Yoga Songs

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 of kids yoga over 5 days in our Kids Yoga Teacher – Summer Certification. So 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 only get teaching actual kids. Here’s what happens at the Summer Certification and why it just may be for you:

18 hours of kids camp where you actually get to teach real kids
tons of easy to use resources, colouring pages, books, yoga cards, props, all things that kids like, and they are all included
you get to retreat from your regular life and focus on being a kids yoga teacher
you make amazing connections with the teachers and the other participants and for a supportive community

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: [email protected]

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.

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.

Tip: The Crayola Brand Fabric Markers boast “Great for dark fabrics” but I was disappointed. 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!

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.

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:

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

Contact [email protected] for more information or visit the Registration Page for dates and registration info.

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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.

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:

A Healthy Treat so you can shell-out a little yoga.
A Fear Filled Story for Introducing your Kids Yoga Lesson Plan
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.

Halloween Moon — 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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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.

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

CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS

Music and Kids Yoga Summer Camps

Students make up their own classes in Kids Yoga Teacher Training

Children’s Yoga Summer Activities

Legend has it that Yogi Bhajan, the Master of Kundalini Yoga, would inspire and direct everyone at original Summer Solstice gatherings to write and sing songs . Having composed and practiced their creations the musical students would take the stage and perform live for those in attendance and for Yogi Bhajan. I myself attended some of the later Solstice gatherings and left the events with pockets stuffed with cassette tapes. The songs from those events are so catchy that though I still own the original cassettes I have gone on to buy the professionally produced versions on on cassette, DVD, and downloadable digital formats.

This rich body of music is part of why people love Kundalini Yoga so much.

I’ve been to other retreats where students put on all kinds of performances for their teacher. It was always one of the highlights of the event and a time when the teacher sees how the students interpret the teachings. Some people think yoga retreats are hard, but in my experience they’re very uplifting and creative. For me they’re like Summer Camp for adults.

Activities for Kids Yoga

It’s helpful to look at what the Master Teachers did with their students. The teacher gives guidelines then sends the students off to experience the teachings for themselves. Whether its something simple like explaining a yoga pose then having everyone do it, or more complex like writing songs at Summer Solstice.

I take ideas from the Master’s Play Book. In my Kids Yoga Teacher Training course there is always a part of the course where the teachers take what they’ve learned and create their own kids yoga classes. Then they teach it to me and the rest of the group. On the feedback forms, many write that this is their favorite part of the course.

You may want to try it too if you teach kids yoga, whether its in a yoga camp or in your own living room. Make Creativity an activity. Give children the assignment to write their own songs, poems, or skits. Then let them show you what they’ve done.

It just may be the highlight of their summer and yours.

My Favorite Yoga Album of the Summer

“I don’t mind what happens, whatever happens I don’t mind.
I don’t mind what happens, whatever happens I’ll be fine.”
– lyrics from I Don’t Mind song by Harnam Singh
from the album Love Infinite Divine.

I still love to listen to music! I recently downloaded an album, Love Infinite Divine, and have been playing over and over at home. It’s music that came out of the Kundalini Yoga tradition that is living strong even though Yogi Bhajan passed on many years ago.

What kind of things have you learned from Master Teachers that you make a point to do in your classes?

The More We Get Together – a Yoga Song

After the Kids Yoga Teacher Training last weekend a couple of teachers were very honest about feeling stuck in their business development. They felt like they knew what they were supposed to do, but they just couldn’t seem to go ahead and do it.

I’d like to dedicate this post to all those who have a dream but don’t know how to get started making it a reality.

Life needs purpose. No Matter what has happened in the past, it has brought you to today. There are no mistakes. Live today from the inside out. Let your creativity bubble up from inside. Follow your heart’s passion and it will lead you to your destination.

david_jumping4 — Use your passion to get un-stuck!

Keep your mind on a short leash. Don’t let your mind distract you from going where you want to go. Don’t let the puppy set the course for your walk!

Then when you go to bed at night you will feel the exhaustion of a life well lived. When you lay in bed at night, drift into sleep imagining what you want tomorrow to be, not what you are afraid it will be.

Spend your time with people who uplift and inspire you. When you are around like minded individuals creativity and inspiration abound. Like this song that spontaneously grew during the practice classes at the training. Everyone thought it was a great song to end a kids class with. Even though it’s a traditional kids song, there is truth there.

Here are the lyrics to the traditional version and the Yoga version:

The more we get together, together, together,
The more we get together the happier we’ll be.
Cause your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends
The more we get together the happier we’ll be.

The more we do our yoga, our yoga, our yoga
The more we do our yoga the happier we’ll be.
Cause your pose is my pose and my pose is your pose
The more we do our yoga the happier we’ll be.

Cause your breath is my breath and my breath is your breath
The more we do our yoga the happier we’ll be.

Cause your light is my light and my light is your light
The more we do our yoga the happier we’ll be.

Got any suggestions for new verses for this song?

Cause your ______ is my _______ and my ______ is your ______.

What do you do when you feel stuck?

For When You Have a Few Extra Minutes at the End of a Kids Yoga Class

Have you ever been teaching kids yoga only to find yourself with 7 or 8 minutes at the end of the class, not sure what to do? It’s too little time for a big activity but too much time to finish early.

It’s those few minutes after you’ve already done the yoga, relaxation, a meditation, and a game.

It’s in a setting, like a school or daycare, where kids get story time and drawing – so you don’t want to repeat.

I’m referring to the places where you charge them for a full hour, which usually flies by, but on these days, the last few minutes seem like eternity.

This happened to me this week in a summer day care class with a group of 3-4 year old kids. The class was small (8 kids) so all the yoga and games went by fast (compared to when there are 15 kids). Yoga was right after nap time (3-4 pm), so the kids didn’t need a long relaxation. Plus an hour with this age group is already on the long side of the class length.

Here are three things I go-to when I want to fill those last few minutes on days like these:

Reflection Time: Ask the children to list all the poses we did in class. Which were difficult to do? Which were easy? Which was the most fun?
Dancing: Free form dance or a Freeze Dance (like Move and Freeze) gives the kids some unstructured movement. Play many different styles and rhythms of music. End with a slow song and then a minute of sitting quietly to leave the class in a calm state.
A Goodbye Song: Have you ever heard of Lawrence Welk? He had a Goodnight song for the end of the show. I also have another song that uses kids names that involves a bathtub, a giraffe, and a plug.Make a slight adjustment to the words, but use the same tune and you have a sweet song to finish class (bubbles optional):

Lawrence Welk’s Good-Bye Song

Here’s one version I’ve used:

Good-bye Maya
So Long Maya (or change the name each time if you have a lot of kids)
Good-Bye Everyone
It’s time for me to go.

Hope you had a happy time, happy time, happy time.
Hope you had a happy time, I had a happy time too.

(repeat with another name)

When you have a few extra minutes at the end of a class do you end early or fill it? What do you do in those extra few minutes?