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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:

Get Your Kids Yoga Teacher 95 Hour Certificate in the Summer Certification!

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.

Make Your Kids Yoga Training One to Remember!

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7 Reasons iPods are Awesome for Kids Yoga Teachers and their Music

In Kids Yoga Teacher Training I recommend teachers get a portable music player like an iPod or MP3. Usually more than 50% already use them and just nod knowingly in agreement during this part of the training.

Others half heartedly agree because they have the technology but have not plugged it in yet.

And a small but significant percentage get a terrified look on their face and just shake their head “no.” They are either afraid to take the leap into technology or just plain don’t like it.

use playlists for your kids yoga music — Use playlists for your kids yoga music.

Of course music is still available in CD format, and you can burn some pretty useful mixed CD’s. But sooner or later you’ll have to make the switch since many major record companies have announced they are not producing CD’s anymore.

Here are some reasons to go for it now which include how you can make the most of your player if you already have one:

Save Time: You’ll save time fiddling with CD’s and changing songs during your kids yoga classes. You won’t have as many gaps in your class, gaps that drive some kids to distraction.
Save Money: A whole album of Music is usually at least $10 less as a download than to buy in CD format. On top of that there are no shipping fees.
Get Only the Songs You Want: you can just download one song if you don’t want to buy the whole album. Again more savings.
Playlists: You can create a playlist especially for your class and have all your songs in order and ready to go. I also have playlists like “Childrens faves,” “Relaxation Music,” and “Childrens New” for new downloads I want to try out with my classes. Playlists make finding a song even easier. Especially in times like this.
Create Space: a few years ago I made the leap and imported all my CD’s into iTunes then gave the CD’s away (well I kept maybe 5 out of the hundreds). I have never missed them, in fact I end up listening to my old music more because of the “shuffle” function or just searching an artist or album I haven’t heard in a while. What used to take a whole shelf in my living room, now fits in my pocket! I love the space it has created.
Relate to Kids: Kids are growing up in the technology age. They don’t read manuals, they get a new piece of technology and start using it. It’s not a big decision, it’s entertainment. Like spending money on going out to dinner. Technology is always a great ice breaker with older kids, tweens, and teens.
It’s Easier than you Think: Once you get used to the dashboard of your player, using digital music is about as easy as writing an e-mail. I feel like a teenager again when it comes to music, I often get a new album every month.

Most teachers are on the cusp of the digital world. We have one foot in the old world of records, eight tracks, cassettes, and/or CD’s and we may be dipping a toe in the new world of technology.

But technology is all kids have ever known. If you’re wondering how something works, ask the kids you teach! Or do what they do – Google the answer. All the answers are there.

So there’s no need to be a technology dinosaur! Get with the times, you’ll be glad you did.

Please leave a comment to tell us how important your iPod or MP3 player is to your kids yoga classes. Are you glad you have one or are you just fine without?

Do you have other reasons or tips that may convince someone who’s sitting on the fence about buying an iPod?

Finally, check out my favourite songs and albums on my Recommended Resources page.

Upcoming Events

Learn some great moves to songs for warm-ups and meditations in the Young Yoga Masters Kids Yoga Teacher Training. Upcoming dates here. Next training June 2 – 3. Save with early registration.

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?

Kids Need a Place to be Creative

Creative Movement in Yoga Class

This week’s story about teaching kids yoga is from a 30 minute daycare class I teach to a junior school-age group (ages 5 – 7 years old). This class has an even mix of boys and girls. A few of the children also play other sports and are very active and there are a few children who don’t exercise much. So it’s a typical school class nowadays.

Kids Yoga Teachers Get to Know the Personality of the Class

Let me get back to the story in a second and pass on a teacher training tip. One job of each kids yoga teacher is to get to know each class and their unique personality. At first thought, you may think kids are kids. But I’ve found that each class has their own favorites, style, and cast of characters.

So back to the story, I had got to know that this kids yoga class liked to be pushed. The leaders in this class liked a challenge. I observed one boy, who a lot of the kids look up to, he encourage everyone to throw in few extra sit ups during a break, rather than resting. The others followed along.

Seeing this, I decided to ramp up the class, increasing the times we held our yoga poses and giving them more challenging exercises. They liked it!

So in the next few classes I started teaching this class some Kundalini Yoga Kriyas – the same sequences that I teach to adults. They liked it more.

Can Kids Do Adult Yoga – Yes Some Can!

These kids were doing some hard sets. For instance, we did one series with 18 exercises in it. We had 15 kids and 3 teachers in the class that day, so we went around the circle and everyone led one of the 18 poses. They were absolutely spent at the end of the 30 minutes, calm and rested.

In another kriya of 9 exercises (I found the complete Kriya posted online here) , everyone sits in easy pose, raising your arms behind your head and holding opposite elbows, then bowing your head to the ground and straightening back up. The kriya prescribes 5 1/2 minutes of this movement, but we didn’t have that much time, so I challenged them to do 108 reps. They went for it! Sure, some said, “No way!” at first, but as they counted up to number 80, they were motivated to finish. Most kids did all 108 repetitions.

It’s a great experience to learn about how we limit ourselves with out beliefs, thinking we can’t do something, then realizing we actually can do it.

The next class I planned, I had the feeling that I was pushing them too much. I didn’t want to forget the fun. But I also didn’t want to mess with something that was working, so I thought twice, and picked another challenging yoga set to do.

When I arrived at the class. One girl came up and asked for a game. Another asked for dancing, and another wanted to do something with an Easter/Spring theme. Aha! The cry for creativity. The cry of the heart. The cry of your Consciousness!

Kids Want to Be Creative Too

“There are always two creations; one in your heart and the other in time and space. The creation in time and space is impossible if it is not first created in your heart, which is your Consciousness.” >Tulshi Sen, author of Ancient Secrets of Success for Today’s World

What’s the point of all the challenges if we are not listening to what the heart wants? I decided to forget the lesson plan and go with the flow. We started with a freeze dance (I use a version by Christopher Carbone) – they danced like there was no tomorrow.

Namaste! Songs, Yoga & Meditations for Young Yogis!

A Kids Yoga Game for Creativity

Then we played a Creativity game. Everyone was encouraged to be as creative as they could and come up with their own ideas. We started in easy pose with eyes closed, then I said a word. Keeping their eyes closed the kids would make up a yoga pose for that word. Then on the count of three everyone would open their eyes and see what all the poses looked like.

I think I called out about 8 or 10 words. The ones I remember were: egg, meatball, star, earth, rich, poor, happy. The results ranged from expected to ridiculous – but everyone enjoyed it so much they didn’t want it to end.

Children’s Meditation for Creativity

Then we played one of the kids favorite songs from Snatam Kaur’s Feeling Good TodayCD called I am the Light of My Soul. Again everyone was encouraged to make up their own moves and simultaneously move as a group and we will see how it feels and what happens. It calls for creativity, spontaneity and detachment.

At the end of the song one girl exclaimed, “That was wonderful!”

It is fun to have a challenge but every once in a while we must be creative. We must listen to the call of the heart, which is our Consciousness. Try it and see how it works with your kids.

Aruna Kathy Humphrys

[email protected]