mat hop

Place mats in a horizontal line and put a yoga flashcard on each mat. The kids get on a mat and do the pose on the flashcard, holding the pose until you chime a bell. When the bell chimes, they HOP to the next mat, doing the next pose. 

The hardest part of getting kids to do yoga is getting them to hold a pose. It's hard for them to sit still and they like to quit easily if they are using muscles they don't normally use. Mat hop is a great way to get them holding a posture, because they can't come out of the pose until the bell chimes.

storytime yoga

How to use a story in yoga class:

With a little imagination, almost any children's storybook can be used in a kid's yoga class, because mostly the poses are already given to us. Think of how many yoga poses are already parts of a children's book: cat, dog, cow, lizard, snake, mountain, warrior, tree, dancer, eagle. The list goes on and on.

A class favorite is a game called Nature Walk. Here, everyone in class takes turns adding on to a story that I have started about what we see and where we go and what we do on a walk. As soon as a yoga pose is named, we all hop up and do the pose. The children love it because they are part of creating the story, and, really, they are very good at it. We have been on some wild nature walks when a child is the author.

Here we came across a chariot with wheels made of gold.

We were a pack of wolves, so naturally we did down dog.

Here's a little girl's beautiful interpretation of a cobra, coiling up and ready to strike.

I asked everyone to become their favorite animal. Here we have a rabbit, a giraffe, an angry bird, a dog, a dragon, a spider monkey, and cheetah, a wolf and a larva!

The book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, is an awesome one to use in a yoga class. Every page has an animal that you can emulate. 

"Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?"
"I see a red bird looking at me."

We can use this page to do any bird pose we like. 
Eagle. Crow. Pigeon. Peacock. Bird of Paradise.

"Blue horse, blue horse, what do you see?"
"I see a green frog looking at me." 

Now we hop around like frogs or play leap frog while in Malasana (yoga squat). Or we can get into Bhekasana (frog pose). Just use your imagination.


Another book that I love to use is Good Thing You're Not an Octopus, by Julie Markes.  

This is a super cute story, and I was lucky enough to observe "miniyogis" founder Shana Meyerson teach to a group of kids during my kid's yoga teacher certification. (http://miniyogis.com)

The story starts like this:

"You don't like to get dressed in the morning? It's a good thing you're not an octopus. If you were an octopus you would have eight legs to put in your pants!"

After I read this page, we lay back and get into plow pose, then put our legs straight towards the ceiling and crunch up to touch our toes, pretending that we are putting one leg through our pants' hole. We do this eight times. 

"You don't like to put on your shoes? It's a good thing you're not a caterpillar. If you were a caterpillar you would have sixteen feet to put shoes on!"

Here, we get into downward facing dog, lift one leg high into the air, then lower it to the mat, stepping into a shoe. Then the other leg. Sixteen times for sixteen shoes.

On one page it talks about being lucky that we aren't birds, or else our mommies would feed us worms. Here is one beautiful junior yogi grabbing a "worm" from Ardha Chandrasana, or Half Moon Pose:

I also have The Little Book of Hindu Deites, by Sanjay Patel, Babar's Yoga for Elephants, by Laurent de Brunhoff and Storytime Yoga, by Sydney Solis that I use often. Not to mention The Complete Idiots Guide to Yoga With Kids! :) There are a LOT of resources out there if you only look.

yoga dice

A friend of mine, a mother of four, makes amazingly beautiful jewelry out of wood and copper and rope and other naturally found elements. I was looking through her etsy site, https://www.etsy.com/shop/averyrayne and I saw three wooden blocks that she burned images on and she was selling them as storytelling dice. There was a sun on one side, a moon on one, a house, a mushroom, some circles...and once rolled, whichever images came up, children could use the images as inspiration to create a story. So cute!

Then I thought, if they had yoga poses on them, what a fun game that would be. So I emailed her and asked her if she could make me some, and she created these: 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/167247260/wooden-hand-burned-yoga-game-dice-great?ref=shop_home_active_21

Each kid in class gets a turn with the dice. They roll them, and together, we all do whichever asanas show up on the dice. 

yoga soccer

You will need a small soccer ball for this game. Set up one goal against the wall on one side of the room and have one kid be the goalie. I usually just use a mat and let that set the boundaries of the goal. Then place the "kicker" in front of the goal, maybe six feet away from the goalie. The kicker gets into downward facing dog and places the soccer ball on the mat below them, somewhere between their belly button and chest.

Then the kicker raises one leg, bends their knee and "kicks" the soccer ball toward the goalie, hitting the ball with their knee. The kicker will need to move in to a plank like position to properly hit the ball and send it towards the goal.

Then the goalie tries to stop the ball.

The ball needs to be smaller than a standard sized soccer ball, or else it won't fit between their arms when kicking it to towards the goal. 

Hovering over the ball with one leg lifted in plank position is great work for their core. I usually give each kicker three times to kick, and then we switch players. Also encourage them to switch legs. 

ball pass

This game teaches skills like teamwork, turn taking and communication. It's also a sensory game, which gives kids a fun way to integrate their senses while moving the whole body. Ball Pass will get the kids using their core and leg strength, and will help develop balance and coordination.  

For ball pass you will need a light-weight rubber ball that their little feet can grasp. (I made the mistake of using a soccer ball once and this was too heavy. A little boy dropped it on his nose. Bad yoga teacher! He was ok...he laughed. But still, use a light ball.) Then have the kids sit in a circle with their feet towards the middle of the circle, sitting fairly close together. They will lay down on their backs and one child will start with the ball in between her feet. She will carry the ball with her as she does plow pose (halasana), and then will pass the ball to the child next to her. That child will then grab the ball with their feet, do plow pose and pass it on.

Need more of a challenge?

If the kids are getting this easily, you can add a second ball into the mix...a "hand ball". Any smaller ball that they can hold in one hand will do. They must pass this hand ball to one another in the opposite direction of the foot ball. Here is where communication really starts. The kids may be looking one direction at the foot ball that is nearing them, and may not notice the hand ball that is trying to be passed. They will need to say "Sara, hand ball!" or "Gabriella, foot ball."

Need MORE of a challenge?

Put a small wooden dowel or an unsharpened pencil between their toes! They will pass this in the same direction as the foot ball. Start the stick a few spots away from the ball, so a kid never has a ball between their feet and a stick between their toes at the same time.

Need even MORE of a challenge?

Make them do all of this with their eyes closed. The kids will need to memorize who is to the right and left of them, so that they can say, with closed eyes, "Melissa, stick!" or "Sam, hand ball."

bowling for butterflies

This is a really fun game, but it does require some space. We start by laying mats on the floor in a big square, like a carpet of yoga mats. All of the kids except for one, sit in butterfly pose (bound angle pose). The bowler is the child not sitting in butterfly, and he rolls a bouncy ball into the other kids, trying to tag them. The butterflies may roll out of the way of the ball, avoiding the tag, but they must stay in the pose, with the soles of their feet touching.

Our bowler releasing his ball...

...and the butterflies rolling out of the way. Just barely!

crab volleyball

Kids love balloons. I mean they really love them. Every single time I take out my bag of balloons, their faces light up. 

In crab volleyball they get to kick a balloon into the air, trying not to let it touch the ground. This crab crawl gets the kids in a position that strengthens their wrists, triceps and shoulders, engages their core and opens their chests. I also like to use the crab crawl when going from one obstacle to another in an obstacle course.

If the kids are doing a great job keeping the ball up and sharing turns kicking the balloon, I like to add a second balloon into the mix. The crab crawl is my favorite way to play, but sometimes it can be too much on the wrists. After we have all agreed that our wrists are tired, we gently roll our wrists and, if they want to keep playing with the balloon, we do it standing in tree pose, or maybe frog jumps. I have had them stand with hands at heart center and they need to raise their leg, keeping the leg straight, to pop the ball up with their toes. Really they can do anything to keep the ball from touching the ground. 

Just turn up some fun music and let them play!