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.