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You are here: Home / Archives for sun salutation

sun salutation

Teaching Yoga to Boys

What happens when you are used to teaching one age group, then get a class with a whole new demographic?

I got a letter about this from Jeri Cresson, a Graduate of our 95 Hour Training. In it, she shares what happened when she taught her first group of boys.

Dear Young Yoga Masters,

Over the past few years, since my training at Young Yoga Masters, I have been working exclusively with the preschool age group. I’ve used your methods, frog yoga cards, themes, and games to develop an effective and engaging program at our Dojo.

We’ve created structure and focus to the practice of our littlest ones, helping them become quiet and still. They learned to alternate, at will, between wild playful abandon to quiet stillness, cooperation, focus, and attention. They began recognizing cues for when each was most appropriate.

It is sacred, glorious PLAY!

Learning to Teach Kids Yoga to a New Age Demographic

the cover of the inclusive yoga module of the kids yoga teacher training shows a superhero male yogi on a rocketship doing the cobra ygoa pose
The Inclusive Yoga manual cover.

However, I found myself with the opportunity to use my training with a new group of boys, in the 7-9 age group. I was afraid that I might not be able to transition from the younger age group to this one. I didn’t need to worry, as it turned out.

I cracked open the Inclusive Yoga manual and tried the Yoga Man vs. The Stressor activities. The Universal truths contained within them just flowed naturally – and suddenly, the sun salutation that started as rote memorization turned into a meaningful sequence.

The “why” dawned on me, as I was (with trepidation and anxiety) pouring over the what and how.

It was triggered when I reviewed how to introduce the breath – breathing in the Big Me, breathing out the Little Me. And I mentally added to help me realize: Breathing out the little ol’ me.

Deepening My Understanding of the Breath

I realized these 4 parts of breath:

  1. Observing Stillness, in intentional solitude and contemplation, is a normal, still, but a conscious breath,
  2. The Breathing in of Prana -the secret power of everything – that which is infinite and Universal,
  3. The breathing out of the little me – is what I can personally choose to do to take action with the energy and power that I have been given,
  4. and finally, a silent contemplative suspension of breath, feeling, experiencing gratitude, and taking inventory during rest before beginning the entire cycle over again.
a kids yoga teacher uses her whole body to demonstrate yoga breathing, with her fingers beside her nose to give kids a visual cue to breathe through the nose
Breathe in the Big Me, Breathe out the Little Me: Use your fingers beside your nose to help the visual learners remember to breathe through the nose.

From an Ordinary Person to a Hero!

“I realized that Yoga Man was once, just an ordinary person, just like me. But he learned how to harness the power of breath…”

I realized that Yoga Man was once, just an ordinary person, just like me. But he learned how to harness the power of breath, intention, focus, action, rest and reflection to outwit and outmaneuver The Stressor at every turn!

Each day he trained with this secret weapon so his powers grew. He became so strong he could leap over obstacles, dodge danger, and even rescue others – almost effortlessly.

In class we reviewed the yoga sequence, practiced with breath, and used the Yoga Man stories about the secret powers he can use when confronted with problems and challenges. Then we played a game of throwing stars.

Taking an Intentional Breath for Focus

a yoga superhero doing yoga cobra pose to help boys like yoga using images they enjoy
Yoga Man – the Yoga Super Hero doing cobra pose

Without any cues or prompting I noticed students stopping to take aim, taking an intentional breath, and then exhaling automatically with the exertion of their throw. When they did this, they were more accurate and more powerful.

Then they realized how much the breath helped.

It was magical. They were genuinely filled with glee, realizing that they, like Yoga Man, could harness the secret weapon of Breath.

Class ended with an age-appropriate, short savasana, then they joked around, touselling each other, as boys will do, each talking excitedly about how they were going to try out some “Breath Power” on something or another.

And their moms, clad in their own yoga clothing smiled, knowingly, checking that one task, “Get my boy to settle down and breathe” off the list.

Best,

Jeri Creson

Program Director – The Dojo Covington
Covington, LA, USA

New Orleans Kids Yoga Teacher Graduating Class of 2017
Jerri (2nd from right) graduated from the 95 Hour Training in 2017

Try the Sun Salutation for Boys

Yoga Man uses breath to stay calm when facing The Stressor.  I created The Yoga Man Training download  and added it to the Inclusive Yoga Module because too many boys, including my three nephews, thought yoga was something their mom’s do.

Getting boys involved took some thought to get boys to participate. I even got two of my nephews to be my models in this video. The other nephew did the original drawings that eventually got digitized in Yoga Man!

Yoga Man does the Sun Salutation.

We are at Kilbear Provincial Park, in Ontario, Canada.

 

Check your volume and press play to bring yoga to your children!

Filed Under: Classroom Management, Kids Yoga, Resources Tagged With: kids yoga teacher training, sun salutation, yoga for boys

Inclusive Yoga – 3 Ways to Create an Inclusive Lesson Plan

Preparing for the Inclusive Yoga Kids Yoga module of our kids yoga teacher training means gathering my ribbons, stickers and foam noodles. Seeing these props gathered in front of me, I’m reminded of the many ways to engage children and how important wise planning is for a kids yoga class.

a class picture of graduates from the kids yoga teacher training in Toronto Canada
Class Picture of Kids Yoga Teacher Training

In this training, you’ll create Lesson Plan Case Studies and strategize ways to include children with all abilities in your classes. Here are three tips from our training that could make your classes a little more inclusive so everyone gets to play at yoga!

If you’d like to get formal training – please follow the link here and check out our early bird savings for the upcoming training.

1. All Abilities Yoga

Here’s what we did in our practicum Training when a girl with Cerebral Palsy attended.  She used a walker/seat to support her and standing up and sitting down took her longer, was tiring, and made it hard for her to participate in the class.

Design games and activities so all kids can participate as one class.

As often happens we didn’t know she was going to be there until we got to the class.  But we had 5 more classes in the series so we did a case study of her needs and our lesson plans for future classes so she could participate fully. Here’s one example.

We typically play a mindfulness listening game using a variety of bells with the kids sitting on the floor, closing their eyes, and listening to identify which bell is being rung.  For this activity, our first thought was to put out a chair so our friend could sit in a chair while we played.

But as we thought it through we could see how she would still feel separated from the group this way – she would be the only one sitting in the chair. There was no reason this activity had to take place on the yoga mats.

So we changed our plan to move the whole activity to a table and had everyone sitting in chairs.

The activity was set up before everyone arrived and ran smoothly, not one child ever thought that a special allowance had been made because of the chairs.  What they did notice was how much fun they had.

This is just one way that you can plan your lesson for a particular child with a walker or chair, and keep it fun by moving everyone into chairs.

You can see how activities are equally fun no matter how you play them in this video:

2. Routines within the Yoga Class

Routines:  Helpful for All, Essential for Some

When I talk about setting up routines in a yoga class, I liken it to TV show credits.  As a kid, I remember watching the Brady Bunch till the very last note of the closing song was sung.  Those opening and closing songs helped me emotionally process that my favourite show was starting, then finishing. The routine helped!

Routines within a class are helpful for all and essential for some.  They reduce stress because they provide predictability and reassurance throughout your yoga time.

“Unpredictability = Risk”

The simple premise (unpredictability = risk) is that young people perceive the unpredictable as risky and threatening. For example, novel situations – such as new environments, a disruption in routine, or times when their teacher is away – are themselves the reasons that students escalate in their environment. In times of uncertainty, students can often display emotional dysregulation and increased fight-flight-freeze behaviours.”

p. 55, Creating Trauma-Informed Strengths-Based Classrooms, Tom Brunzell Ph.D., and Jacolyn Norrish Ph.D.
Creating routines can help your classes run smoother.

Adding routines can help your classes run smoother.  Here are a few places routines can be used:

  • an opening song (see the Hello Song I use in my preschool classes below)
  • routinely doing 3 yoga breaths during or after a pose
  • a routine to celebrate completing a pose or activity
  • a closing transition or song

Don’t forget that for routines to work they should be the same in every class!

What routines do you follow without fail in every class?  If you don’t have any, it may help to get some.

3. Representation Matters In Your Props

a yoga superhero doing yoga cobra pose to help boys like yoga using images they enjoy
Yoga Man – the Yoga Super Hero

I created Yoga Man vs. The Stressor in 2009 because it was hard to find yoga materials that appealed to the older boys I taught.  There were plenty of images of animals, fairies, and happy endings.  But where were the action heroes that many of my students wanted to see?

When I developed the Frog Yoga Alphabet, I chose frogs to do the poses rather than children so that everyone could relate to the images.

And the strategic use of props can get more children engaged like the way bubbles help everyone figure out yoga breathing.

Teachers must ensure everyone is well represented.

Fortunately, there are more inclusive resources available now. I would like to update the Yoga for Boys video I made to include more boys, not just my nephews.  I’d like to include images of children wearing head coverings or using walkers doing yoga!

Out of convenience, people can get overlooked and feel like they don’t belong when they never see themselves represented.  Teachers need to think about whether everyone is represented in the images they use in yoga class too.

Here’s our yoga for boys video that needs an update, the boys in this video are young men now so we are ready for new kids to fill our video:

Yoga Man does the sun salutation on colouring pages that kids can colour in the way they like.

If you find that your boys are not engaged in your yoga classes, I recommend learning more about Boy Culture from this article.

What are Your Favourite Strategies to Create an Inclusive Yoga Lesson Plan?

These are just a few of the many ways you can create an Inclusive Yoga Lesson plan. To go over them all we would need a whole weekend and that takes place in the Inclusive Yoga Kids Yoga Teacher Certification.

Register before March 25, 2023, and get 40% OFF by using the code KIDSYOGATEACHERSAVE40.

The code can be used sitewide for Self-paced, Live Zoom, and In-person teacher training.

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Lesson Plans Tagged With: inclusive yoga, lesson plans, stress management, sun salutation, yoga for boys, yoga for special needs

Welcome SITS and Everyone Who Wants to Know the Secret to Success

A special welcome to everyone visiting from SITS where the Secret to Success is Support!  Today I have the tremendous opportunity to be a “How To” Featured Blogger on SITS. What makes SITS great is that not only do we all agree to read each others blogs (one a day) but we ALSO agree to leave a comment.

Comments have been compared to many things in the blogosphere, so just to bring my yoga readers up to speed –  in yoga terms – comments are like Shivasana (the relaxation pose) to a blogger.  They feel so good after a lot of hard work!

My SITS Feature Post:  How To Relax and Enjoy the Holidays is wrapped up below.  For new SITS readers – you are personally invited to keep reading the other links on this page.  Young Yoga Masters is all about Kids Yoga, about Training Teachers and about spreading tools to help kids be healthy and happy.  I’m a niche blogger so I write almost exclusively about kids/health/yoga/and related topics. I post about once a week.

Parents, teachers, and yoga teachers spreading kids yoga.

If you are a parent, a teacher, a yoga convert, or just yoga curious and want useful tools for the kids you love, add your name in the subscription box on the top right.  Lets stay in touch.  If you’re one of my regular readers, today is the day to try leaving some comment love.  SITS girls know the secret to success is showing comment love support!

Now with the many holidays fast approaching here is the rest of the Feature Blog Post:

How To Relax and Enjoy the Holidays

A celebration is supposed to be a happy day, the kind that makes great memories.  Everyone needs holidays to balance out the toil! But what about the obstacles that take a perfectly good holiday and make it feel like work?  With a few simple yogi fixes, you can turn these modern problems around and ensure everyone has a fun time.

Do you make these holiday mistakes?

  • Mistake: Carrying a Heavy Stress Load: staying up late, getting up early, texting, blogging, tweeting, e-mailing, then running around all day can wear a person down!  A little stress can be motivating but too much stress is like too much salt– it ruins the meal.The Sun Salutation, a flowing yoga series, helps combat the bad effects of stress.Watch this video to see Yoga Man defeat The Stressor using yoga!  Exercise is a proven antidote to the toll stress takes on your body.  Even just ten minutes of Sun Salutations at night can help you wind down. When done in the morning the Sun Salutation can help you get moving.   This is really helpful to reduce the health risks your body bears when it is in stress mode.

  • Mistake:  Reaching for the Junk Food: Eating in moderation just doesn’t go with certain holidays like Halloween where candies abound.  Of course the best thing to do is to not eat junk.  But if you end up reaching for the candies a little more than you ought, here’s something the yogis recommend:  Rock Pose/Vajrasana.  To sit in Rock pose, first kneel and then lower down so you are sitting on your heels. Do it watching TV or sorting Halloween candy, just do it as often as you can. It’s recommended by the yogis to aid in digestion and help with elimination.

Rock Pose, VajrasanaThese yoga fixes have been practiced for ages and can help you fix mistakes and make any holiday a little healthier and happier!

Thanks to everyone for visiting Young Yoga Masters today.  And remember, whenever you see SITS – leave a comment!

Yours truly,

Aruna Kathy Humphrys
[email protected]

P.S.  A Special Announcement:  My new on-line yoga training, Yoga Man vs. The Stressor:  Yoga for Boys is set to come out next week.  But since my SITS day popped up this week, I decided to do an early bird special for today and tomorrow only! We’re holding a pre-sale for anyone who wants to jump in and get the best deal possible when you order now and receive your product next week.   Click on this link to for more information on how to bring healthy living to your kids.

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Teacher Training Tagged With: comments, rock pose, SITS, stress management, sun salutation

Earth Day and The Earth Element

Kids Yoga for Earth Day
Kids Yoga for Earth Day

Earth Day Kids Yoga

Earth Day is April 22, but lets think of everyday to be earth day!

In honour of Mother Earth I have three strange and unusual yoga things planned for yoga class today:

  1. Earth Yoga: We lie down on the floor and begin jumping all parts of the body like popcorn.  First we lie on our back, then do it again lying on our front.    Both are very grounding as all parts of the body are lifted then dropped back down improving circulation.
  2. Sun Salutations: A little talk about the earth element, rooting down, and being grounded as we do the Sun Salutation.  The light of the sun brings the earth to life.  The light within us warms our lives. Yoga helps our inner light to shine in our lives.
  3. Earth is Manifestation: The Earth represents manifestation.  When we relax today we’ll have a daydreaming session about what kind of life you want to manifest.  Unfortunately we don’t have time to draw in these classes (they’re only 30 minutes).  The kids will have to paint a picture in their minds eye.

Young Yoga Masters Updates

  • I’d also like to invite everyone to click here to listen to Donna Freeman (Yoga In My School blog) interviewing me about Yoga for Boys.  I give some useful tips for motivating boys to do yoga, themes I use with boys, and my favorite exercises for boys.
  • Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Trainings:  Check here and find out when you can get your next certificate as a Kids Yoga Teacher.  Sign up ASAP to reserve your spot before the course is filled.

As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Happy Earth Day,

Aruna
[email protected]

Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Lesson Plans Tagged With: daydreaming, Earth Day yoga, imagin, popcorn yoga, sun salutation

Sun Salutation for Kids – Saluting the Eternal Light Within Us

sun salutations saluting the eternal light within us

In previous posts we’ve looked at how to do the Sun Salutation with kids. In the next few post I want to talk about the meaning behind the Sun Salutation. Introducing these topics to kids can lead to an interesting discussion and you can find out what they think about it. Plus, looking at all levels of yoga, body, mind, and spirit, injects meaning into a ritual.

The Sanskrit name for the Sun Salutation is actually Surya Namaskar.

Surya means Sun, it represents our Consciousness. Namaskar is a two part word. The first part, Namas, means “bow” or “salute.” The second part, kar, refers to the “do-er” of everything. This Sanskrit root kar, can also be found in the word karma which means the stuff we do, our action. The English word creator, also has the root kar at the beginning.The whole word Namaskar has various translations, the most common is Salutation, another is “making obeisance.”

Obeying the Sun – Obeying the Consciousness
When we do Surya Namaskar, the Sun Salutation, we are bowing to, saluting, and obeying the sun which is our Consciousness. When you think of the sun as a glowing ball of energy floating in the middle of a massive and unending universe – it defies logic. Where did it come from, why does it keep burning, when was it created, when will it burn out? No one really knows, beyond theory, most speculations are usually given plus or minus a few billion years.

 We do know that without the sun there would be no life on earth. We feel the warmth of the sun’s caress when it is close. We see how frozen the world becomes when it is distant.

Revolve Your World Around the Sun: Our solar system revolves around the sun. The earth represents manifestation. In the Dark Ages people thought the sun revolved around the earth. When we obey the external conditions rather than the Consciousness, it is like we are living in the Dark Ages.

We are grateful to the sun of our solar system, the sun is also the symbol of the Eternal Light within us. When we do Surya Namaskar we are making a commitment to honour and obey the light within us. Like the solar system, our world revolves around this light.

Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training Courses and Dates in Toronto at this link
Our next Kids Yoga Teacher Training starts soon!


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Filed Under: Kids Yoga, Meditation with Children Tagged With: sun salutation

Tricks to Get Kids doing the Sun Salutation

In winter in my city, Toronto Canada, the sun sets at 4:40 pm.

It rises at about 7:40 am.

Basically, the sun is missing most of the morning and night, and its cold, but in yoga it is a good time to do Sun Salutations.

So last week in a daycare where I teach I decided to workshop the Sun Salutation in a unique way that kept my class of about fifteen kids, aged 5 – 9 years old, busy for 30 minutes.

In children’s yoga, Sun Salutations are great for kids. There are many variations of the Sun Salutation and I prefer a very simple twelve step sequence, so that it is not too complicated to remember. Some of the kids memorize it and can do it at home too.

The poses of the Sun Salutation can be taught slowly and once the kids get to know the poses and names, you can move at a faster pace. The speed and movement keep kids attention, helps them focus and channels their energy nicely.

But it is not easy to keep them focused for long without using one of my little trick to keep them interested.

Saluting the Sun In Kid Friendly Ways

As a teacher of kids yoga for many years, I’ve used all kinds of sun salutations tricks. I’ve used poems and sung songs.  But the trick that kids go wild for is Sun Salutations . . . Army Style.

Kid’s love when their teacher plays a role, like in this case, a drill sergeant. It’s a highly effective trick of teaching that gets kids attention and keeps it.

So when I entered the room, I didn’t do my usual routine, I told the class in my best drill sergeant voice that their regular teacher couldn’t make it so she called me from the army to sub the class. The kids are confused but intrigued.

“Do you know how to salute the sun?” (I yell drill sergeant style)

“Yes” the kids answered.

“I can’t hear you!”

“YES!” the kids said with more energy.

Then Stand Up!

Attention! (they slapped their arms at their sides)

Since it was only their second time doing sun salutations, the first was a five minute introduction the week before, I continued this way:

  • Demonstrate and Name the Pose then the Kids Do It: I demonstrate one pose at a time with a one word command (“sun,” “earth,” “plank,” etc.) Then the kids to do each pose, one pose at at time. I use short explanations like “reach up,” “reach down,” “straight line” etc.
  • Speed it Up: After you go through the poses slowly, get the kids to do it again as you call out the one word reminders, Army style, of what is next.
  • Add the Breath: once they have the hang of the movements you can add the “Inhale,” “Exhale” to the series.
  • Repeat till the Sun Goes Down: or till the kids can’t do any more and ask for a rest.

How Many Sun Salutations for Kids?

In the 30 minute class we did 2 rounds of the Sun Salutations slowly (changing legs each time), then two faster, then we rested for about 2 minutes, then did 4 more repetitions. Although a few of the kids sat out for the last two repetitions. Grand Total: 8 reps of the sun salutation.

Finish with a Relaxation

Then we rested for about 6 minutes. I put on a song that is relaxing and can also be a meditation. The kids have the choice to either lie down and rest or sit up and meditate with me. It is usually about a 50/50 split of resting/meditating.

Classroom Management – Play a Character

I’m not sure why kids especially like the Drill Sergeant routine, but they do!  Pretend to be a different characters and see how easily you get the attention of a large group of kids. Stick to short descriptions and keep the kids busy doing poses and you’ll keep them engaged.

If you teach sun salutations, or have tried Drill Sergeant, let me know how it goes for you.

Check Out This Sun Salutation Online Resource:

Yoga Man vs. The Stressor – Online Kids Yoga Teacher Training  utilizes the Sun Salutations in 10 different games and activities. Click the image below for more details.

 

Sun Salutation for Kids using Yoga Man action hero who does yoga the way boys like it!

Upcoming Kids Yoga Teacher Training Courses and Dates in Toronto at this link
Our next Kids Yoga Teacher Training starts soon!

Filed Under: Classroom Management, Kids Yoga Tagged With: classroom management, lesson plans, sun salutation, themes

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