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You are here: Home / Archives for Kids Yoga / Yoga Songs

Yoga Songs

Silly Dance Contest – Kids Yoga Song of the Week

A record player and music notes on a blue background with text: Kids Yoga Song of the Week

You’re probably aware of the classic freeze dance game, in which everyone dances to the music and then freezes in a yoga pose when the music stops.

Having a playlist of songs like the Silly Dance Contest is very handy for those days when you show up for a kids yoga class and everyone is full of energy.

This has happened to me a few time, like the class I taught on Valentine’s Day where the kids had lots of sweets and just didn’t want to sit down and focus. I changed my lesson plan on the spot and we did a whole class of fun songs.

Eventually I was able to bring the energy down to a sitting meditation with movements at the end of class, but it took a lot songs like this one to get there.

Silly Dance Contest

In any class, this song by Jim Gill makes a great warm up at the beginning of class or playfulness at the end. Freeze dance with your kids in all these fun ways:

About Jim Gill

The Silly Dance Contest was released in 2019 in an album Jim Gill’s Most Celebrated Songs: Music Play, Vol. 1.

Jim Gill is a musician and author with unique credentials among children’s artists. Jim is a child development specialist who earned his master’s degree at the Erikson Institute of Chicago, focusing on the study of play. Because of this, each of Jim’s books and recordings serves as a venue for amusing encounters between a young child and a responsible adult.

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Kids Yoga Song of the Week, Yoga Songs Tagged With: songs

Sun Salutation Song for your Kids Yoga Class

Sun Salutations are great for kids in children’s yoga but today’s song is more suited for tweens and teens.

Teach the Sun Salutations using this upbeat instructional music by Linda Lara (feat. Cory Fandel and Nancy Coletti).

Week 3: Song of the Week

Watch the moves here:

About Linda Lara

Linda Lara is a certified children’s yoga teacher. She is also a composer and musician and special education music teacher.

Her songs are about nature and the seasons, and they also offer musical yoga sequences which imagine experiences from around the world.

Teach the Sun Salutation

Learn how to teach Sun Salutation by registering for Inclusive Yoga 16 Hour Kids Yoga Teacher Certificate.

You’ll have access to the Yoga Man Sun Salutation series, with ideas to teach about the stress cycle and tools of yoga to fight the villain “The Stressor.”

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Kids Yoga Song of the Week, Yoga Songs Tagged With: kids yoga teacher training

5 Activities for Kids Yoga Summer Camps

It’s finally summer! A perfect time for a Kids Yoga Summer Camp.

I remember the first time I offered a full day/full week kids yoga camp, it was not what I expected.

The biggest learning curve was not the yoga part. I had taught a lot of kids yoga, it wasn’t hard to think of activities.

No, it was sorting out the washroom routine!  There were no public washrooms at the playground so if one child had to go, that meant the end of the playground visit for everyone.  

If you’re planning a summer camp for kids, don’t forget to plan these details and if you also want kids yoga ideas, we’ve got that covered here too.

Mini Training Highlights: Summer Camp Activities

Here are some of the key takeaways from the topic of Kids Yoga Summer Camps from our free mini-training that happened in June 2022:

  • There are many wonderful activities that take too much time for a regular kids yoga class so camps are the perfect time for them,
  • Choosing an activity that is age-appropriate is key!  We talked a lot about the age for each activity.
  • A one week camp with 10 kids can be a good cash injection, you just have to make sure you don’t burn yourself out.

Check out my 5 Favourite Camp Activities and the discussion around them in the video replay in the June Free Mini Training because some of you might be looking for activities to do during your camp.

These 5 activities will enhance your camps. Some are of my favourites because with a camp you have a lot more time to do activities that you can’t fit into a one hour class.

Preview: Kids Yoga Summer Camps

Here’s a preview of the video with the first 3 activities from our YouTube channel:

Watch the full video in the June 2022 replay in the free course here.

5 Kids Yoga Activities to Enhance Your Camps this Summer

1. Chakras

If you’re doing chakras for children, try presenting them over a series of classes.

If I was teaching the chakras to children, I would limit this to a yoga studio. That’s because if you’re doing chakras in a school or a daycare, they may be a little too esoteric, some people might mistake it for some kind of religious teaching. You just don’t want to have any problems in that department. I really recommend this for a private camp, yoga in the park, in a yoga studio or in your home studio.

Here’s what the activity could look like if presented at a camp from Monday to Friday:

  • Monday: What are Chakras (see April 2022 Mini-Training for Lesson Plan). Introduce the concept of the chakras.
  • Tuesday: The Lower Triangle (Chakras 1, 2 + 3)
  • Wednesday: The Heart Centre (4th Chakra)
    • You can include all kinds of social-emotional learning and empathy lessons into that one lesson plan.
  • Thursday: The Upper Triangle (Chakra 5, 6 +7)
  • Friday: Your Chakras are your talents, how will you use them? For those who have the workbook from the chakras for children training, you can do use the questionnaires in those worksheets. Or the kids can reflect on which of the talents are associated with the chakras

Watch the April 2022 Free Mini Training – Chakras for Children here.

Consider getting the 4 hour Chakras for Children Certificate here.

2. Mandala Activities

These Mandala activities can take a while to complete so they are great for camps.

This activity requires some big paper, some stamps, and stamp pads.

One of my colleagues tried doing this at home but she said her mandala turned into an oblique shape. The secret to stamping a mandala is very similar to why we meditate. It about starting in the center and moving from the centre to the outside.

If you start at the outside, trying to make a circle, its will be a lot harder to make it look even the way a mandala does.

The idea is that you meditate you check in with yourself, this is what my meditation teacher used to say to us. If you want to love yourself, the way you do that is to know yourself.

We start in the center and then from there we create our vision for our life based on what we want to achieve and what we can do. Whereas if you’re always trying to create your life from what other people are telling you to be, that is a very difficult existence because it’s really hard to please everybody.

We should create a mandala just like meditation, from the inside to the outside.

Then you can move this activity into yoga by making a group yoga pose in Mandala shapes as pictured in the image above.

3. My Song

The My Song activity is where you ask the children to share a song that is meaningful to them. Each child can say their song and talk about why they like that song. Then everyone can listen to the song.

When I started doing the My Song activity, I actually had an iPod!

My Song - Kids Share Why They Like Their Favorite Songs - part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training

One bonus of this activity is it’s a great way to discover songs to add to your music playlists. I don’t listen to pop music very often so this is one way to find out the songs that are popular with children.

When it comes to music, I use a lot of playlists when I teach classes, to sort the music by the mood.

When I’m teaching classes I’ll have relaxing songs, warm-up songs or songs with the moves built right into them. When the time comes and we’re ready to relax, I can go to the relaxing songs playlist and find a song.

A little back story about the My Song activity, I did this for the first time when I was in high school and one of my teachers did it with our class. I still remember people’s songs to this day. It was a nice way for us to get to know each other in the class.

People chose all types of songs so not only did it expose us to different genres of music that we might not listen to, it also gave everyone a way to talk about something that was meaningful to them without it being too risky.

4. Eye Pillows

This is a very simple activity that can be done a number of ways.

When I have a lot of time we sew eye pillows in class with a needle and thread and rectangles of material. We sewed an outer pillowcase that we can wash and an inner pillow that we filled with rice.

The class of students, mostly over six years old, really enjoyed it. They were amazed that they can just make their own thing.

I remember one camp we did sewing, and I helped a student sew up a hole in their sock. They were both amazed and happy that the sock was fixed.

When I have the time, I like to sew with kids, but if I don’t there is another option. You can buy socks from the store and use fabric markers to draw on them to make a colourful pillow case. You have to set the drawings by putting the sock in the dryer or pressing with an iron.

Kids Making Eye Pillows using socks filled with rice and Pillow Cases coloured with fabric markers. - part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training

Then you fill the inner sock with rice and tie the end with an elastic.

You can incorporate scents if it is appropriate, like lavender or other herbs, or essential oils, to add to the eye pillows. Make sure to check first if that’s okay with the kids because not everyone likes scents. I would advertise the use of scents in the class description so there are no surprises. ikm

You can use the eye pillows for the rest of the week. There are more activities with the eye pillows in the Inclusive Yoga Certificate.

5. Yoga Names + Names

We developed the Frog Yoga Alphabet especially to help keep kids busy during kid’s yoga and yoga camps.  You can print and play all kinds of games with them.

Sometimes people think a Yoga Alphabet is just for children learning the alphabet, but with a little imagination, those letters become words and the words become games and stories! 

In this activity, we used the Frog Yoga Alphabet to spell children’s names. Every letter has its corresponding pose and children can colour different letters each day.

We also do yoga for the letters.

In the picture above, we had an afternoon camp that was about three hours. Lauren finished colouring her letters and we also did the yoga poses. Then we came back to colouring and do another person’s name.

Lauren stapled her letters in the corners after she coloured in the pictures. She got to take home a name banner that day to put on her wall.

I like Lauren’s idea for a banner. I had been stapling the poses like a book.

If you were in a studio where you could hang up all the names and leave them up throughout the week, you could inspire others with the activity.

Then, when kids arrive they could to their own name, or a friend’s name, and do all their poses as a warm-up.

Kids Yoga Summer Camp

Yoga and fun go hand in hand. So when you’ve got the extra time in a Yoga Camp let these activities inspire you to enhance your camps.

Watch the full June 2022 Free Mini Training here or click the button below.

watch the Kids Yoga Summer Camp – jUNE 2022 free mini training

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Teacher Training, Yoga Games, Yoga Songs Tagged With: kids yoga activites, Summer Camp, Yoga Games

5 Kids Yoga Activities to Enhance Your Camps this Summer

It’s summer!  Which means kids yoga camps and time to try fresh ideas that you just don’t have time to try in a regular class.

I’m planning a summer camp right now.  It’s 18 hours over 5 days in our Kids Yoga Teacher Certification.  So I’m going through my resources and picking my favorite activities.  This camp during the Kids Yoga Training is so much fun and adds a dimension to the training you get teaching actual kids. 

You can get your 95 Hour Certificate from our Yoga Alliance Registered Children’s Yoga School. Email me if you have any questions or are interested:  info @ youngyogamasters.com.

So while I’m prepping for camp I’ll share some of my plans.  Here are 5 Kids Yoga Summer Camp Ideas from our Kids Yoga Teacher Training that are sure to enhance your camps.

5 Kids Yoga Activities to Enhance Your Camps this Summer

1. Chakras for Children

Explore the Chakras Each Day of Camp:  When I teach kids yoga at a school or daycare, I steer away from the Chakras.  The topic is too esoteric for the public domain.  But when I teach a kids yoga camp in a studio, the Chakras are perfect for yoga studio territory.  I explore this topic from angles that kids can relate to:  favourite colours, elements of nature, and super-powers that each chakra hold.  Learn more on Chakras for Children in our Kids Yoga Teacher Training and get this free printable Chakra System PDF on this Blog Post here.

2. Mandala Activities for Kids

This includes both drawing Mandalas and making them with your body as these pictures show:

kids mandala workshop - during yoga class the group is seated in a circle and makes shapes with their arms and legs that look like a giant mandala. this is part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training
Part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training
Kids Mandala Workshop Meditation and Yoga Presentation, kids hold up the mandalas they created with coloured ink and stampers Kids Make Mandalas - part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Techer Training
Kids Make Mandalas with large paper and stamp pads. – part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training

3.  My Song

It can be hard for some kids to open up in class but you you will find that most children have a favorite song.  During an 8 hour a day, week long yoga camp I taught, we had a lot of time for extra activities.

One of the big hits was talking about our favorite songs and why they are meaningful to us.  Give kids time to contemplate what “My Song” will be.  Once they choose, it might surprise you how they open up in class.  Plus its very relaxing to listen to songs and hear their meaning.

My Song - Kids Share Why They Like Their Favorite Songs - part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training

 4.  Eye Pillows (and Washable Pillow Cases)

Eye Pillows are a fun one or two day craft and activity that comes straight from our Inclusive Yoga Certificate of Kids Yoga Teacher Training.  We use eye pillows as weighted objects to help kids get into their body.

First Part:  Fill the first sock with rice or grains. Then pass around some dried herbs or essential oils to smell.  The kids can create a custom fragrance in their pillow.

Second Part: Draw on the second sock to make your pillow case.  Just follow the directions on the fabric markers.  We put the socks over a can of club soda to make it easier to draw on the material.

Marker Tip:  The Crayola Brand Fabric Markers boast “Great for dark fabrics” but I was disappointed in the lack of colour on my black socks. So all my dark socks became the inner pillow, and the white socks were for marking on.

I think these eye pillows are better than stuffed animals or Beanie Babies, because you can pull off the pillow case and wash them!

Kids Making Eye Pillows using socks filled with rice and Pillow Cases coloured with fabric markers. - part of the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training

5. Word Games

We developed the Frog Yoga Alphabet especially to help keep kids busy during kids yoga and Yoga Camps.  You can print and play all kinds of games with them.

Sometimes people think a Yoga Alphabet is just for children learning the alphabet, but with a little imagination, those letters become words and the words become games and stories!  The next thing you know, you are playing charades, hangman, or discussing your “Word of the Day,” coloring it, and putting it up on your wall.

We recommend you keep it “yoga” by doing the yoga pose each time a letter is used.

A tween holds up her name spelled out in Yoga Letters from the Frog Yoga alphabet, part of the kids yoga teacher training of Young Yoga Masters

Enhance Your Camps

Yoga and fun go hand in hand. So when you’ve got the extra time in a Yoga Camp let these activities inspire you to enhance your camps.

What is your favorite activity for a kids yoga camp?

Upcoming Events:

Get Your Kids Yoga Teacher 96 Hour Certificate this Summer!

Kids Yoga Teacher Training Yoga Alliance Registered Childrens Yoga School
Click Here for Upcoming Dates

Contact Info @ YoungYogaMasters.com for more information or visit the Registration Page for dates and registration info.

Make Your Kids Yoga Training One to Remember!

Get More Details on Kids Yoga Teacher Certification

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Meditation with Children, Yoga Games, Yoga Songs Tagged With: eye pillows, Kids Yoga, mandala, songs, summer camps, yoga alphabet, yoga camps

Hello Song for Young Kids Yoga

Attention: Update to Kids Yoga Teacher Training Available for All

In the Kids Yoga Teacher Training at Young Yoga Masters I recommend establishing structure in kids yoga classes.  The classes will be different each time, but there will be parts of the class that remain the same.  The predictability of a routine can help kids feel more secure when they are learning.

One great place for structure is at the beginning of the class.  It helps children get ready for yoga.  In fourteen years of teaching kids yoga I’ve used only three different opening routines.  I did one routine for six years, the other for seven years and now this latest one I’ve been using since September 2011.

I’ll give you this new routine below.

A Yoga Song to Tell Kids Exactly What You Want to See

I started writing it at the end of the school year, last June 2011.  It’s especially for the younger kids, inspired because the daycare teachers start their classes with a “Make a Circle” type of song.

It got me thinking that the circle songs are really effective, why not have a yoga song that describes the actions I want to see?  I started playing with different words and timing and eventually came up with this song.

This was recorded in a live class with about 20 children ages 2 – 6 years old.  You’ll hear how excited the kids are when they sing the last “Hello.”  I don’t sing this part – I let them give a rousing response. They like it a lot.

Now after six months testing this song with my kids’ classes I’m ready to give it the stamp of approval. I’ll be updating my Kids Yoga Teacher Training to include it.  I find it works best with children up to seven or eight years old.

Here are the Yoga Moves for the song:

Hello my friends hello,
(wave one hand then the other)

It’s yoga time you know,
(wave one hand then the other)

So cross your legs,
(motion your hands crossing above your legs crossing – if there are any children without their legs crossed I pause the song here and help each child get into Easy Pose – Sukh Asana)

Put your hands in place,
(bring hands together at the heart – Prayer Mudra)

and bend your head down low,
(bring your forehead to the floor and come back up – Pranam)

That’s how we say….Hello
(let the children finish the song with a big hello)

Yoga Benefits for Kids

Here are some of the benefits from this song according to Yoga:

Sukhasana – Easy Pose: a calming pose, strengthens the back and stretches the hips, knees, and ankles.

Prayer Mudra: Pressing the right and left hands together is said to help balance the left and right hemisphere’s of the brain.

Pranam – Bowing: bringing your forehead to the floor lowers your head below your heart.  Your heart, the center of compassion and love, is elevated. The head, the center of calculations, memories, and planning, is given a secondary position.  Pranam is an act of lowering the head to the heart.

Share your Routine In the Comments

You’re invited to try this song out and/or share the ways you use to begin a yoga class for children in the comments.

Do you like to keep it the same or mix it up every week?

For more details on the Kids Yoga Teacher Training – visit here.

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Yoga Songs Tagged With: kids yoga teacher training, yoga songs

3 Kids Yoga Ideas for a Healthy Halloween – Including Free Printables

Free Kids Yoga Activities for Halloween

Young Yoga Masters is celebrating this October with free treats!  Our Four Year Blog-iversary passed and Halloween is just around the corner.  To thank you for staying connected we’ve got a free treat and Halloween fun for you and the children celebrating with you. Lets make this Halloween a little more fun and healthy.

free yoga activty page
Consider adding these healthy coloring pages to your treats for Halloween

We’ve got three delights for our blog party:

  1. A Healthy Treat so you can shell-out a little yoga.
  2. A Fear Filled Story for Introducing your Kids Yoga Lesson Plan
  3. A Halloween Song that will get children stretching and breathing.

A Healthy Halloween Treat You Can Shell-Out

At my house we get about 100 kids on Halloween that I’m going to experiment on this year.

Get your free printable coloring pages.

I’m giving out edible treats (I don’t want my house egged)  AND I’m slipping in a Yoga Coloring page to each unsuspecting costumed visitor.  I’ll post their reactions on Facebook and Twitter next week (#healthyhalloween).

Now you can also print these yoga coloring pages – as many as you want.  The two pictures you see in this blog post are yours by clicking below. You’re invited to share this link with anyone who also wants a healthy treat to give kids.

FREE PRINTABLE COLORING PAGES CLICK HERE:

Healthy Halloween Yoga Pages PDF

.

A Halloween Story for Yoga with Kids

Try introducing your Halloween lesson plan to add some real yoga to your fun:

Once upon a time a man traveled home at night by the light of the moon.  He walked nimbly almost holding his breath because everyone said a deadly cobra lived beside the road.  Just as he approached the final bend he felt something brush against the front of his ankle.  Panicking he ran the last block screaming and shaking his leg.

Throwing himself beneath the light of his front porch he expected to see a snake wrapped around his ankle.  What he in fact saw was a child’s skipping rope.

This old yoga story shows us how we don’t see clearly when fear takes over.  Remember it when you trick or treat and come upon a scary house with spiders and witches. If you relax and breath you shed some light on the situation.

When you drop the fear you’ll see those spiders aren’t moving because they’re made of plastic.

And the person wearing that big black hat looks a lot like your friends mom and she’s holding a bowl of candy.

Today who wants to do some yoga to dispel fear so we can get lots of candy on Halloween?

.

A Halloween Song with Yoga Movements

Then you can launch into a warm up with this song:

Five Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate
(Chair pose)

The first one said, “Oh my its getting late.”
(stay in chair pose and point to your watch)

The second one said, “There are witches in the air.”
(come upright and stretch arms in the air)

The third one said, “Oh we don’t care.”
(swoop arms down near the floor bending your knees)

The fourth one said, “Let’s run and run and run.”
(run on the spot)

The fifth one said, “I’m ready for some fun!”
(squat down slowly then jump up on “fun”)

OOOOOOOOOHHH went the wind
(stand with hands on waist and bend forward from left to right blowing like wind)

and OUT went the lights
(stretch arms to sides then clap hands on “out”)

and the five little pumpkins rolled out of site.
(rolly polly hands)

When the kids exclaim AGAIN, AGAIN you will be warmed up after one or two reps of this Halloween favorite.

Happy Halloween to everyone and thanks again for reading.  If you decide to give out the yoga coloring pages or have any ideas to share for a healthier Halloween leave a comment.

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Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training Courses and Dates in Toronto at this link

Become a Kids Yoga Teacher!

Discover Real Yoga and Real Fun in the Young Yoga Masters kids yoga teacher training weekend. Come join us and give yourself a weekend to refresh and renew your practice.

Participants get inspired in a play based learning training at the Kids Yoga Teacher Certification course.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS

Filed Under: Free Print and Play, Kids Yoga, Lesson Plans, Resources, Yoga Games, Yoga Songs Tagged With: Halloween, lesson plans, stress management

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