Eco Yoga Mats December 26, 2007

Found this interesting post on eco-yoga mats:

http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/total_poser/

I plan on buying eco yoga mats the next time I make a bulk purchase, and I thought this was a great resource with a list of sources for eco yoga mats. When I do replace my mats, I don’t want to just toss them, and it has a great link to ideas for reusing old yoga mats. The best idea for teaching was to cut up old yoga mats to make shapes and letters for kids games or stamps.  You can use cookie cutters and an xacto knife, or just freehand it! For older kids, they could make their own stamps.

Here’s a link to all sorts of cookie cutters to choose from:

http://www.cookiecutter.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=88 

Have fun!

Carolyn

www.sdyogakids.com

The Holidays December 21, 2007

I can remember being a kid and thinking that the time from Halloween to Christmas seemed to take years! And now I’m realizing that I haven’t made a single post since before Halloween and now it is almost Christmas, and the time seemed like a few days!

So here are some holiday things that I’ve taught for the last few months…

Halloween- Spooky Yoga

I love Halloween yoga! Here are some things we did:

• We talked about bones  and skeletons
• Made scary faces while stretching the muscles in our faces
• Black cats- Meow!
• Pumpkin squats (Sit in squat and make a Jack o Lantern face)
• Gate pose- with lots of Squeaks
• Work as partners back to back and move arms and legs to become spiders

Thanksgiving- Thankful Yoga

There are so many wonderful things to do for Thanksgiving because being grateful for what you have in the present moment is such a huge part of yoga. I always start off a Thanksgiving class with going around the circle to ask what the kids are thankful for (“my parents”, “my cat”, “trains”, “chairs” and lots more things). Here are some other things we do:

• Strut around like Turkeys
• Make apple pies to Kira Willey’s Making Pie
• Table Pose
• Chair Pose

This year I also read I wonderful book recommended to me by another YogaKids teacher, Heather Wurtzle. The book was Thank You World by Alice McGinty.

December Holidays- Peace on Earth Yoga 

I love December and the holidays during the month. I celebrate Christmas, so many of the things that I include in the class are Christmas inspired, but we always do candle pose for the lighting of the  menorah. Here are some other things we do:

• Christmas tree decorating- Kids work with partners. One stands in tree while the other decorates the “tree” with tinsel or garlands

• Pass the present- Similar to hot potato, but when the music stops, the person holding the present comes up with a yoga pose for us all to do
• Star Pose
• Acting out carols- Like 12 Days of Christmas!

I also always talk lots about peace- we send out peace to the whole world  during December. Did you feel it?

So, I know that it is probably too late to use most of these ideas, but save them for next year!

With love and light,

Happy Holidays,

Carolyn

www.sdyogakids.com

The Peace Book December 21, 2007

The Peace Book by Todd Parr is a geat book to use in yoga class. I think the book is a great description of peace and all of it’s complexities- from getting along with others to finding peace with being who you are.

I asked each child to define peace, and then we read the book and acted it out in yoga poses. There are lots of pictures of animals that the kids can become. Partner poses are fun to do with this book because they promote teamwork and cooperation. It is also fun to have the kids draw peace.

We ended with chanting Om…