills and health benefits
“She is constantly disrupting the flow of the class.”
These are just a few of the statements that I hear from many of you time and time again. I hear you! I understand. Teaching children is all about how to keep kids interested, engaged, challenged, and motivated. This means they are not acting up and spoiling it for the other kids. I get that. I have been there!
After 20 years of teaching in the school classroom and leading thousands of kids yoga classes, I have a pretty good idea what works for keeping your class running seamlessly.
How to Keep Children Engaged in Yoga Class
Keep the Energy Level Varied
When I teach yoga to children, my lesson plans include activities for varied energy levels. That is a good thing! I promise! I like to begin my classes at a low energy level which means settling into class, focusing on our breath and being calm and mindful.
Next, I move into the next parts of my kids yoga lesson plans which include Active Movement, Themed Yoga Poses, Yoga Games, and Yoga Challenge which require a mid- to high-energy level. Finally, I like to bring the level back down with our Community Building, Mindfulness, Savasana. Kids do really well with this type of pacing in a yoga class and this helps quite a bit with any classroom management issues. If you want to know more about the exact breakdown of my Kids Yoga Lesson Plan, our bestselling Go Go Yoga for Kids: A Complete Guide to Yoga with Kidstakes you through the exact step by step lesson planning breakdown and no-fail formula.
Keep Things Moving
I cannot stress this one enough. There is a reason that there are 9 components in the Go Go Yoga for Kids yoga class plan. That may seem like a lot, but each component only lasts a few minutes each. Each part is done specifically with a purpose. It begins with welcoming the children to class, introducing the themed yoga poses, and community building. Each part is important to the overall structure and flow of class and this definitely helps engage students. Plus familiarity and routine help build confidence with kids. That is what we want…confident kids!
Continue moving forward. I know class management can be the number one challenge in working with kids, but always continue learning and revamping. By having a plan in the place will help you stay on track, but remember to be in the moment and have fun with the kids as well. Stick with it. Keep coming back and learning and growing. Just think of the difference you are making in the lives of the children you know and love.
Too much is not always a good thing. I was definitely guilty of this very easy to do mistake when I first started teaching yoga to children. Over the years I have learned from my experiences and grown in confidence from teaching in my school classroom and by leading my kids yoga classes. What I learned is something that you need to be aware of when teaching children. Read on to discover new yoga teacher tips how they can make a difference in your classes.
Pretend you are leading a kids yoga class with school-aged children. You and the kids are having the time of your life playing Musical Mats (similar to Musical Chairs, but with yoga mats). It is the most fun they ever had! They are dancing to the music as they move in a circle around the yoga mats. You hit pause on the song and “oh the fun” as everyone scrambles to find a mat and make a yoga pose. The kids are all smiling and holding their favorite yoga pose and you are thinking, “Oh yes! Teaching yoga to children is so easy. So much fun! Let’s play this game again. And again. And again.”
I know I am guilty of this in my early years of teaching yoga to children. It is so common when people find something that works so well that want to use that game, exercise, or strategy again and again.
Be aware, however, that playing a game for too long is going to lead to children that act out or “don’t want to play any longer.” That is because the game was overused and overplayed. The recommended Go Go Yoga for Kids amount of time for playing a game is 7-10 minutes. Maximum. Keep things light and keep things fresh.
If everyone is smiling and having fun when you end the game then that is perfect! If they are asking to play “just one more time” then that is great! Still end the game. My rule of thumb is to always end the game or activity on a high note. That is a sure fire way to ensure that everyone wants to play that game the next time it is announced.
Try this strategy of “ending on a high note” and see the difference it makes with your kids yoga classes.
By the way, if you are looking for games that are definite winners, then check out the Go Go Yoga for Kids books and resources. These include over 500 kid tested and approved yoga games, activities and kids yoga teacher tips.
We sense it as we step outdoors. Animals and plants all around us are beginning to transform and change. Celebrate with kids this wonderful season of spring with some transformation yoga!
something that works so well that want to use that game, exercise, or strategy again and again.
