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!