We Are Super Heroes, Mar 24th and 26th

Over the next few weeks, we will be on a journey of discovery that we all truly are super heroes and we don't need to have super powers to be a super hero.

One of the key skills that super heroes have is that they are calm no matter what the challenge.  And our little super heroes have been honing this skill by breathing mindfully, as we went through our quests this week.
Our first quest took us to the rainforest, where we did a lot of fun poses (lion, cat, forward bend, squats, snake pose, plank pose) and our challenge was to uncover the secret path to the treasure.
The second quest took us through the enchanted woods, where we had to put our thinking skills to a test, and mindfully stop, breathe and think and guess and act out the yoga pose.   We got to do many fun poses tree, bridge, boat, bow, downward dog and at the end of solving all our clues, each super hero earned their stars for a mission well done:)
The smiles on the faces as they put on their capes and led the team with a pose was priceless.  We also learned that we don't need to have super powers to be a super hero, simply by trusting ourselves we can be our best and accomplish things just like super heroes!

Suggested Activity:  Talk to your child about what talents they think they have and then have them come up with some talents that super heroes that they like have. 

 In class, we talked about this briefly with the older kids and the list had words such as strong, brave, powerful, anyone.  It made it quite clear for all of us that these are talents that we all have and we can definitely be super heroes in our daily lives)

Feb. 24th and 26th, Reflecting and Relaxation

The younger kids continue to develop their poses, this week we used the song, Head and Shoulders, Yoga pose to put together the mix of poses.  We are working on building our core strength by practicing valley pose.  This one is most challenging for the younger kids, and I encourage them to try it with one leg at a time, and focus on being stable.  We also have been doing some other challenging poses such as bow pose and bridge pose to help strengthen our back and hips.  Be sure to ask them to show you these fun new poses.

I also brought in my breathing ball and we have been spending time quieting our minds towards the end of class in relaxation.  We have been using the ball to remind ourselves to take deep belly breaths and on the exhale letting go of our worries and fears.  We will keep working on this area with the younger kids, Taking time to slow down and focus on deep belly breathing helps relax their mind and rejuvenates their bodies.  

 The older kids, have been practicing more challenging yoga poses and reviewing the alternate nostril breathing technique.
Here is how to practice this Prana-Yama ( Sanskrit word which means Breath Elongation)
1. Breathe in through both nostrils
2. *Close Right nostril and exhale through left and then inhale through left
3. Close Left Nostril and exhale through right and then inhale through right
4. Close Right Nostril and exhale through left and then inhale through left
This would complete 1 cycle, I would suggest you can try 2 cycles
*I have shown the kids 2 different mudras (hand gestures) to close the nostril

 We also talked about opening our hearts through Yoga poses.  We  played a fun game called "Cross the line," I called out various actions that we take on a daily basis that are acts of kindness. Some examples that I called out were "Cross the line
 if you have held the door open for someone
 if you made a card to cheer someone up
 if you took care of a sick pet
 if you ever took part in a charity walk or run
It was wonderful to see their smiles as they crossed the line several times, and realised that we have been using our hearts and being kind:)
To end the class, we reflected on how we could open up our hearts and use our talents to make the world a special place.  It warmed my heart to see what everyone had to share.  We can truly make this school and community a loving place by opening up our hearts:)

Feb 10th and 13th, Connecting and loving affirmations

February was heart month in our Yoga class, so we talked a lot about being kind and loving towards one another.   Building special relationships with one another and connecting with our peers is what we practiced in our yoga classes this week.  The kids were challenged to co-ordinate with their partner and do several partner poses.  We practiced back to back breathing, partner sailboat, partner tree, chaise lounge pose, partner straddle and sufi grind, amongst other poses. 

 In celebration of loving kindness this month, I had handed out hearts to all the students.  Each of them were encouraged to write down one positive affirmation about themselves on the front of the card.  I have posted some pictures what the students said about themselves.  For the younger kids, I had handed out their hearts, alongwith a yoga pose affirmation sticker that best represented them:)

With the older kids, we took the exercise one step further, we randomly handed out the cards amongst the group and this time we wrote something positive about that person whose card we received.  It was wonderful to read out the kind words, that each of them had taken time to share about each other.  It surely fillled my heart:)

Suggested Activity:  I encouraged all my students to think of Valentine's as more than just receiving candies and treats.  Spend some time as a family, reflecting on what makes each of you special and truly take the time, to say something kind and loving to each other, as that is how we can truly enjoy this holiday and make our homes, schools and our community a loving place.

Magical Journey, February 3rd and 5th

With all the snow we have had lately,  I thought it would be such a treat to use our imagination and let our magical mats take us back to the warm Egyptian desert.

We surely enjoyed the sights and did fun yoga poses while sharing and learning about the Egyptian desert.  We talked about what is a Sphinx and what a Sphinx would look like in a yoga pose.  We turned ourselves into a pyramid and then balanced being a cactus in the desert.   We also slithered around the hot desert sand as rattle snakes, crawled around as tarantulas, planked our bodies to be still like crocodiles, opened up our heart centre by going into camel pose and pretended to fly like an Egyptian vulture.  Be sure to ask your child, what part of the desert journey they enjoyed most.

Towards the end of our journey we imagined ourselves being at an oasis.  The younger kids were challenged to place a magical stone, that we found there, on top of their heads and see if they could balance for 5 breath cycles.  The older kids had to transition from seated easy pose to standing mountain pose without dropping the magical stone.  Both groups did a wonderful job focusing and balancing.  We ended our journey by relaxing at the oasis and breathing out any worries we may have had during the day.

Suggested Activity:  Talk to your child about what place they would really like to visit and let your imagination take you there.  Envisioning themselves in their favorite place will bring lots of happy thoughts, and is a great way to unwind before they go to bed.

What is your child's favorite place, please feel free to share and we may just all go there in one of our classes:)

Egyptian Desert and More, Jan. 29th, 2014

Today the young kids got to engage their imagination and visit the Egyptian desert.   During our visit, we imagined ourselves as a camel, pyramid and an Eygptian cat.  Ask your child to show you their pyramid and camel pose.

I also showed them a different kind of breathing that is used to relax and calm our minds.  It is called Langhana breath, where their exhale is longer than their inhale.  As a class we practiced inhaling for 2 and exhaling for 3, pause for 1,  and then continue again.

I have also created Yoga Bingo game (see example below) for the older kids, I find it is a fun way to engage them and go deeper into our poses.  My focus with the older kids is increasing body awareness through each pose.   I asked them to observe what poses they are able to do with ease versus ones that are more challenging. The moving lunge pose is one that challenges most of us, so we agreed that we need to work towards strengthening our leg muscles in order to do this pose with ease.   Some of us observed that we have tight hips, which is restricting our flexibility to practice a challenging pose such as Bound Ankle pose.  So we practiced using butterfly pose to help open up our hips and will slowly prepare our bodies to practice the more challenging pose.  Ask you child what pose is most challenging for them and what part of the body they think they may need to strengthen to do that pose.

Suggested Activity:  Langhana breath can be used along with belly breathing as part of the bed time routine.  Place their favorite plushie on their belly/abdomen and have them inhale for 2 and exhale for 3 breaths, pause for 1 and then repeat 4-6 times.  Please let me know if you have any questions about the breath work, and I would be more than happy to go over these techniques with you.

Yoga Bingo and Bundle rolls, Jan 27th, 2014

We are learning new Yoga poses, with a fun game that I have created for the younger kids, called Yoga Bingo.  I have also incorporated some breath work and affirmations into our game to keep it balanced and fun:)  I have handed out their Yoga Bingo sheet (see example below) to them earlier this week, be sure to ask your child about it.  

I have observed that this game is also building self control; kids that don't have the pose that is called, sit in modified lotus pose, keep their eyes soft and breathe.  It takes a lot of control, not to copy others doing a pose, and sitting still and breathing until a pose they have is called out.   Great job everyone:)

The older kids were in for a treat, we rolled ourselves in our yoga mats and then observed how it felt.  This is a wonderful sensory activity and it was interesting to hear their thoughts, we talked about how our breath and body felt when we are wrapped up so tightly versus when are lying down on our mats. We also connected with each other and practiced following each others cue based on using touch versus words.  This is a fun way to develop mindfulness using one of our senses.  Ask your kids about Massage train.  

Yoga Match and Breath Work, Jan 22

Our young Yogis, got to try some new poses while playing Yoga Match.  Ask them to show you what a turtle and boat looks like.  We are also working on elongating our breath, by inhaling through our nose for a count of 3 and exhaling through our mouth for a count of 3.  Be sure to give this a try and enjoy the various benefits to be had when we mindfully breathe and elongate our breath.

With the older Yogis, we practiced our Sun Salutation sequence; this yoga flow engages the entire body and when practiced slowly by breathing in and out, it will help strengthen our body muscles.  We also reviewed Alternate Nostril breathing, and discussed how it is a wonderful technique to help balance our brain.  We talked about the right (feeling brain) and left (thinking brain) parts of the brain and how breathing in through right nostril reaches the left brain and breathing in through the left nostril reaches the right brain.  This breath work is a wonderful tool in helping us energize our mind and manage daily stress.
Here is how to practice this Prana-Yama ( Sanskrit word which means Breath Elongation)
1. Breathe in through both nostrils
2. *Close Right nostril and exhale through left and then inhale through left
3. Close Left Nostril and exhale through right and then inhale through right
4. Close Right Nostril and exhale through left and then inhale through left
This would complete 1 cycle, I would suggest you can try 2 cycles
*I have shown the kids 2 different mudras (hand gestures) to close the nostril


Suggested Activity:  Practice breathing mindfully with your kids.  To make it fun, use a pinwheel and observe how long you can keep it turning on your exhale.  Note:  I would aim for 3-4 exhales at the most.  I have explained to the kids that we slowly build our lung capacity, so we should never force our breath.  The idea here is not to reach high counts rather to slow down our breath and pay attention to it.