I love teaching yoga to kids. I appreciate how each class and interaction is so different. We are busy, active, engaging, and playful. Teaching yoga to children is definitely different than teaching yoga to adults for many reasons.
One of the biggest differences is the use of yoga accessories and props that you use in kids’ classes. Children are very visual and having a few surprising and fun items on hand while introducing yoga poses, breathing exercises, and mindfulness will really help keep your students engaged throughout your time together.
What Are Yoga Props?
First of all, what exactly are yoga props that you would use with children? Yoga props are items that you introduce and use with children to help keep them engaged and interested. Do not overthink this. Yoga accessories can be simple and inexpensive items. You probably already have several on hand that you haven’t even thought about.
I cannot wait to share with you some favorite yoga props to use with children!
Now, I need to let you in on a little secret. I am slightly obsessed with utilizing yoga accessories with children. There, I said it. You would definitely be able to tell this if you came to visit me and would see my office at my home. I have balls, hula hoops, read aloud books, puppets and more tucked in spaces throughout the room. Now please understand that I do not use all these props at once. I select 1-2 to use per class and rotate through them to help keep your yoga bag fresh.
In our online Kids Yoga & Mindfulness Teacher Training, all participants are invited to be part of our private Facebook Group. In our group, we talk about all things kids yoga related. One of our topics a few weeks ago was favorite props that they love to use with children. Based on the response and discussion, I guess I am not the only one infatuated with yoga props!
Favorite Yoga Props to Use With Kids
Beanbags: These are a great tool for balance work and can be used for breathing exercises.
Pom Poms: These colorful little puff balls are the perfect lightweight size to practice controlled breathing as you breathe your puffball up and down your yoga mat or across the room.
Stuffed animals: These are wonderful to use with the younger ages when you are introducing a yoga pose such as Cat Pose, Cow Pose, Down Dog, etc. They also work well as breathing buddies and for getting the attention of your students.
Pose Cards: I use the Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards for every kids yoga class that I teach. I select 4-6 poses that we will be focusing on and practicing. These visual cards help demonstrate the pose and they can be used for all of the favorite yoga games including Musical Mats.
Scarves: Scarves are wonderful to use in many different ways for breathing exercises, Freeze Yoga Dance, and for games.
Kids love partner yoga poses! Partner yoga poses help teach children the importance of teamwork and working together plus they are fun to do and build trust and community with one another within the group. These partner poses can be done at home, school, camp, yoga class or anywhere you have kids ready to try something new and have fun.
I do try to incorporate partner or group poses in every kids yoga class as it gives everyone a common goal to work toward and builds confidence when mastered. I kept this in mind when I created the Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards, I purposely incorporated partner poses for some of the yoga challenge poses. The partner poses are built on progression so gives the children a goal to work toward and it makes it so much fun to achieve together!
Tips on working with partners in a kids yoga class
Try to have kids partner up with those of similar size. All partner poses can be modified, but it is a good idea to start this way.
Have the partners get to know one another before practicing the poses. Take a moment for them to introduce themselves to one another and pose a few questions that they need to answer as something they are good at or a favorite game to play.
Have one pair of partners demonstrate the Partner Pose before everyone tries it. As the partner pair is demonstrating, this is a good time to talk about proper form and any safety concerns. Although yoga partner poses are safe and fun, it is still a good idea to remind kids to take it slow. They will naturally be excited to get right into the pose so this will help them remember.
After the partners have practiced the featured yoga pose for 1-2 minutes. Have one group demonstrate the pose one last time. Kids love to show off the poses with their partners.
Kids Yoga Partner Class Lesson Plan
I recently taught an All Partner Poses kids yoga class and the kids loved it. Here is a little taste of how I broke down the lesson plan.
First I had the students get into pairs. It is helpful to have a partner of similar size, but not necessary. Modifications can be made for any of the partner poses.
Have the partner pair get to know one another (if they don’t already) and think up a Team Name. They love doing this. Refer to their team name throughout class. They LOVE this and will absolutely motivate them.
Explain to the students that they will be working through a series of partner poses. Talk about how being safe is the number one priority and how they need to look out for their teammate.
l used the Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards for this kids yoga class because these yoga cards include leveled partner poses. It is important to begin with the easier “one starred” levels and work your way up to level 5. 5.
I began with See Saw Partner Pose and showed the students an example pose card. This Partner Pose is perfect to begin with because it really warms up your legs and truly allows the children to work together. I invited a pair to come and demonstrate it to the group. I had them model how you begin nice and slow in a see-saw fashion. Legs can be made into a diamond shape or bent if you have some children that are taller or different heights.
I allowed a few moments for the children to practice this first partner pose before moving on to the next pose with the Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards. Each time, have a pair model the partner pose as you explain to the students about how to safely get in and out of it. You could also use the Kids Yoga Challenge App for pose visuals, but keep in mind that they poses are randomized for fun with the app.
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Children learn best by actively doing rather than passive watching. As a classroom teacher for nearly 20 years, I could not agree more. The old school lecture style of teaching of is thankfully not as common in the schools today. Children need to have visuals, be hands-on and engaged and that is when the true learning and attention truly occurs. Teaching mindfulness for kids goes along these same lines.
This is true for your kids yoga classes as well. Are children going to best learn the poses and breathing exercises while endlessly watching you? Yes, maybe, but they will not remember and retain near as well as if props and visuals are used. While demonstration and safety are important, there are several other ways to actively involve children in the learning process.
Use Props and Visuals
One way that I involve children a lot is by providing visuals. While teaching yoga poses, I like to use yoga pose cards that help showcase the poses that we are learning. My favorites are the Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cardsbecause of the included starred difficulty level as well as the mantras for each pose. With these cards, the children can easily look at the pose and model it to the other children and say the mantra. This way your students are getting the physical and mental benefits.
When I introduce mindfulness to children, I have found it is important to use visuals as well. As mentioned children retain information when they are seeing and experiencing it as well.
For this mindfulness exercise and visual all you need is a balloon. Children are usually mesmerized by balloons and especially enjoy as they are being blown up so this is a great activity that will keep their attention. I like to begin by holding a deflated balloon and ask the children to picture themselves as they wake up in the morning. They feel easy going and flexible just like the balloon.
How to Teach Mindfulness
Next, I stretch the balloon up and down and talk to the children about how they may stretch their bodies and feel calm, flexible and ready for the day. That is how you want to feel. After that, I would walk the children through a series of events that could happen throughout the day which could change how you feel.
For example, our dialogue may go something like the following, “Let’s pretend that something disappointing happens in the morning, such as the orange juice is spilled at breakfast (blow up the balloon a little), then you can’t find your backpack (blow up the balloon a little more), it is raining outside. “Your best friend is gone from school” etc. Continue blowing up the balloon as this scenario is painted.
Finally, show how the balloon is really big and inflated. Explain how there are lots of feelings and emotions trapped up inside. What is going to happen? Can you continue in this way? No of course not.
With that much emotion and feelings bottled up inside, there is sure to be a consequence. Let go of the balloon and watch as it spins around and settles.
Ask the children, what can they do instead of letting things continue to bottle up inside?
Be still. Breathe. Take a moment.
It is important to help teach children to acknowledge their feelings, take note of them, but to understand how to deal effectively with them and then move on. By using this balloon visual the children will definitely remember it and will be better equipped to not keep those feelings bottled up inside.
It was such a pleasure to be invited to lead a Kids Yoga and Mindfulness in the Preschool Classroom workshop for early childhood educators about yoga for preschoolers in the Dallas, Texas area.
Our 2.5 hour teacher workshop included tips and resources for teachers to be able to implement right away into their classrooms this school year.
Here are just a few of the topics we covered:
Breathing and calming exercises that truly work with this young age group
How to utilize movement and yoga during classroom transition times
The best yoga poses for these young growing bodies
Incorporating yoga and mindfulness into existing preschool themes
Classroom yoga games and mindfulness exercises
The best read aloud books for this early childhood age group
How to bring about stillness and relaxation within the classroom
These teachers were engaged, enthusiastic, and ready to bring mindfulness into yoga for preschoolers.
I know that you are passionate about reaching children through yoga and you are in the right place! Creating kids yoga lesson plans is one of my favorite things to do. It must be the teacher in me, but I love putting what kids are interested in and tying in yoga poses, games and mindfulness exercises to help teach yoga to children while providing moments that they will remember.
I want to help you be successful, confident, and ready to enrich children’s lives through yoga. We can do this together! Our FREEKids Yoga Lesson Planning 101 Training begins with the heartbeat of kids yoga which is how to plan an engaging and memorable kids yoga class.
You can have all the desire in the world to teach yoga to children, but if you don’t have a plan in place then there will be opportunities missed and it will not be as impactful for your children.
First of all, what exactly are yoga props that you would use with children? Yoga props are items that you introduce and use with children to help keep them engaged and interested. Do not overthink this. Yoga accessories can be simple and inexpensive items. You probably already have several on hand that you haven’t even thought about.
Children learn best by actively doing rather than passive watching. As a classroom teacher for nearly 20 years, I could not agree more. The old school lecture style of teaching of is thankfully not as common in the schools today. Children need to have visuals, be hands-on and engaged and that is when the true learning and attention truly occurs. Teaching mindfulness for kids goes along these same lines.
