We Need to Move

It's Friday and we don't have access to the gym

but we can use the multi-purpose room.

 

It's important that we have an active break everyday so we

take advantage of the multi-purpose room

even when we have a big crowd.

We sing songs like Tony Chestnut and do some yoga moves.

We use scarves to help sing If You're Happy and You Know It

which always leads us to Sleeping Bunnies.

The scarves are great for playing with the poem

Popcorn Kernels

and "I Have a Rocket".

We also enjoyed a new to us book called

"Old MacDonald Has a Truck".

It introduces lots of big machines like bulldozers and steam rollers

which prompted us to make movements as we read/sang.

And finally at the end all the children lay down to take a breath.

I walk around with my tickle stick.

After they are tickled they stand up and put their mat away then

head back to our classroom

Yoga–Breathing Ball and Buddies

This school year I introduced the Breathing Ball
in our yoga routine during gym time.

The Breathing Ball is a Hoberman Sphere.
The Breathing Ball represents our lungs.
I have the children place their hands on their chest then
we take deep breaths – inhale and exhale.


This week I introduced our Breathing Buddy Bears.
Each child gets a little Ty bear to place on their chest.
Then we breathe and watch the bear go up and down.

Here is a glimpse to today’s yoga session.

New Yoga Poses

Every day we end our gym class with yoga like stretching.

I've posted before about our yoga but since then we've been adding more poses.

Our school has a big gym with a sliding wall so it can be divided to share.
One day the grade 7s were in the other side and their teacher, who also attends StrongStart,
asked if they could join us for stretching.

The 7s are in the back, against the wall.
These two were showing them how it was done.

I was quite impressed that the grade 7s weren't shy to get down
and participate.

Tickle Stick Waiting Your Turn

I posted earlier that I've introduced Yoga stretching into our gym time.
It is so much fun.
The children know when they hear the chime they move into 'seed' (child) pose.

We've created a story of the seed curled in the ground and the rain is gently falling on it.
When the rain stops the tree plants it's roots (our feet) and begins to grow.
The trunk of the tree (our bodies) grow straight and tall.
The branches (our arms) spread out far.
The leaves (our fingers) unfurl and stretch towards the sun.
Then the wind begins to blow us around.
The children may not realize but we have just gone through the life cycle of a tree and what it needs to grow.  This is science happening in our gym time.

I found when we finished our stretching it was a bit of a mad chaos trying to put our mats away at the same time so I was inspired by Vanessa's (from Storyoga) way of finishing her yoga sessions.
She has this beautiful stick, I forget what she calls it, but it is covered with ribbon and fluffy pompoms.  I created one for our group and it has been so well received.

 We refer to it as our Tickle Turn stick.
When we are finished stretching the children can lay anyway they choose on their mat.

They relax and wait for their tickle.
After they have a tickle with the stick, they get up and put their mat away.
When the ribbons pass over them I label the parts of the body that it is touching.
This turn taking is helping them to self-regulate.
Even the parents get into it.
After this little boy had his tickle (mom was my photographer) he insisted mom have her tickle too.

 So I passed the stick for him to tickle momma.

I've noticed that the energy level back in the classroom is a little lower and calmer.
It has been wonderful learning and passing on these techniques.

Gym Time Stretching

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop called Storyoga.

Vanessa has created this program that combines animal yoga postures and story books.

I love that she brings stories to life with movement.

I've been gradually including what I learned into our program.

We do 10 minutes of 'yoga' stretching at the end of our daily gym period.

At the sound of a chime the children curl up into a 'seed'.

Also called the mouse pose.

I use a rain stick for the sound

and the grown ups trickle their fingers down their child's back

as the rain falls.

When the rain sound stops we grow into a tree 

and stretch our branches out wide.

The wind may blow and our branches sway back and forth

and sometimes all the way to the ground.

Vanessa has adapted the Sun Salutation routine for children.

She calls it Namaste Mountain.

We call it I Am A Mountain.

Here is a video of one of our stretching sessions.

http://vimeo.com/36237590

Thanks Vanessa.

Now that we've been doing this for a couple of weeks,

I've started adding a pose

from this book I was given.

The Yoga Game by Kathy Beliveau

It gives a riddle on one page and the answer on the next.

 

We've been adding a riddle/pose every couple of days.

Unfortunately I'm not as flexible as the children are and on Friday as we were

doing the butterfly pose, a little girl told that she does this at ballet and my knees are suppose to touch 

the floor.

Ouch, I guess I need to do more stretching.