Yoga Breaks

I have a new love and it is called yoga.  Most people would say I'm more than a little obsessed with yoga.  Yoga is incredible for stress relief, increasing healthy habits, and is a wonderful exercise. Personally, I have started working out regularly, drinking more water, eating healthier, lost weight, and been less stressed, all because of yoga.  Now, when most people think about yoga they think of crazy flexibility and people saying "OM."  While you will see that in different aspects of yoga, you can also make it suitable for your needs and even your students' needs.

One of my co-workers was doing research on things that would help with things like testing anxiety and getting students to focus.  She is also a yoga lover and came across a ton of information on yoga in the classroom.  She also found these amazing cards.

(picture from yogakids.com)

These cards are great because each card has a single pose with large pictures of a student doing the pose.  The poses also have kid friendly names and a detailed list of instructions you can read right off the back to help your students get into proper position.  Even if you have never done yoga, you can still use these cards in your classroom.  Another aspect I love is that they put the poses in groups depending on how they are intended to affect your children.  Do your children need to calm down? There is a whole section for that.  If you need them to focus it's another section.  Each section is color coded and marked so you can easily find the ones you want.

(picture from yogakids.com)

When do I use this?

Many teachers are already doing brain breaks and these fit right in with what you might already do.  Indoor recess?  Kids can do yoga instead of playing games, watching a movie, dancing, or any number of other things.  My favorite time I used them was during the testing season.  When we had breaks between testing sessions we would get up and move around and we did lots and lots of yoga.  This was relatively quiet which was important since we were indoors and trying not to disturb others.  It's also one of my favorite things to do when my kids have been doing a highly active task like centers, just coming back from PE or recess, or just have an extra dose of energy.  This gets kids moving, but several also require students to calm down and focus if they want to succeed in the pose.  

Why use yoga?

If you already use brain breaks, the best part about yoga, at least in my class, was that many of the poses were ones my students didn't do in our regular brain breaks or other places like PE.  If it is something different you know it is more likely to attract their attention.  

Personally, I also saw an improvement in my students after we had done our yoga breaks.  I have previously danced, done jumping jacks, run in place, and so many more active things for a brain break.  What I found was that usually my kids were more energized, but they were energized to the point they had trouble settling down and getting back to work.  I love the yoga poses because most of the time my kids got to move, but they had to focus in order to control their body.  Their brain got the break, but their behavior didn't disintegrate into craziness.  

I wish I could list all the benefits of yoga.  If you want to read a little more about it, here is an article from Parents.com.  This site gives you a list of ways kids benefit in the school setting.  Even PBS agrees!  If you want to order the cards here is the website.  I am not recommending this product because I received anything for this post.  I honestly have used the cards and they work!