Yoga for Kids
How to use Positive Praise and Affirmations for Kids in a Yoga Classroom
Positive praise and affirmations are essential in helping kids feel good about themselves and learn in a safe environment. As a kids yoga teacher, I have been using mindful language, positive praise, and affirmations with kids for many years. All of these have...
Mindfulness Meditation Games for Toddlers
Want to know how to get toddlers to meditate or how to teach your toddler mindfulness? Or know if toddlers can even meditate? This is how I taught mindfulness meditation to my three-year-old! I'm happy to present this guest post written and submitted by Jamie...
How to Use Meddy Teddy Yoga Bear in a Classroom for Movement and Mindfulness
I don’t know if you have seen this yet, but the most adorable new yoga tool on the market is even better than before. Meddy Teddy is a bendable, sturdy, and soft teddy bear that can do yoga! The first version that I got, last fall, was really cute and such a huge hit...
Why You Shouldn’t Believe these 5 Myths of Teaching Yoga to Kids
I hear this all the time: oh you teach kid’s yoga? How fun! They must love it and be so calm and flexible! You must be really good at the splits by now, huh? Yeah, no. I go to yoga for myself every morning and I teach 5 kids yoga classes every day and I still can’t do...
Fun Kid’s Yoga Poses for St Patrick’s Day
Everybody loves the Irish! (Well, maybe not the English… But here in the States we love them) My kids at school especially love celebrating holidays. Any excuse to get a little silly and excited, right? And when it’s March in Minnesnowta and there is no sign of warmer...
Kids Yoga Sequences that Keep Kids Engaged
When teaching kids yoga, most of the time you want to get the kids moving and keep them active. You also want to give them time to relax, breathe, and feel calm. Finding a balance between the two can be tricky when you are teaching little kids or very active and...
Learn to Calmly Manage Crazy Classroom Behavior in a Kids Yoga Class
Classroom management is hard. It's hard for public school teachers, it's hard in a studio with kids, it's hard in camp settings. Managing large groups of kids is just tough. When I first started teaching yoga to kids, I had NO experience teaching in a general public...
The 5 Things You Need to Know to Teach Toddler Yoga and Have Fun
Teaching toddler yoga can be a real challenge, but is very fun and rewarding! Imagine doing animal poses and making animals noises and reading books and chasing 2 year old’s. The biggest issue is usually a diaper blow out. Ok, so maybe that doesn’t thrill, you, but...
Creative Halloween Yoga Poses for Kids
Halloween is the MOST popular holiday at my school, hands down. You can’t even say the word “October” without hearing squeals of excitement permeating the hallways. Needless to say, I used this Halloween excitement to fully take advantage of how motivated kids were in...
Kid’s Yoga Story Lesson Plan based on the book Not a Box
Kid’s yoga lessons can be hard to plan. I know because I used to spend hours every week planning and rewriting lesson plans for my students aged 5-10. I teach five 40 min lessons a day, 5 days a week. That was a lot of planning! Now I write up outlines of lesson plans...
How to Start Teaching Yoga to Kids
Want to start teaching yoga to kids? How do you get started? Teaching yoga to kids has not always been a lifelong dream of mine. It was something that I kind of fell into on accident. I always knew I loved working with kids, but I also knew that I didn't want...
Must-Have Favorite Yoga Books for Teaching Yoga to Kids
Yoga books are a new and popular way to help introduce yoga to kids. I love using yoga stories in school, in my classroom, and at home with my nephew. Having an adorable and succinct story to teach kids how to do poses is a great way to introduce or spark an interest...
Enticing Partner Games that Teach Mindfulness for Kids
Teaching mindfulness to kids doesn’t have to be to just boring sitting still and breathing. In fact, mindfulness should be engaging and fun for kids to get excited about it. It should feel like it’s something they can relate to. I have taught mindfulness to kids at my...
Follow the Drinking Gourd: A kid’s yoga lesson plan with an equity mindset
How do you teach yoga in schools in a way that is equitable for students of color? I'll be honest up front: this might be a tricky topic for you to read about, but it's important. *If you are just here for the lesson plan, scroll down, it's there! Just come back and...
How to Make a Mindfulness Glitter Calm Down Jar
Calm down! Be quiet! Relax! Kids are constantly loud and noisy this is normal. It's nice to able to help them calm down with things other than your voice from time to time too. I teach yoga and mindfulness to kids in a charter school, and... we often have moments that...
How to Use Easy and Calming Guided Imagery with Kids
Kids need a break sometimes. So does everyone, really. But it’s super important for kids in school especially and kids who need a little extra reminder to feel calm and relax. It can also be super useful for kids who have a hard time falling asleep. Guided imagery is...
The Best Yoga Games for an Amazing Summer Camp
Summer is a time for games! Indoor games, outdoor activities, and hopefully lots of active games learned from neighborhood kids or camp counselors. I remember the days when I would wake up late, eat sugary cereal, and immediately go outside for the whole summer day....
Fast Paced Yoga Routines for Kids Who Need to Slow Down
SO you want to teach yoga to kids and get them to slow down, right? Well, what happens when kids are just naturally too fast? When they move at the speed of light and are jumping or bouncing or talking so fast you can’t even get them to take a breath that doesn’t...
Animal Yoga ABC’s for kids!
Kid's love to pretend they are animals. There are plenty of kids yoga poses to help them in this endeavor. In my Kid's yoga classes, we do weeks of animal poses and most of them are done in conjunction with the ABC's. My kindergarten through second-grade classes all...
How to Play Engagingly Creative Yoga Games with your Kids or Students
Kid's need games. They need to be creative, active, and mentally stimulated. They love visuals, they enjoy being leaders (occasionally), and they like to try new things (sometimes!). How do I combine all of these together as their movement and yoga teacher? Yoga...
How to Pick the Best Cards for Teaching Awesome Kids Yoga Classes
Teaching Kids’ Yoga was one of the best decisions I have made in my life and career. The first kid's yoga training course I took was just a two-day certification, but it was with a local instructor. We received an adorable set of cards with kid’s yoga poses on them....
Effective and Simple Ways to Add Mindfulness to your Kids’ Day
Mindfulness is a key tool in the life of an anxious person or child. Honestly, it is a helpful tool in an average person's life, too! There are many ways to practice meditation and mindfulness. There are courses you take, retreats to go to and books to read. But if...
Journey: An Active Kid’s Yoga Lesson Plan to Build a Love of Storytelling
Movement and literacy. Active kids and a love of reading. Yoga and storytelling. The first year I started teaching yoga at a K-4 Charter school that is focused on getting kids to and through college, I didn’t know how to join these things together. I would read kids...
Yogi Says: an easy and active yoga game for kids!
Hey friends! I got an email from a subscriber today asking for some ideas for the game, "Yogi Says." Now, I did not invent this game, either the "Simon says" version or the newer adapted version of Yogi Says... But I do enjoy the game and I have played it quite a bit...
How to Teach Yoga to Active and Energetic Kids
Elementary age kids can be a loud and rowdy bunch. I never envisioned myself as a teacher, let alone one in a classroom of unruly, wild, and overactive children. Now here I am trying to teach them how to be calm by using yoga. The kindergarteners are tough… but for...
The Most Fabulous Books for Teaching Mindfulness to Kids
Calm down, settle down, take a deep breath, get a grip, take a break... Words that I hear myself say over and over to my students every day. They are so full of emotions and energy I can barely handle it sometimes! The phrases I spout out at them sometimes work, and...
5 Active Kid’s Yoga Games to Have Fun in a Group
We all know that it's super important to get kids moving and active. Sitting all day is not good for much. Movement breaks yoga breathing activities and active games are all incredibly fun ways to get kids moving. The yoga games below can be used in a classroom, or...
10 Quick Brain Breaks that Will Get your Kids to Focus
Everyone knows how important it is to get up and move when you've been sitting. Not only for adults, but also for children in schools. Sitting at desks all day is hard on our kiddos. Even sitting on the floor or in seats of their choice, they still need to get up and...
14 Clever Ways to Breathe with Your Kids to Calm Down
As a person who deals with anxiety and stress (like so many!!), I truly know the power of a deep, cleansing breath. As a teacher of yoga, and a public school educator, I know that kids need the same thing. During the 5 years in my current school, I have been steadily...
How to Effectively Teach Kid’s Yoga Based on Child Development
Yoga for kids is full of benefits. We know this already! It’s good for their bodies and their coordination. It’s helpful in keeping them calm and learning about self-regulation. Plus, it helps them focus in school, and be more active instead of just sitting all day....
Tips and Tricks You Need to Know for Teaching Kids Yoga
Are you interested in teaching yoga to kids, but don’t know where to start? Have you tried a few times and it went ok but not great? Finished your teacher training for adults but really you just want to hang with kids? Have a kiddo at home who could really benefit...
How to Teach Phenomenal Kid’s Yoga Classes with Simple Themes
Teaching is hard. Teaching a subject that is practically brand new to academia is even harder! Flashback to four years ago, when I first started teaching Movement (Yoga at a public school). I was at a total loss to figure out how to come up with innovating and...
How to Calm a Class (or a Child) Using Mindfulness
We've all seen and heard kids having a tantrum. The heart-stopping, blood vessel constricting panic it sends me into is unforgettable. Kids that are yelling, shouting at each other, throwing things, and running around all in the same place is equally, if not more,...
8 Short Videos to Teach and Practice Mindfulness with Kids
Mindfulness is an amazing tool. It’s good for kids, and adults, and it’s quickly become a new catchphrase and a popular teaching strategy to incorporate into all classrooms and settings. Mindfulness is gaining some good research, too, on how it can be important for...
5 Fun Ways to Teach Kids Yoga in a Class
Teaching yoga to kids was an unexpected blessing that I stumbled across 5 years ago. I took a few courses on Kid’s Yoga teaching after completing my 220-hour RYT training. I was teaching at a preschool at the time and had fun teaching it to them in small doses here...
How to Use Storytelling for Kid’s Yoga
An overview of teaching kid’s yoga with storytelling