These six yoga poses for kids are classical yoga postures with a fun twist to keep your kiddos excited to practice!
1. Bound Angle Pose (Baddha Konasana)
Let’s try it:
- Begin in a cross-legged seated pose (Easy Seat/Sukhasana)
- Root down through your sitting bones and lengthen your spine
- Bring the soles of your feet together, allowing your knees to fall to the sides
- For a deeper stretch in your hips, bring your heels closer to your body
- To make the pose more gentle, slide your heels farther away from your body
How to Teach Bound Angle in a Yoga for Kids Class:
In an adult class, our bodies are typically still in this pose. But with kids, encourage them to find some movement and be playful.
Play With “Butterfly Pose”
- Make your legs look like butterfly wings
- “Flap” your butterfly wings by moving your knees up and down
- Ask the students where they would fly to as a butterfly
Sit in a Car/Bus/Plane
- Use this pose at the start of class and say you’re taking a trip (for example, for a beach-themed class, say you’re on your way to the beach!)
- Say it’s a bumpy ride, and move your knees up and down and gently rock from one side to the other
2. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
Let’s try it:
- From a table-top position, tuck your toes and lift your hips
- Press into your palms and straighten your legs as much as you comfortably can
- Align your ears with your biceps
- Lift your hips toward the sky
How to Teach Downward Facing Dog in a Yoga for Kids Class:
Downward Facing Dog typically comes with a lot of cues, which could become confusing – or boring – in a kid’s class. But it’s a great pose to teach kids a little bit about “grown-up” yoga.
Visualize a Rainbow
- Explain that their bodies resemble a rainbow in this pose, with their hands and feet as the big, puffy white clouds at the base
- If coming into the pose multiple times, ask the students to envision a different color of the rainbow each time
Play With Your “Down Dog”
- Use this as a teaching moment . . . but make it fun!
- Tell the kids, “In grown-up yoga, we call this pose Down Dog. What sound does a dog make?”
- Bend into one knee at a time to “take the dog for a walk”
- Ask the children to give their “Down Dog” a name
3. Mountain Pose (Tadasana)
Let’s try it:
- Walk to the top of the mat and place your feet hip-width apart
- Neutralize your pelvis
- Spread your fingers wide and activate your arms
- Slide your shoulder blades down your back
How to Teach Mountain Pose in a Yoga for Kids Class:
Mountain Pose is a great way to bring students to stillness and draw attention to their breath. A strong, grounded Mountain Pose could be helpful to encourage focus just before a balance pose.
Be a Superhero
- Have students bring their hands to their hips and stand tall like a superhero
- Ask them who their favorite superhero is or to come up with a superhero name of their own
Imagine: Here Comes the Sun
- Describe an outdoor scene and tell the students they are looking up at the sun
- Allow the students to feel the warmth of the sun and look at the sky, envisioning different clouds
4. Child’s Pose (Balasana)
Let’s try it:
- From all fours, bring your two big toes together to touch and widen your knees to the outer edges of your mat
- Sit your hips back toward your heels
- As your hips sink back, allow your torso to move closer to the mat, bringing your forehead as close to the mat as possible
- Actively reach your fingertips to the top of the mat with your palms face down
How to Teach Child’s Pose in a Yoga for Kids Class:
Most children have a lot of energy, so it could be a challenge for them to quiet their minds and bodies. Child’s Pose is a useful tool to use when teaching children if the energy level is getting high and you want to bring it down.
Envision the Sun and Moon
- In the beginning of class, describe the beginning of a new day, with the student’s bodies shaped like the sun; describe the feeling of warmth they are creating in their bodies
- At the end of class, the students are now shaped like the moon, signaling that it’s time to get ready to rest, the same way we do at nighttime
Play Mouse
- Ask the students to make their bodies small and their voices quiet – just like a mouse
5. Warrior 2 (Virabhadrasana 2)
Let’s try it:
- From Mountain Pose, step one foot toward the back of the mat
- Pivot your back foot about 45 degrees and align the heel of your front foot with the arch of your back foot
- Bend your front knee so your knee stacks over your front ankle, tracking your knee toward the pinky toe side of your foot
- Press into the outer edge of your back foot
- Knit your lower ribs in and down to engage your core
- Bring your arms out to a T-shape, with your palms facing down, and relax your shoulders
- Gaze out past your front fingertips
How to Teach Warrior 2 in a Yoga for Kids Class:
Warrior 2 is a fun and powerful way to ground children and bring their focus to their bodies!
Become a Sail Boat or Surfer
- Have the students rock their bodies and arms up and down, envisioning the waves moving the boat or surfboard
Take a Ride on an Airplane
- Imagine that the children’s arms are wings and they are flying through the sky
- Ask the children to share where they would fly to
6. Cat and Cow Poses (Marjaryasana and Bitilasana)
Let’s try it:
- Start on your hands and knees
- Align your wrists under your shoulders and knees under your hips
- Lengthen through the back of your neck and gaze down between your pointer fingers
- Begin with Cow Pose: inhale to lower your belly down toward the mat, lift your gaze, and arch your back
- Move into Cat Pose: exhale to push through the palms of your hands, round your back, and release your chin
- Following the sound of your breath, move through the poses five to 10 times
How to Teach Cat and Cow in a Yoga for Kids Class:
Like with Down Dog, Cat and Cow Poses fit nicely into a children’s class as they’re already named well. But don’t let that be the end!
Play With Cat/Cow
- Ask the children to share the sounds made by cats and cows, and give names to their own cat and cow
Become an Apple and Banana
- While their back is rounded in Cat Pose, tell the kids to imagine their back as round as an apple
- When they arch their back in Cow Pose, imagine they are shaped like the curve of a banana
The Importance of Yoga for Kids
Kids today have a lot of commitments. With technology always available at their fingertips, obligations for school, and extracurricular activities, it’s just as important for kids as it is for adults to be reminded every now and again to slow down and breathe.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to find good yoga poses for kids. All it takes is a little bit of playful creativity to make kids fall in love with yoga.
While it may not always be as conventional or structured as a class for adults, introducing the concepts of yoga at a young age provides children with lifelong tools to maintain mindfulness and connection to their breath.
Author: Katie D'Onofrio
Source: https://www.yogiapproved.com/yoga/teach-yoga-for-kids/
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