A Gold Medal Week for Kids’ Yoga Themes

Those who work with kids know it can be a challenge coming up with themes for kids yoga classes.  Often we turn to current events for ideas and this week we’ve hit the jackpot!

This year, not only are the Olympics happening, but it is Valentine’s Day too.

With a little imagination, the Olympics are easy to connect with yoga poses.  You can ask the kids about their favourite Olympic sports and how yoga could help them in that sport. 

Don’t forget all the concentration poses like archer below or tree pose so you work both the physical and the mental muscles!

Summer Olympic Kids Yoga Poses

I’ve posted in the past on the  Summer Olympic Games:

• Olympic Rowing for Forward Bends including some partner yoga,
• A Rowing Game that builds Concentration (using a Caller like they do in the boats with a lot of rowers),
• Archery and Archer Pose

Winter Olympic Kids Yoga Poses

But now it’s time for the Winter Games and a whole new look at the Olympics:

• Rowing is very similar to the Luge so we could use the two ideas above again,
• Snowboarders, skiers, and Ski Jumpers need to know about mountains so I include: Mountain Pose, Volcano Pose, and Avalanche Pose and these videos from Janet of Children’s Yoga Books show some great ways to do these poses.

Avalanche Pose – Kids Yoga Pose for Olympics

Volcano Pose – Kids Yoga Winter Olympics

• Partner yoga:  There are team sports at the Olympics, so do some team building activities by making a Podium (see the picture below).  Children make a small pyramid of 3 children to start. Everyone can do cat/cow to get warmed up, then start with a 3 person pyramid. If the kids do it safely, move onto a larger pyramid.  You could also tie in the ideas of what it takes to get to the podium and the children in the base represent the learning, dedication, practice, sacrifice, and other ideas the children come up with as the foundation for getting to the Olympics.

The Heart and the Head on Valentine’s Day

Now with the Olympics and Valentine’s Day coming together it is a perfect time to talk about the Romance between the Heart and the Head.   How does the head – the logic, the mind, the calculations – come into play for an Olympic athlete training to shave a fraction of a second off their time?

How does the heart – the dream, the dedication, the quest – come into play?  Why don’t those Olympic Athletes quit when it starts getting hard?  How do they stay calm when the big day arrives?

Both the head and the heart are developed by a top athlete and we need to develop them too.  Not only for a healthy body, but for our dreams, our aspirations, and our goals, which make a healthy life.

The heart leads the way to what we care about, whether it’s the kids we  love, in our career, providing for our families, or in our hobbies.  Then the head follows through on the heart’s desire to help us get to our goal.

They make a perfect pair!  We bring together the head and the heart for a perfect Valentine’s Day – or a Perfect 10 in an Olympic Sport.

Share Your Ideas for Olympic Yoga Poses in the Comments

Please share your ideas for Yoga Poses for the Winter Olympics or Valentine’s Day in the comments.  You can also get tons of other yoga theme and game ideas in the Young Yoga Master Kids Yoga Teacher Training. A training that counts as a Registered Children’s Yoga School with Yoga Alliance.