Barefoot Books at Centered

Hi yoga friends! Fall has arrived, and it's time for a bit of change in yoga storytime at Centered. This Monday, November 2, will be our last class for a little while. But fear not! We will return with a slightly different set-up in January! I will share all of these details in another post, but here's a teaser. We will be offering two different classes in response to the growing demand for more yoga for kids! Itty Bitty Yoga will return as a six-week series, Monday mornings at 10:30 AM, January 18 for kids ages 3-5 and their caregivers. And, a brand new Kids Yoga Club will launch as a six-week series, Thursdays at 4 PM, January 21 for kids ages 6-10. Be sure to stay posted here and sign up for the Centered newsletter for more details!

But for now, do please join us for our last class of 2015 this Monday. An extra treat, there will be a book display from Barefoot Books! Barefoot Books is an awesome publisher of high-quality books for kids. As a former Children's Librarian, I would frequently use some of their classic books such as How Big is a Pig? and Bear in a Square in my storytime programs. They also have many of their titles available in Spanish versions, which are translated exceptionally well, in order to preserve the fun word play and rhyme found in the English versions. Barefoot and Centered are teaming up for a fundraiser for Centered. You can buy books here - http://bit.ly/BarefootCentered - and Centered will receive a small percentage off of your purchase. What a great idea for holiday gift-giving for kids! Support Centered, buy books from a great publisher, and help build a library for the little ones in your life. Be sure to allow some time to look through their display before or after yoga on Monday. A rep will be available to answer any of your questions as well.

See you on Monday!

Autumn Trees

Here's some quick notes about what we did today. See you next week!

We started with a chime listening mindfulness activity. Children were asked to close their eyes when they heard the chime and then open them when they could no longer hear the sound.

Next we worked to build heat and warm-up our bodies. We started by rubbing our hands together, slow and then fast, and placing the heat we created on our eyes, ears, brain, and heart. Then we did some rock-n-rolls, sitting at the front of the mat and rolling back and forth along the spine. Then we did the follwing Warm-Up Tree Sequence:

I’m a Little Seed Rhyme (child’s pose): Little seed, little seed in the ground / laying so still, making no sound. / Little seed, little seed, will you sprout for me? / Yes, I will! On the count of 3!

Stretch out roots and be blown in the wind (janu srisasana to both sides, wide angle)

Kneeling to soak up sun and rain

Tall Tree (mountain pose)

I’m a Tree, I Have Four Needs rhyme (soil, sun, water, air)

Tree Pose

Next it was time for our first book, Call Me Tree / Llámame árbol by Maya Christina Gonzalez. This is a lovely story that celebrates diversity and encourages a lot of creative movement. And it's bilingual!

We danced to “Apple Tree” from The Apple Tree & the Honey Bee by Bari Koral.

We finished with another mindfulness activity. I brought in a selection of autumn leaves, and we examined them with each of our senses in turn, first sight, then smell, then touch. Then we all found tree pose together and let our leaves drop down to the earth. 

Our final story before resting was I Love Our Earth by Bill Martin, Jr.

Jungle Adventure

Hi there safari friends! We went on a jungle adventure in Yoga for Kids at Centered today. Here's what we got up to in case you'd like to use any of these things to play yoga at home.

Usually we learn a new breath at the beginning of our yoga class, but today we tried something a little different. We did a simple mindfulness activity, listening to the sound of the chime all the way through to its end. I invited the kids to close their eyes, listen to the sound, and then open their eyes back up when the sound was gone. We did this a few times, striking the chime with varying degrees of force. This would be easy to replicate at home with a simple pan and spoon if you don't have a chime.

We kept up the warm-up sequence we've been using the last several weeks, stretching the spine in all directions and then playing Jim Gill's "Jump Up, Turn Around" game. I'll probably bring in a new warm-up starting at our next class together, which will be September 14 (studio is closed for Labor Day on September 7 and I'm subbing for Lauren on September 14).

I brought out the flannelboard to introduce our jungle theme. We sang "Old McYogi Went to the Jungle." I'm guessing you know the tune! Here are the animals we met along the way:

• lion - standing lion's breath

• giraffe - extended mountain pose

• monkey - arm swinging with monkey sounds

• elephant - forward fold with hands clasped to make a trunk

• tiger - cat pose

From there we sat down for our first book, One Spotted Giraffe by Petr Horáček. This is a super fun pop-up book that introduces counting and some less common animal vocabulary. You all did a great job handling the book today! Knowing how to use books like this is actually part of a very important early literacy skill, print awareness.

Next it was time to move with some music, so we listened to “Rockin’ at the Zoo” from Kids in the City by Laura Doherty. We went right into our next song, this time starting to cool down a bit, with our "Dance for the Sun" by Kira Willey. 

Coming toward the close of class we read That’s Love by Sam Williams and repeated our chime listening activity. Then, as always, we took a rest, this time lulled by the sounds of the Amazon jungle. 

It was a treat to play yoga with all you wild animals today! Don't forget the studio is closed for Labor Day on September 7... I look forward to seeing you again on the 14th! NAMASTE

What Do I Feel Today?

Hi yoga kids and families! Today in our yoga class at Centered we explored feelings. Embracing our feelings as they are, even the hard ones, can be tricky. Thanks for being willing to explore this topic with open hearts. Helping kids have lots of words to describe what they are feeling can help them learn how to process their emotions in a healthy way and make good choices. Here's a re-cap of what we did.

Opening Breath: Gentle centering breath with the Hoberman sphere as a visual aid. We came back to this breath several times throughout the practice to come back to a place of calm after talking about various emotions.

Warm-Up Song: "Jump Up, Turn Around" from Moving Rhymes for Modern Times by Jim Gill. We've been using this warm-up song for a few weeks now. It's a song and game in one; check it out on Soundcloud.

Flannel Board: Feeling Faces
We took some time to talk about an explore different feelings. First, we "tapped-in" to our feelings by gently tapping all over the body. Then we looked at various faces and talked about some things we can do when we feel different feelings. We also used lots of different vocabulary words to talk about our feelings. Some examples are:

angry (mad, frustrated, cranky) - volcano breath (inhale the hands up, bringing all the angry feelings up to the surface, and then exhale them out audibly, like a volcano exploding)

sad (upset, heavy) - give ourselves a big hug

tired (sleepy, exhausted)  - take a rest if we can (child's pose, for example) or practice power breath if we need some energy (inhaling the arms up, and then exhaling sharply, pulling the arms down toward the belly, drawing more energy into our bodies)

silly (goofy, wacky) - making silly faces and dancing!

Song: "Clap Your Hands" from Here Come the ABCs by They Might Be Giants.
Time to get a little silly! What a great song to use at home any time you need to get out a little extra energy. See the "Jump, Frog, Jump" post for a video that goes along with this song.

Book: If You're Happy and You Know It by Jane Cabrera
A delightful picture book version of this popular children's song. The animals included in the illustrations provide lots of opportunities for yoga movement as well. Here are the poses we practiced along with the movements included in the story:

• monkey (side stretches)
• elephant (forward fold with hands together forming trunk)
• giraffe (upward salute)
• lion breath
• lemur (stretch arms and legs wide and spin around each side)
• hippopotamus (all fours)
• bird (slowly raise and fall arms)
• mouse (child’s pose)
• frog (squat)

Song: "What Do I Feel?" Breathe In: Children's Songs for Mindfulness and Awareness by Lianne Bassin

An awesome song for helping kids honor their emotions.

Book: The Feelings Book by Todd Parr
Another awesome Todd Parr book that presents life lessons in a gentle, kid-friendly way. 

Finally, it was time to rest. Today I played the song "Colors" from Dance for the Sun by Kira Willey to go along with our svasana. This gentle song explores various emotions through colors. You can find a sheet of printable picture cards to go along with the song from Omazing Kids Yoga. 

Thanks for coming to Centered to play yoga with me this week everyone! See you again soon! Until then, NAMASTE

Hippity Hop!

Hi yoga friends! This week's class was inspired by all things hippity-hoppity! Here's a summary of what we did. Have fun playing yoga at home!

Breath: Bunny breath
For this exercise, we come to sit on our shins (thunderbolt) and take three quick little sniffs in through the nose and then exhale normally. Repeat a few times, and then take a break to breathe normally before initiating this breath again.

Warm-Up Songs: "Jump up, Turn Around" from Moving Rhymes for Modern Times by Jim Gill

"5 Green and Speckled Frogs" shifting each time to a different seated pose: easy seat (criss-cross applesauce), staff pose, thunderbolt pose, bound angle pose (butterfly) and squat.

Book: Who Hops? by Katie Davis
This funny story provides ample opportunity for animal-inspired movement, as well as many chances to talk about the things various animals do or do not.

Storytelling: The Wide-Mouthed Frog

There are many versions of this story available. The basic premise is that a wide-mouthed frog greets all the animals that he meets by saying "I'm a wide-mouthed frog, and I eat flies. What do you eat?" until he meets a crocodile who enjoys eating wide-mouthed frogs. Then he must use his wit to quickly escape. These are the animals and their yoga movements we used in today's version of the story:

frog - squat

mouse – child’s pose

snake – cobra

bunny – thunderbolt with bunny breath

butterfly – bound angle

crocodile - sphinx

Cool-Down Song: "Dance for the Sun" from Dance for the Sun by Kira Wiley

A gentle, kid-friendly sun salutation.

Book: Can You Say Peace? by Karen Katz

This story celebrates International Peace Day (September 21), but is wonderful for anytime. Learn how kids say peace in lots of different languages, all around the world. 

We ended with a nice, restful savasana listening to the relaxing sounds of croaking frogs.

Thanks for playing yoga at Centered this week everyone! What a blast! Until the next time, NAMASTE

Beach Buddies!

Hi everyone! It's so nice to be back to Yoga Storytime after being on vacation for a little bit. I spent some time in California with some very big trees, and being near the ocean inspired this week's beach themed class. Here's an outline of what we did so you can keep the fun going at home!


Opening Breath: Ocean breath - see this previous post for a description.

Warm-Up Songs: "Sharks in the Sea" - see this previous post for a description
"Jump up, Turn Around" from Moving Rhymes for Modern Times by Jim Gill

Book: The Yoga Game by the Sea by Kathy Beliveau
This book present several yoga poses with introductory riddles that allow for the opportunity to guess the yoga pose and then try it out. It's a book and a game in one!

Song: "I'm a Little Fish" from In a Heartbeat by Laura Doherty

Book: Breathe by Scott Magoon

And of course, a final rest to the sounds of ocean waves. Thanks for coming to play yoga at Centered! See you next time, and NAMASTE!

Let's Move!

Hi everyone! What a fun time in our last class of this summer series of kids' yoga at Centered. Remember, this was just the last class with me (for now!). Lauren, Centered co-founder and yoga teacher with years of experience working with children, will be picking up the class for at least the duration of the summer. Keep dropping by to play yoga with her; you'll have a great time!

***UPDATE! Lauren and I have decided to keep this Kids Yoga class going as a regular part of Centered's class schedule! She and I will take turns teaching the class, swapping back and forth from week to week and subbing for one another when needed. So, I will be back again for more yoga fun with you on July 13 and July 27. Hooray!***

This week we opened as always with our "Yoga Time" song, and we continued the same Balloon Breath exercise that I introduced last week. Then we warmed up our bodies with our "Sun Dance."

This week's book was Move! by Steve Jenkins. I love this book not only for its wonderful opportunities for creative movement, but also for the excellent animal vocabulary that it introduces. Rather than cats and dogs and cows, this book features gibbons, jacanas and armadillos! This is a great example of why picture books are such an awesome tool for helping parents expose their children to lots and lots of words, an important indicator of later school success.

Then children's musician Jim Gill led us in a "Silly Dance Contest." How fun! You can find this song on his CD Moving Rhymes for Modern Times.

We played our yoga game again, based on the book by Kathy Beliveau, this time learning mountain, eagle and lion poses.

Next it was time to begin cooling down, so we found the love singing "Love Inside My Heart" as we've done each week of this series. We began to settle toward rest reading Peace by Wendy Anderson Halperin. And then finally the most important part of our yoga class...time to rest.

I can't tell you how much fun it has been for me to share yoga storytime with all of you this summer. Thank you so very much for coming, for telling your friends, for spreading the word on Facebook and for your donations. Also, thank you Centered for opening your incredible space in this way for the families in our community. I look forward to working with you again!

NAMASTE

Down on the Farm!

Hi little yogis! Here's a recap of our yoga fun at Centered today!

After saying hello with our "Yoga Time" song, we turned our attention to the breath.

Balloon Breath: Putting our hands on our bellies, we felt the breath coming in and going out. I use a nifty little prop called a mini Hoberman sphere for this breath so the kids can visualize breath going in and filling up their internal balloon and deflating it as they breathe out.

Warm Up: Same as always, we said hello to our bodies, moving organically, and then sang "The Sun Dance" by Bari Koral. Because our theme this week was the farm, we also sang a fun adaptation of a traditional song:

"Old McYogi" (to the tune of "Old McDonald")

Old McYogi had a farm

Shanti, Shanti, Om.

And on this farm there were some animals

Shanti, Shanti, Om

I brought out the flannelboard and various animals to build our warm-up sequence of cow, cat, dog, horse, and frog.

Book: The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Spider works hard all day building her web. Lots of animal friends try to get her to come play: horse, cow, sheep, dog, cat, duck, rooster and owl. But she keeps working until the work is done. This is tapas, my friends.

Movement: We went "Back to the Farm" with the Bari Koral Family Rock Band!

Book: Time to add some new poses from The Yoga Game by Kathy Beliveau. This week we explored cat, mouse and star poses.

Cool Down: As we do each week, we sang “Love Inside My Heart” from Breathe In by Lianne Bassin. This song invites us to find all of our love, wherever it is hiding, and send it out first to ourselves, then to our loved ones, and then to the world. This is metta meditation, in song form, adapted for kids. Beautiful and brilliant. This week's cool down book was Whoever You Are by Mem Fox, which reminds us all that no matter how different we are on the outside, we all feel the same joys and the same sorrows. One Love.

It is such a treat to keep practicing with you yoga friends. Hope to see you all next week for my final session of Yoga Storytime at Centered (for now!). Until then, NAMASTE.

Butterfly, Butterfly

Hello yoga friends and families! This week at Centered we had lots of fun with butterflies. Here's what we did.

Butterfly Breath: We sat in butterfly pose and lifted our wings on the inhale, lowered our wings on the exhale.

Warm-up: This will be the same each week. We said "Hello!" to our bodies with various movements and then did our Sun Dance. Check last week's post for the video that goes with this song. Then we did a little movement rhyme that goes through the life of a butterfly:

"The Life of a Butterfly" (Tune: Skip to My Lou)

First Verse: Egg (Child's Pose)

I'm an egg, be still with me

I'm an egg, be still with me

I'm an egg, be still with me

Be still with me my friend

Following verses: 

I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me (Locust Pose)

In a cocoon, rest with me (Bug Pose)

I'm a butterfly, fly with me (Butterfly Pose)
On s flower, so pretty (Flower Pose)

Book: Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horáček

This book is awesome! It invites lots of movement, encourages patience, and provides a sweet surprise at the end. Here are the movements we paired with the story:

worm/cobra 

spider/reverse table 

beetles/bug pose 

snail/child’s pose

caterpillars/locust 

dragonfly 

bee/thunderbolt with bee sound

Song: “Butterfly” from Anna and the Cupcakes by Bari Koral Family Rock Band

Book: This week we added the poses butterfly, bumblebee and tree from The Yoga Game by Kathy Beliveau

Cool-down: Like our warm-up, this will follow a similar format each week. We began to cool down by singing “Love Inside My Heart” from Breathe In by Lianne Bassin. Then we read a story that instead of encouraging movement, presents an opportunity to think about another aspect of yoga. This week's story was What Does Peace Feel Like? by Vladimir Radunsky. We ended with a savasana, or rest pose, visualizing our own beautiful butterfly bringing peace to each area of our bodies and then sang so long to the group.

I'm so thrilled to see so many families enjoying our yoga storytime at Centered. Thank you so much for coming! Until the next time, NAMASTE.

Jump, Frog, Jump!

Hello yoga friends new and old! Today was our first of four classes taking place this month at Centered! I am so excited to be able to bring Yoga Storytime into this space, and to meet of all you yoga families today. Each week, I will be posting what we explored in class on this blog, so that you can feel free to keep it going at home. Here's what we did in our first class.

After settling in, we started by greeting one another with a very simple song, "Yoga Time." This song allows each child the opportunity to say his or her name to the group and to be welcomed by all of the others. And it gives each child the opportunity to make music with the chime!

Yoga Time (to the tune of "Frère Jacques")

Hello friends / hello friends

It's yoga time / it's yoga time

We're very glad to see you / We're very glad to see you

Ring the chime / ring the chime

We began warming up our bodies by simply saying "Hello!" to various body parts and moving around organically (wiggling fingers, shaking hands, waving arms, stretching tall, tickling toes, etc.) Then we had our first round of "The Sun Dance" by Bari Koral Family Rock Band, which we are going to use as our main warm-up each week. This song presents a traditional sun salutation in a very child-friendly song, moves through each side once, and allows an opportunity to practice left and right. Don't worry if you got lost today; we are going to have lots of time to practice this one over the next few weeks. Or you can always give it a try at home! 

After warming up our bodies, we were ready for our first book, Jump, Frog, Jump by Robert Kalan, which provided lots of opportunity for animal inspired creative movement and a repeated refrain of "Jump, Frog, Jump!" in which we squatted into frog pose, gave a little hop and let out a "Ribbit!" like a frog! Here are the other animal poses we used:

fly - seated on knees, buzzing like a fly

frog - squat 

fish - a version of locust with arms stretched in front and both arms and legs lifting off the ground like a swimming fish

snake - cobra

turtle - child's pose

net - stretched out wide on backs

kids - sit on knees, stretch arms overhead and wiggle fingers

basket - bound-angle pose with a forward fold

That was a lot of movement, but we're not done yet! Time to get a little silly with "Clap Your Hands" from Here Come the ABCs by They Might Be Giants.

We explored a little more yoga movement using the book The Yoga Game by Kathy Beliveau. We will be adding a few more poses from this book into our practice each week. You can see a little peek into how this book works in the image below:

Finally, it was time to start cooling down. This week we learned a song by Lianne Bassin called "Love Inside My Heart" which actually presents a kid-friendly version of a loving kindness meditation. We find all of the love that we have inside of ourselves and we send it first to ourselves, then to those closest to us, and then out into the whole world. Lianne Bassin's CD of mindfulness music for children called Breathe In will be released on June 20. I can't wait!

We continued cooling down with a reading of The Peace Book by Todd Parr. Then it was time for the most important part of Yoga Storytime, the time when we rest. We took a brief svasana together; isn't it amazing that they will rest like this! It was very brief today, but each week we will add a little more time to our rest. When we sat back up we stayed in our circle to sing farewell to one another, just like we sang welcome to one another in the beginning of our class. 

I hope you had a beautiful rest of your day and that you continue to have a wonderful week. Thank you for letting me play yoga with you for a little while today! I can't wait to see you again next week. Until then, NAMASTE!

Mindful Trees

Hi everyone! Thank you so very much for joining me for our final session in this series of Yoga Storytime at the Lexington Public Library. This week our theme was "Trees," and we did several variations of balancing poses.

We began by breathing together, sharing a call-and-response chant about the breath to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell":

I am breathing in,

I am breathing out.

I hear the breath's gentle sound,

as I breathe in and out.

The breath moves into me.

The breath moves out of me.

The breath moves in and out of me,

I know that I am free.

Then we moved on to warming up our bodies with songs. I found this week's song, "I'm a Tree, I Have Four Needs" from the Storytime Katie blog:

Song: “I’m a Tree, I have Four Needs” (Tune: Skip to My Lou)

I’m a tree, I have four needs.

I’m a tree, I have four needs.

I’m a tree, I have four needs.

Do you know what they are?

The next verses are:

I need soil for my roots, to grow big and strong (crouch down in a squat with hands on the ground and shift from side to side)

I need lots and lots of sun, to grow big and strong (stand in mountain pose, lift arms overhead like the sun and bend from side to side)

 I need water now and then, to grow big and strong (lift arms overhead wiggling fingers like rain, bending down to the ground)

 I need air just like you, to grow big and strong (spinning around like a leaf being blown by the wind)

Our first book was a beautiful bilingual book by Maya Christina Gonzalez called Call Me Tree / Llámame árbol. This poetic book is a beautiful celebration of diversity. It is also the only picture book that I know of that is intentionally gender-neutral throughout. 

After our story, we linked together the various movements we had learned so far as we pretended to be trees growing big and strong:

seed - child's pose

seed sprouting - child's pose with arm stretches

roots spreading - squat with side bends

sun - mountain with arms wide overhead

wind - mountain with arms overhead and side bends

rain - wiggling fingers like falling rain down into forward bend

tree

We played around with some more yoga poses along with the "That's What They Do" song by Karma Kids Yoga.

Next we tried something a little different. I led us in a mindfulness activity using apple slices as the attention of our focus. We spent time looking at the apple first whole, then it slices, then smelling it, and finally tasting it. 

We began wrapping up with our "Dance for the Sun" and our final story, Picture a Tree by Barbara Reid. Then we brought our attention back to our breath and took our final rest.

Thanks so much for being part of this series of Yoga Storytime at the library. If you enjoyed it and would like to see it offered again, please let your local librarians know. In the meantime, please come join me for another series of Yoga Storytime at Centered, 6/1-6/22 on Mondays at 10:30 AM! This is a donation based program, so you are encouraged to pay what you think is fair based on your own budget. I hope to see lots of library families there! 

It has been such a joy sharing yoga storytime with you this month! Until the next time, NAMASTE.

Yoga Storytime at Centered!

Hi everyone!

I'm so excited to let you know that I will be offering a 4-week series of Yoga Storytime at Centered in June! The program will be Mondays at 10:30 AM, June 1 - June 22. Feel free to drop in to any or all - you don't need to register in advance.

Yoga Storytime is ideal for children ages 3 to 5. We invite a spirit of curiosity and use books, stories and songs to explore the breath and creative movement. Parent/caregiver attendance is required and participation is strongly encouraged.

This is a DONATION based program. You are encouraged to pay what you think is fair based on your own budget. Cost should not prohibit anyone from attending; if you are able to give a little more to help make up for those who are able to give less, this generosity is appreciated.

Centered is a holistic community center that offers a myriad of classes and workshops for adults, children and families. It is located at 309 North Ashland Avenue Suite 180, Lexington, KY 40502. Call 859-721-1841 for more information.

A Day at the Beach

Hi yoga friends! This week at the library we pretended to take a little trip to the beach. Here's a reminder of what we did so that you can recreate your own beach journey at home.

We sang hello to everyone with "Yoga Time." Then we focused our attention in on the breath. This week was the Ocean Breath, which is a version of Ujjayi Pranayama modified for kids. We began by simply breathing in and out naturally. Then we began to exhale out of the mouth, making an audible sound, pretending to fog up a mirror. We continued that exhalation with the mouth closed. Next we tried to find that same sound on the inhalation. We came back to a few rounds of normal breath before moving on to our "Breathe It In, Breathe It Out" warm-up song.

I used a flannelboard that I made to provide some visual stimulation as we continued warming up with "The Sharks in the Sea" to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus." You can take a look at the flannelboard pieces on my other blog if you are interested in making your own. Here's how we practiced:

The sharks in the sea go chomp, chomp, chomp... - Stretch arms out to the sides and clap together in front of the body

The lobsters in the sea go pinch, pinch, pinch... - From table top, stretch one arm out in front of body and make a pinching motion with the hand. Release arm back to table and repeat on the other side.

The clams in the sea go open and shut... - Sit in butterfly pose with arms lifted overhead (open) and bend forward into forward bend touching the toes (shut). Rise up and repeat.

The seahorse in the sea rocks back and forth... - Kneel up high on knees and rock body slightly forward and backward.

The octopus in the sea goes wiggle, wiggle, wiggle... - Stand up and wiggle your whole body!

The kids in the sea jump up and down...

Our first book was Swimmy by Leo Lionni. This Caldecott Honor book is a children's classic. There is a lot to talk about regarding emotions when sharing this book with kids. After all, it starts out with Swimmy's whole family being eaten right in front of him - yikes! But don't let that turn you away from the book. You can talk about the tuna fish being a tuna fish, simply doing what tuna fish do, and how that affected Swimmy. Equanimity is a tough concept even for well-adjusted adults, but this book presents a kid-friendly way to talk about it. You can talk about Swimmy's sad and lonely feelings, and how he was able to recover. And you can talk about Swimmy's bravery and the clever way that he helped his new fish family defend themselves from the bigger fish by working together. It's a classic for a reason!

The creatures Swimmy meets can be inspiration for more creative movement:

jellyfish - standing forward fold with dangling arms

lobster - table pose, stretching arms out to pinch one at a time

seaweed - high kneeling, swaying from side to side

strange fish - fish pose

eel - cobra pose

sea anemones - tree pose

We read a book about a fish, so next we sang and danced along to "The Goldfish" from The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band by Laurie Berkner.

Our next book presented the opportunity to try out some more advanced yoga poses than we've experienced so far in Yoga Storytime at the library. You guys did great! Remember, it's not about what it looks like on the outside, it's about how it feels in your body and your heart on the inside. This great book, The Yoga Game By the Sea by Kathy Beliveau, is part of a new series of yoga game books for kids. I can't wait to see more!

As we do every week, we began cooling down with our sun salutation dance, "Dance for the Sun." We had one more very gentle story that invited us to come back to the breath, Breathe by Scott Magoon. Then it was time to take a rest, letting the sounds of the ocean waves invite deeper and deeper relaxation. Thanks for traveling to the beach with me today everyone! Until next time, NAMASTE!

Come Play Yoga at the Library!

Hi everyone! Here's what we go up to in our second week of Yoga Storytime at the Lexington Public Library! Take a look at last week's post for information about the parts of our practice that we are repeating each week (welcome song, warm-up song and "Dance for the Sun").

After welcoming everyone with our "Yoga Time" song, we experimented with Bumblebee Breath. To do this, first take a breath in, and then as you breath out, make a BUZZZZ sound, nice and loud. Do this a few times. Then, take a breath in and as you breathe out, make a BUZZZZ sound again, but this time allow your lips to seal together. You should feel a nice tingle in your lips. Try this a few times. Then, take a breath in, BUZZZZ on your breath out with your lips sealed, and bring your hands to cover your ears. You will hear the buzz sound much more strongly inside your head. If you don't like it, that's OK! You can stop anytime. When you are done playing with bumblebee breath, come back to regular breathing.

We warmed up our bodies with a song and then a rhyme that asks us to move first slowly and then quickly:

Slowly, slowly, slowly CLAP your hands.

Quickly, quickly, quickly CLAP your hands.

We followed this with stomp your feet, wiggle your hips, jump up and down, and shake your body.

Time for our first book! You Are a Lion! by Taeeun Yoo. It can be made quite interactive, like a guessing game.

Next we had a "Silly Dance Contest" (from Jim Gill's Moving Rhymes for Modern Times) and read our second book, Silly Suzy Goose.

This book introduces lots of different animal movements that you can link together for a little animal vinyasa: giraffe (upward salute), bat (forward fold), frog (squat), snake (cobra), dog (downward facing dog), elephant (lifting and stomping one leg at a time in tadasana), lion (lion's breath while standing in tadasana).

After all this movement it was getting to be time to cool down, so we did our "Dance for the Sun" and read our final book, It's OK to Be Different by Todd Parr. And of course, a little rest before singing so long.

Thanks for coming to play yoga at the library! Until next time, NAMASTE! 

Yoga at the Library!

 Yoga and the library? Oh, be still my heart! Don't you just love it when your favorite things come together? As a former Children's Librarian at the Lexington Public Library, it is a high honor for me to have the opportunity to lead this series of Yoga Storytime. Welcome! I'm so glad that you have found the class, that you have found the blog, and that you are interested in keeping the yoga fun going at home.

First thing is a big thank you to parents/caregivers for taking the time out of your day to bring your child to the library this week. You rock! You probably already know this, but you are the first and most important teacher of your child. All of the ways in which you make the effort to interact with your kiddo (such as through books, songs, movement and conversation) make a HUGE difference in helping to prime your kiddo's brain to be ready for school and all the learning to come down the road. So seriously, you are awesome.

A little reminder, kids' yoga is quite different from grown-up yoga. We aren't using any Sanskrit names, or worrying about alignment. In fact, as long as everyone is safe and disruptions are minimal, there really are no "have-to's" in yoga storytime. Depending on many factors unique to your child, you may see him or her choose to participate enthusiastically, watch from a distance, try out a few moves, or contentedly stick with one move s/he really enjoys. All of this is fine! Yoga storytime is all about exploring breath and creative movement through stories, songs and imaginative play. There is plenty of room for many unique variations of anything we may be doing. You don't have to worry about helping your child do any of the movements "right." I encourage you to participate at your comfort level, offering lots of positive encouragement and support to your kiddo as s/he explores the activities at her/his own pace.

Here's what we got up to this first week at Yoga Storytime.

We started off in our circle greeting everyone by time with our "Yoga Time" song"

Yoga Time (to the tune of "Hello Thumbkin")

Hello [NAME], Hello [NAME]

It's yoga time! It's yoga time!

We're very glad to see you. We're very glad to see you.

Ring the chime. Ring the chime.

Next we settled our attention on the breath. I use a nifty little prop called a mini Hoberman sphere for this breath so the kids can visualize breath going in and filling up their internal balloon and deflating it as they breathe out. We began warming up our bodies with a version of this warm-up song from Storytime Yoga®:

Now we were ready to move with our first story, so we read Stretch by Doreen Cronin, a simple rhyming story that encourages a lot of creative movement.

Here are some of the movements that the story introduces:

Seated with lifted arms

Reverse warrior (picking an apple)

Standing twist

Down dog

Lion

Swimming

Warrior II (surfing)

Cat/Cow (inchworm)

Star floating in space

Then it was time to shake out all of those movements like our legs, arms, heads and whole bodies were made of spaghetti with "Spaghetti Legs" from Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes by Jim Gill. This fabulous CD is available from the library (for free!). 

We explored some animal movements with From Head to Toe by the one and only Eric Carle. After this we introduced our sun salutation, which we will do each week along with the song "Dance for the Sun" from Dance for the Sun by Kira Wiley. This will be our signal each week that our movement time is starting to come to a close. 

We ended with one more story, The Feel Good Book by Todd Parr. Then we took a rest in savasana...isn't it amazing that they will actually lie still for a minute or two! As we began greeting one another, we ended the same, this time with our "So Long" song.

So great to meet you all this week! Thanks so much to the library for bringing us together. Until next time, NAMASTE!

Hola, amigos!

We did something a little different at Yoga Storytime at Baby Moon recently. In April, we will launch a new session of Yoga Storytime as well as a new class called ¡Hola, Niños! Want to know an important key ingredient for helping kids develop language skills? Interaction! ¡Hola, Niños! is all about interaction. Kids ages 3-5 will be exposed to the Spanish language and to Latino cultures through stories, songs, creative movement and play. To give you a taste of what this program will look like, we did a little mashup of Yoga Storytime and ¡Hola, Niños! In both yoga and language learning, practice is essential, so here's what we did if you'd like to keep it going at home. Just don't forget the most important part - ¡Diviértanse! Have fun!

We started off with our same welcome song, but with a slight modification in the greeting:

"Hola, It's Yoga Time" (to the tune of "Hello Thumbkin")

Hola [NAME], Hola [NAME]

It's yoga time! It's yoga time!

We're very glad to see you. We're very glad to see you.

Ring the chime. Ring the chime.

We found a nice, tall happy seat to breathe our balloon breath. I use a nifty little prop called a mini Hoberman sphere for this breath so the kids can visualize breath going in and filling up their internal balloon and deflating it as they breathe out. 

We did several more warm-ups that allowed us to get to know some of the names of body parts in Spanish. Here is some of the key vocabulary:

cabeza = head

hombros = shoulders

bariga = tummy

rodillas = knees

pies = feet

dedos = can refer to toes or fingers

ojos = eyes

orejas = ears

boca = mouth

nariz = nose

We moved around the room a bit with a rhyme that encourages us to walk (caminar), hop (brincar), run (correr) and stop (parar). And of course, "Cabeza, hombros, rodillas, pies = Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes." Here is a cute video with a bilingual version of this well-known tune.

Our first book was My Friends = Mis amigos by Taro Gomi. There are lots of actions in this book, so it's a super fun one to read and act out at home.

We let the book inspire a round of yoga movement which I discovered from the awesome website Kids Yoga Stories. There's lots of great stuff there to explore, in English and en español.

We continued exploring Spanish body parts with a very fun and silly song, "Mi cuerpo hace música" from El doble de los amigos = Twice as Many Friends by Sol y Canto. Then we came back to seated for our next book, ¡Fiesta! by Ginger Foglesong Gibson, which is a simple counting story in English and Spanish.

Then we did a little more counting with a bilingual version of the song "Diez Deditos = Ten Little Fingers". Wiggle and tickle hands and fingers as you sing!

Dos manitas, diez deditos / Dos manitas, diez deditos / Dos manitas, diez deditos / Cuéntalos conmigo

Two little hands and ten little fingers / Two little hands and ten little fingers / Two little hands and ten little fingers / Count them with me now

Uno, dos, tres deditos / cuatro, cinco, seis deditos / siete, ocho, nueve deditos / ¡diez deditos son!

One little, two little, three little fingers / four little, five little, six little fingers / seven little, eight little, nine little fingers / ten little fingers all!

To keep cooling down we sang a lovely song from Lianne Bassin called "There is Love inside My Heart." Her CD Breathe In looks like it will be awesome! I can't wait for its release. I'm sure it will be one we will use often in Yoga Storytime. 

I believe one of the advantages of knowing another language is that it helps us to better connect with and understand people from other cultures. This is especially true with Spanish, as there is great diversity within the cultures and countries that make up the Spanish-speaking world. I believe that knowing each other helps us spread peace. So our last story was one of my favorite books for kids, The Peace Book by Todd Parr.

Finally, we were ready to relax and rest...aaaahhhh. It was a great joy to play yoga with so many sweet yogi families in English and Spanish! I hope to see you again in April at Baby Moon in Yoga Storytime (Tuesdays at 4 PM) or ¡Hola, Niños! (Thursdays at 5:30 PM) or both! Until then, thanks for reading and NAMASTE! 

Swim with the Fishes!

Hi there little yogis, families and caregivers! I had a whale of a time swimming with the fishes with you in Yoga Storytime at Baby Moon this week. Thanks for coming and making it so much fun! If you want to keep the fun going at home, here's what we did.

We started off as always, finding a nice, happy seat and singing our "Yoga Time" song. Take a look at last week's Buggin' Out class post if you'd like a refresher on the words and tune. We also continued to use the "Breathe It In, Breathe It Out" song to warm up our bodies.

To continue connecting with the breath, we practiced our Whale Breath. Imagine a whale spurting water out of its blowhole at the surface of the ocean; this was our inspiration for our Whale Breath. To practice, first find a happy seat (tall, comfortable seated position). Take a nice deep inhalation through the nose. Then forcefully exhale the breath through the mouth, strongly enough to make an audible sound. Take a couple of regular breaths and then come back to the Whale Breath again.

Our first book was Hooray for Fish! by Lucy Cousins, which is simply a celebration of fish of all sorts. This book is great to use one-on-one with kids in all kinds of ways. It rhymes, which helps reinforce the development of phonological awareness, an important early literacy skill critical to the decoding process in later learning to read. It provides lots of opportunities for interaction, such as counting, describing what one sees and acting out or imitating the various shapes presented in the illustrations. It promotes a lovely message about embracing diversity - this little fishy has all kinds of different friends and they are all beautiful! And, there is a nice invitation specifically for moms and little fish kiddos to cuddle together at the end - who doesn't love that!

I brought out a flannelboard that I made to provide some visual stimulation as we sang "The Sharks in the Sea" to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus." You can take a look at the flannelboard pieces on my other blog if you are interested in making your own. Here's how we practiced:

The sharks in the sea go chomp, chomp, chomp... - Stretch arms out to the sides and clap together in front of the body

The lobsters in the sea go pinch, pinch, pinch... - From table top, stretch one arm out in front of body and make a pinching motion with the hand. Release arm back to table and repeat on the other side.

The clams in the sea go open and shut... - Sit in staff pose with arms lifted overhead (open) and bend forward into forward bend touching the toes (shut). Rise up and repeat.

The seahorse in the sea rocks back and forth... - Kneel up high on knees and rock body slightly forward and backward.

The octopus in the sea goes wiggle, wiggle, wiggle... - Stand up and wiggle your whole body!

The kids in the sea jump up and down...

Where do all these creatures live? In the sea? If we wanted to go to sea, how would we get there? Hmmm....in a boat! We spent a little time practicing boat pose on our own and with partners. This is a fun pose to practice together at home while singing, "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." Personal side note, I know as an adult, I look back on a lot of nursery rhymes that I learned as a kid and find them rather disturbing. This one is an obvious exception. I think I understand it and appreciate more and more the older that I get. It's a great fit for a yoga class!

Time for another story, this time Swimmy by Leo Lionni. This Caldecott Honor book is a children's classic. There is a lot to talk about regarding emotions when sharing this book with kids. After all, it starts out with Swimmy's whole family being eaten right in front of him - yikes! But don't let that turn you away from the book. You can talk about the tuna fish being a tuna fish, simply doing what tuna fish do, and how that affected Swimmy. Equanimity is a tough concept even for well-adjusted adults, but this book presents a kid-friendly way to talk about it. You can talk about Swimmy's sad and lonely feelings, and how he was able to recover. And you can talk about Swimmy's bravery and the clever way that he helped his new fish family defend themselves from the bigger fish by working together. It's a classic for a reason!

We let the sea creature friends that Swimmy met inspire another round of creative movement:

jellyfish - standing forward fold with dangling arms

lobster - table pose, stretching arms out to pinch one at a time

seaweed - high kneeling, swaying from side to side

strange fish - bow pose

eel - locust pose

sea anemones - crescent moon pose

big fish - boat pose (individually or with a partner)

By now we needed some silly movement, so we sang and danced along to "The Goldfish" from The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band by Laurie Berkner.

One of the parts of Swimmy that I really like is the idea of working together, that we are stronger as a group than any one of us is on our own. So we played around with some group movement, like a school of fish working together. We used this activity to begin to cool down. You can do any movements together that you like if you have a group to play with. If it's just two, try mirroring each other's movements instead.

To continue cooling down we did read Breathe by Scott Magoon. We finished as we began with a few rounds of Whale Breath. Then we rested and sang goodbye to all our yoga friends.

Thanks for coming to another round of Yoga Storytime at Baby Moon! We will start up a new, three-week session on Tuesdays at 4 PM beginning April 7, 2015. Hope to see lots of you then. Until the next time, have fun at home and NAMASTE!

Buggin' Out!

Hi yoga friends! To save paper and to share ideas with others in the kids yoga community I decided to start this blog so little yogis and their grownups and keep the yoga play going at home. Here's what we did at our "Buggin' Out" Yoga Storytime this week at Baby Moon.

After we got settled and found our happy seats, we welcomed each other one at a time with our "Yoga Time" song. It goes like this:

Yoga Time (to the tune of "Hello Thumbkin")

Hello [NAME], Hello [NAME]

It's yoga time! It's yoga time!

We're very glad to see you. We're very glad to see you.

Ring the chime. Ring the chime.

Next we played with breath by finding our bumblebee breath. To do this, first take a breath in, and then as you breath out, make a BUZZZZ sound, nice and loud. Do this a few times. Then, take a breath in and as you breathe out, make a BUZZZZ sound again, but this time allow your lips to seal together. You should feel a nice tingle in your lips. Try this a few times. Then, take a breath in, BUZZZZ on your breath out with your lips sealed, and bring your hands to cover your ears. You will hear the buzz sound much more strongly inside your head. If you don't like it, that's OK! You can stop anytime. When you are done playing with bumblebee breath, come back to regular breathing.

Next we played around with the breath some more and warmed up our bodies by doing a version of this warm-up song from Storytime Yoga®:

Now that we were ready for our first story, we read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. We did these poses to go with the story:

Horse - Down dog

Cow - Cow tilt

Sheep - Table pose

Goat - Down dog lifting one leg at a time

Pig - Happy baby, rolling from side to side

Dog - Upward Dog

Cat - Cat tilt

Duck - Squat with bent elbows and hands on shoulders

Rooster - Cross-legged seat

Owl - Hero's pose, seated on knees with bottom on heels, looking from side to side

After reading this book, we of course had to do "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." We also crawled around like spiders a little by lifting into reverse table and moving around. Come up and down into the pose a few times before starting the movement. 

Next we played with the ideas of slow and quick with this rhyme that I found from Miss Meg's Storytime.

Slowly, slowly, slowly CLAP your hands.

Quickly, quickly, quickly CLAP your hands.

We followed this with stomp your feet, wiggle your hips, jump up and down, and shake your body.

And we played around with movement and song with "Jump Up, Turn Around" from Moving Rhymes for Modern Times by Jim Gill.

Ready for our next story, we read Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horáček. This story introduces lots of insects, lots of colors, can be interpreted as a yoga message about nonstriving, and has a fun surprise at the end.

We followed this story with a butterfly vinyasa, moving from caterpillar (verson of locust pose), to cocoon (child's pose), to butterfly, to flower. Go through the movements as many times as you like.

To cool down, we sang "There's a Wheel a-Turnin' in My Heart" from Buzz Buzz by Laurie Berkner and we read Reading Makes You Feel Good by Todd Parr. Then we laid down for savasana, visualizing a butterfly friend delicately landing on each part of our bodies, bringing love and relaxation with it every time.

I had a great time Buggin' Out with you guys at Baby Moon! I hope we are able to do it again soon! Until the next time, NAMASTE.