• happy: mouth open while rocking side to side
• sad: head faces down/hands wipe tears
• shy: look up slowly , then away slowly, repeatedly
• worried: glance quickly back and forth
• angry: head tilts to one side away from puppeteer  
• tired: make the puppet yawn or move slowly

Aruna Kathy Humphries, of Young Yoga Masters, has these suggestions on using a puppet in kids yoga class from her experiences with Mr. Moo Moo.

Mr. Moo Moo: In case you haven’t guessed Mr. Moo Moo is a cow. But he is a very special cow because he loves yoga. He’s a black and white puppet that I’ve had for about 10 years.

 When I introduce him he hides his face in my neck (he’s shy). He often whispers things in my ear and then I’ll ask the kids, “He wants to know if you are kind?” “He’s wondering if anyone will grab him, he doesn’t like that.” If people are sitting quietly he will come over and whisper in their ear. If they are doing a yoga pose he may sit on them, under them, or go through them. He likes to wake kids up from their relaxation too.

If they are not quiet or doing the pose he doesn’t come. Great incentive to get kids (even 11 year olds) to pay attention and do what we’re doing.

Aruna Kathy Humphries is a certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor whose teachings and life has been influenced by Tulshi Sen. She can be found on her website Young Yoga Masters.

If you enjoyed this article be sure to join Yogainmyschool.com on Facebook and subscribe (RSS or e-mail options available) for more great articles on teaching yoga to kids and teens.

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eagle pose

bear walk

tree pose

dancer pose

camel pose

rock the baby pose

downward dog

lizard on a rock

double boat pose

Be inspired to do yoga wherever, whenever the mood strikes. The park, the playground, the botanic garden, on the beach, or at the cabin…get your yogi on and strike a pose, or two, or ten. Happy summer!

For more information on yoga for kids and teens be sure to subscribe (RSS or e-mail) and get updates directly to your reader or inbox. You can also find YIMS on Facebook and YouTube.

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Today we’re here with Greer.

“Hi, I’m Greer. I’m 5 years old.”

She is going to show us how you can use stuffed animals to help you with your yoga poses. She has three stuffed animals beside her, so we are going to do three different poses.

The first pose we’re going to do is “Cat pose” and there is our cute little kitty cat. To do cat pose…

The next pose we’re going to do is “Downward Dog.” There’s our puppy dog. Lovely. Now, again we’re going to make a table with our body…

We have one last pose for today. What’s our pose Greer? “Lion Pose!” This is Greer’s favourite pose. To do lion pose you can start…

So that is how stuffed animals can help kids do yoga. I hope you have enjoyed our video today. And we’ll sign off with…”Namaste.”

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1. Have family members set summer goals. For example: list of books you want to read, things you want to do, places to visit, skills you need to learn.
2. Take your child to the library and sign up for a summer reading program.
3. Have your child help put together a first aid kit that can go with you on your many summer outings.
4. Give your child an inexpensive camera and let them take pictures of all the fun activities you do over the summer. Create a scrapbook of memories.
5. Practice pranayama by blowing bubbles or dandelion heads.
6. Pack a picnic and enjoy eating outdoors.
7. Watch a baseball/football/soccer/beach volleyball game together. Talk about the rules and how they are important.
8. See how many places in your home (not including books) where your child can find words to read.
9. Make paper airplanes and practice airplane pose (Warrior III with arms out to the side).
10. Plant a garden and enjoy tending it throughout the season.
11. Visit a local museum or art gallery.
12. Sketch or paint outdoors: clouds, night sky, trees, a favourite view, an interesting building…let your imagination and creativity soar.
13. Lie on the grass and look at the clouds. Make up stories about the shapes you see.
14. Colour mandalas. Go for a walk and find mandalas in your neighbourhood (flowers, signs, art, stepping stones, etc).
15. Learn geography while watching the World Cup. Find participating countries on a map.
16. Teach your child their personal information: phone number, address, etc. Practice each day.
17. Can your children tell time? Teach them how to read an analog clock with yoga eyes.
18. Check out a book of jokes or riddles. Share one over dinner each day.
19. Create an indoor or outdoor miniature golf course. Play a round or two.
20. Grab a broomstick and hold a limbo contest. Back-bends open the heart and invigorate the body.
21. Add food coloring to a dollop of shaving cream. Let your child use it as finger paint.
22. Make homemade ice-cream. Practice two scoops partner pose.
23. Help your child write a letter or card to a relative or friend telling about summer events.
24. Fly a kite. Practice triangle pose (sometimes called kite pose).
25. Have a pillow fight.
26. Enjoy face painting and then perform face yoga in the mirror and laugh at your funny faces.
27. Read under the stars. Take a blanket and book outside and read with your child by flashlight.
28. At dinner have each family member say something nice about every person at the table.
29. Make puppets out of a paper bag, an old sock or a stick. Put on a puppet show.
30. Cut out pictures from several magazines. Have your child write a story about them.
31. Give your child a bucket of water and some paint brushes. Let her “paint” the sidewalk, fence, house, etc.
32. Find out when the sun sets and rises in your area. Learn how to do Sun Salutations.
33. Look at the stars with your child. Make up new constellations together.
34. Find a local kiddie pool, beach or fountain and go wadding.
35. Play alphabet games with your child. List countries, animals, cars or yoga poses in alphabetical order.
36. Build a fort inside or out using blankets, sheets, boxes, tables, chairs and other items found around the house.
37. Meditate upon the breeze as it ruffles the leaves of your favourite tree.
38. Create a treasure/scavenger hunt and help your kids follow the clues for a fun reward.
39. Play hopscotch.
40. Choose a new recipe. Have fun cooking with your child.
41. Cut out pictures of healthy foods from weekly grocery ads.
42. Discuss the Food Pyramid. Have your child use the pictures from the above activity and make a chart of nutritious choices.
43. Look at family photos. Share stories and remember wonderful moments together.
44. Play with a hula hoop and discover hoop yoga.
45. Make musical instruments from things around your house. Have a concert.
46. Play a card game with your child; Crazy 8s, War, Rummy, Old Maid, Go Fish, Snap all build memory, hand-eye coordination & math skills.
47. Collect bugs and do insect poses such as locust, spider, inchworm, bumble bee lips, etc.
48. Fill water guns, buckets and water balloons and have a water fight.
49. Camp out in the back yard.
50. Create amazing sidewalk art with sidewalk chalk and a little water.
51. Help out at the local SPCA. Learn how to do downward dog pose, cat pose, rabbit pose and other poses for animals at the shelter.
52. Visit an orchard or u-pick farm.
53. Build sandcastles.
54. Feed the ducks at the local pond. Enjoy a great hip opening exercise by walking like a duck.

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Hula Hooping is also a great opportunity to teach children about heart rate. As hooping is a cardiovascular activity, have the kids take their pulse before and after hooping so they can see the way a constant rhythmic movement gets the blood flowing. Incorporate pranayama to slow down the breath even while moving. Take a deep breath to 5 rotations of the hoop and exhale to 5 rotations of the hoop. See how slow you can get the breath to go. 

Add some non-competitive group games to the mix:

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As a family we also would watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom every Sunday evening and join Marlin Perkins as he traveled around the globe sharing his love of wildlife and the many dramas that unfold in the animal kingdom. And of course, there is World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with their work to sustain nature and save endangered and threathened animals.

Needless to say, I’m a big fan of protecting endangered and threatened species. I figured with all the animal yoga poses it would be natural to mix the two. So when I found these great colouring pages of a variety of precious species  at Kids for Saving Earth I knew it was meant to be.

Read the full article on elephant journal.

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Yoga Jenga

Take a jenga game and write a different pose on each block. I took inspiration from the 60 poses included in Once Upon a Pose writing the English pose name on one side and the French name of the other thereby creating a bilingual game (the name in Sanskrit, Spanish, German, etc. would be equally as effective – See Language Learning Thru Yoga).

Have a couple of kids set up the game by stacking three blocks across three blocks until a tower is formed.

Choose a child to carefully remove a jenga block.

Perform the yoga pose written on the block.

You can place the block back on to the top of the jenga tower in order for it to continue to build. If you don’t want to repeat any poses during the class simply place the used jenga blocks off to one side. As well we more often than not simply run out of time long before the tower comes down.

Choose another child and repeat until all children have had a turn, class is over, or the tower falls over.

Visit the Yoga Games page for more engaging yoga activities to use in your class. Also join us on Facebook and check out our YouTube Channel where there is always lots of great content to keep your kids and teen yoga classes fun and inspiring.

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Spanish Language

Teach some of the pose names in Spanish. (Since I don’t speak fluent Spanish I used my iTranslate app. Very handy.)

tree=árbol, mountain=montaña, warrior=querrero, boat=barco,etc.

This will help children to broaden their cultural horizons and appreciate the marvelous diversity which makes up the world. For more information on second language learning in the yoga classroom listen to this interview with Beth Reese of Yogiños.

Burrito Roll (Sushi Roll)

This is a great sensory activity which makes kids feel safe and secure and stimulates the proprioceptors (the neurons which relay the information of one’s own body position and movement).

Have child lie across the end of a yoga mat with their head off one side.

With their arms down by their sides, roll them up in a mat (include a favourite stuffed animal if desired).

Unroll them.

Sometimes kids like to do this themselves by grasping the mat up near their neck and rolling and unrolling repeatedly as they desire. I have one autistic student that does this whenever he feels the need during class which will often inspire the rest of us to join him.

Mexican Hat Dance

Have all the children make a giant circle while holding hands. Place a sombrero in the center of the circle. Begin to play some Mexican inspired music and have the children walk to one direction around the sombrero. When the name of a child is called, that child leaves the circle and dances around the sombrero until another child’s name is called when they rejoin the circle. Continue until all children have a chance to dance in the center.

Buenos Amigos

Provide each child with a paper and pencil. Have each child write as many nice things about their classmate (amigo) to their right as they can in a given amount of time (5 mins). Suggest kind things about how they act, think, play, work, etc. Give the paper to the amigo to take home.

You could also include a craft like paper plate maracas or colouring page of children in traditional mexican costumes.

What are some ways you enjoy celebrating Cinco de Mayo with your kids yoga classes?

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Ball Pass

You will need a rubber spikey ball, beach ball, basketball-sized Nerf ball, or other soft ball that the feet can grasp.

Have everyone sit in a circle.

Pass the ball from person to person using only your feet! The person receiving the ball has to “catch” it with their feet, and so on around the circle.

Young children and children with adaptive needs may have poor muscle tone and have difficulty with this task. They can play by rolling the ball with their feet to the next person. The idea is to build core & leg strength rather than to pass and catch perfectly.

Encourage the children by saying “Just do your best! Lets have fun!”

Older children can play by “throwing” and “catching” (with feet) to anyone within the circle.

Expand the game (for children 6 and up) by pairing auditory processing with the movement much like musical chairs: play music while the ball is being passed. Randomly stop the music, and when the music stops, everyone has to “freeze” including the person with the ball. Music starts, play continues.

Increase difficulty and sensory processing by adding a second ball, possibly of a different size, weight, colour and texture, to be passed around the circle.

The game is over when time is up or children start getting distratcted.

Thanks to Bodylogique a creative and adaptive yoga program which encourages children and families to stay healthy and have fun.

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It started when they were very young and I’d ask them to stir jello, make play-dough, or dump measured ingredients into the bowl to make muffins or cookies. These days we have assigned evenings where they are the designated ‘sous-chef’ and get to help with dinner doing everything from setting the table and pouring the water, to chopping the vegetables and puréeing the cheese and broccoli soup. A favourite activity when friends come over is to create something delectable to eat which is often inspired by the Food Network (one of my kids favourite TV channels) or by a kids cooking recipe book currently on loan from the library. This spring my son has graduated to the BBQ where he recently grilled up honey mustard chicken breast to perfection.

Yes, having my children in the kitchen requires effort and organization. Like most tasks, it would be easier if I simply did it myself. However, I’d definitely be denying them, and myself, many wonderful memories and numerous life skills. My job is to ensure that my children have all the tools necessary to live as engaged and accomplished adults. I see teaching them how to cook everything from Caesar Salad to Crock Pot Stew as part of that responsibility.

And from a yoga point of view, I’m striving to teach them good nutrition and to establish a positive relationship with food. When helping in the kitchen, kids interact with their food on a totally different level. By taking the raw ingredients, discussing basic nutrition requirements, and learning how to combine different flavours to create wonderful dishes, children take charge of what they are putting on the table and into their bodies.

What Kids Learn When Cooking

Involving kids in the kitchen develops a host of skills. These include:

• Following directions – reading and following a recipe
• Basic arithmetic – measuring ingredients or doubling (tripling for cookies) a recipe
• Vocabulary enrichment – ingredients, tools, and directions all provide new and interesting vocabulary
• Sensory stimulation – tastes, textures, and smells in great variety come from the kitchen
• Cause and effect – leave out one ingredient and see what happens
• Cooperation – working together and waiting their turn
• Sanitation – cleanliness and safe food handling skills come with the territory
• Confidence – empower kids with cooking skills that will last a lifetime
• Creativity – express kids unique tastes with their own recipes/kitchen creations

Ground Rules for Cooking with Kids

Here are a couple of suggestions for getting your kids into the kitchen.

• Safety first – never leave children unattended in the kitchen. Your supervision is essential and your children’s well being always comes first.
• Never assume that children know how to handle a knife or when something is ’safe’ or ‘unsafe’. Establish safety ground rules which are age and ability appropriate.
• Provide your child with their own kitchen utensil kit such as the Kid’s Cookware Kit - I haven’t done this but think it is a brilliant idea to foster independence and ownership.
• Start with a clean kitchen and keep a sink of warm soapy water ready to clean-up as you go along. Cleaning up is part of cooking so don’t let your kids escape once the dish is made without washing up and wiping off. 
• Make it fun! If you or the children are getting frustrated try again another time or with a different recipe. This is a time to connect, share, and explore the wonder of creating good things to eat while spending time together.

Cooking With Kids Websites

Spatulatta is a great website that teaches kids to cook. Hosts Liv and Belle provide over 350 videos of how kids can make a variety of healthy and nutritious foods including vegan & vegetarian options, comfort foods, holiday specials and more.

For the little ones (ages 2-5) learning to prepare food uses all their senses and exploits their desire to please. It gets them fully involved with their food and with helping around the home. A win-win for sure. Cooking with Children: Kids in the Kitchen offers suggestions for age appropriate tasks and recipes even the youngest children can help prepare.

Cooking With Kids is a school based program that uses hands-on methods to teach elementary students about the joy of delicious healthy foods. From tasting classes which introduce kids to food they may never have had before, to getting local chefs to donate their time and talent to schools, this innovative program brings fresh and healthy options into the classroom.

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