How to Teach Yoga to Kids Using Mindfulness Picture Books:
Learn about the secret power of reading aloud to children while doing yoga poses to help give the greatest benefit to kids. As a teacher and reading specialist, I understand the importance of reading aloud to children while keeping kids mindful, active, and learning to achieve great benefits. When you read aloud to children and combine it with yoga poses, you have children that are becoming mindful, fit, and literate! In this video you will discover some of the best books to read aloud to children and learn how you can easily incorporate movement and yoga poses into these read aloud times. A full kids yoga lesson plan that you can use with kids at home or school will also accompany this video.
Benefits:
Children who are read aloud to get a head start in language and literacy. It increases their vocabulary and opportunity for comprehension practice. Combine that with yoga and you have children moving and stretching their bodies while increasing their focus and balance while having fun! When kids are moving it helps enhance their understanding and retention of what they have learned. This is called kinesthetic learning and it is perfect to use with those busy wiggly kids that need to move their bodies during or after those long school days of sitting.
Find your copy of the Brown Bear Brown Bear Kids Yoga lesson plan here.
Kids love this familiar book by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. It’s repetitive style builds confidence with reading in ages 2-6. I love the bright vivid animal illustrations and how this book ties in perfectly to kids yoga. Learn how to teach yoga to kids with this classic read aloud.
Read this book aloud and enjoy this preschool and Kindergarten Brown Bear Kids Yoga Lesson movement and yoga lesson plan. It is perfect for home or school.
Get your free Brown Bear kids yoga lesson plan here.
Get your own copy of the classic Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? book here.
Are you interested in learning how to teach yoga to kids? This is truly our passion. We have you covered!
Option 2: Enroll in our Kids Yoga Teacher Training online course. Use You can take it anytime at your convenience. This course includes the best props, books, and resources to use with kids yoga. Learn more here.
Option 3: Take advantage of both. Entirely new content, ideas, resources, and the best practices for introducing yoga to kids.
Welcome to the Go Go Yoga for Kids Family. We are happy to have you be a part of it!
We would love to see you at the Des Moines Public Library Author Fair on Sunday, October 8 from 1-3 pm. Enjoy snacks, door prizes, and meet local authors. See here for more information. See you there!
Go Go Yoga for Kids loves all opportunities to bring yoga to children in fun and different ways. Toega is the perfect yoga game to play with all different ages.
What is Toega? It is yoga for your feet! Kids love this simple exercise and it is good for them as well. Feet are often scrunched up all day in shoes and socks, and Toega allows children to stretch their toes and build flexibility.
All you need are some colored pom pom balls and bare feet! It is fun and easy to play.
How to Play Toega
Scatter the pom pom balls on the ground.
Try picking up the colored balls with your toes.
Then place the balls on your yoga mat or another flat surface.
When I play with Toega with kids, I like to change it up a little by having different challenges for the children. Sometimes I will challenge the older to kids to collect balls of the same color or size. Or I will have a time limit to see how many they can gather in 1 minute with their toes.
After the children have gathered up their pom pom balls, I like to bring a connection or close to the activity by having the children sort them in groups or “families”. I leave it open-ended and it is neat to see what they come up with for ideas. They will often sort by size and color, but once in a while I get an expected response and that is lots of fun.
By the way…I just LOVE my new Toega mat that I found here. It just makes it extra fun to play Toega.
It was a beautiful day for some family fun and outdoor yoga at Family Fun Day. We spent the morning playing family yoga games, trying new poses, and getting kids excited about yoga.
Kids love to try partner yoga poses. The Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards were perfect for trying to master many different poses.
Want more Family Yoga Fun?
Welcome to a fun family yoga class! We will move into some yoga poses that will help you feel calm, comfortable and strong. Then we will move into some partner yoga poses, a Plank Challenge, and then a relaxing stillness and savasana which is so good for your body.
1. First, begin in Child’s Pose. Bring your forehead to the ground. This is a very centering and grounding pose. Let’s take a few deep centering breathes in and out of your nose. We have had some crazy weeks, our schedules have changed, we miss our schools, our teachers, our friends, but it is going to be ok. We will have a strong body and mind and we will get through this.
2. Move into Tabletop position and let’s move through Cat Pose and Cow Pose. You may be on a screen a bit more than normal and it is important to keep our spines fluid and flexible.
3. Go ahead and step forward into Ragdoll Pose. Sway side to side. Let your arms and head hang. This is a great release for your lower back and a very centering pose.
4. Now move into Gorilla Pose. This is a fun pose! Bend your knees as much as you want to. Place your hands under your feet. Maybe you can just reach a few fingers under there. That is ok! Let your head hang. Can you make some gorilla noises?
5. Now reach overhead to mountain pose. Feel strong and tall. Pull your shoulders back. Look up above your hands. You are strong. LET YOUR HEART SHINE. Go ahead and close your eyes. It feels good and strong.
6. Now take a big inhale and on the exhale dive forward over your feet. This is almost like you are diving into a large swimming pool. We can’t wait to do that this summer!
7. Next step back into Down Dog Pose. Would you like to be taller? This pose lengthens and strengthens your leg muscles. Walk out your dog. Think about taking your dog for a walk after he has been cooped up all winter!
