Celebrating the changing seasons helps children understand the rhythms of nature and gain an appreciation for the world in which they live. Here are three wonderful ways to celebrate leaves in autumn.  First we start in Tree pose with leaves blowing in the breeze. Next the leaves change colours, then fall gently to the ground. Finally we rake our leaves into a pile great for jumping. These are great sensory motor activities which engage children’s creativity and love of movement. They increase balance, promote grace, build strength and foster imagination.

Loving Leaves: Yoga for Kids

Imagine you are a tree, standing tall, arms reaching high like branches, leaves hanging off of your fingers. Blow yourself in the breeze and return to standing.

Imagine that you are a leaf in autumn and that you are falling off the tree all the way to the ground.

Imagine that you are using a rake to rake a pile of leaves. Gather them from all sides. When you have a nice pile, put your rake down and jump into your leaves.

photo courtesy of elbphoto

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• “In order to be a teacher you have to be a consumate learner.” Shana’s power yoga practice.
• “Yoga is empowering” – benefits of yoga for kids, especially those with ADHD and Autism
• How to create yoga classes for various ages from 3-17, an incremental explanation of the purposes of yoga for different age groups
• Yoga for athletes at the CarPEDiem Sports Academy
• “Peace” yoga card game available on YogaVibes.com

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A rope can be a useful yoga prop. This video demonstrates one way to use a rope in a kids yoga class. Rope Walking is a mindfulness activity which teaches focus and concentration. It also improves balance and coordination while providing a calming activity that is both challenging and soothing in nature. This mindfulness activity is ideal for individuals with ADHD as it allows for movement while developing mind/body awareness.

Rope Walking

Today we have three young yogis who are going to show you how to do rope walking.

For younger children (or those with special needs), they can walk on the path made in between the rope. Walking all the way to the center.

For older children, they can walk on the rope. This increases the diffficutly of the exercise and helps them to learn balance, body coordination. It helps them to teach where they are looking they want to place their feet. And is a lovely exercerise to teach them how to do a walking meditation. Of course, once they get really good at it they can do various activities such as jumping or walking a little faster.  But for the most part, simply walking along a rope is challenge enough.

And that’s how you do rope walking.

More yoga and mindfulness activities can be found on YogaInMySchoolTV on YouTube.

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Breathing with pursed lips is an effective breathing technique for asthmatics as it focuses on extending the exhale making it long and slow. Using a glass of milk and a straw as a learning tool, this breathing technique will teach kids how to lengthen the exhale, fully emptying the lungs in a slow, controlled manner.

Breathing with Pursed Lips

Breathing with pursed lips is a fantatic exercise for asthmatics who sometimes need to be able to regulate their exhales. This exercise focuses on the exhale, making it long and soft.

Greer is going to help me demonstrate how to breathe with pursed lips. What you do is you inhale and exhale, like you’re blowing out a candle. Can you do that again? You want to make your exhale as long and slow as possible.

A really good learning tool to do this is a glass of milk and a straw. So the goal here is to blow bubbles in the milk but try to keep them small and soft. Nice and steady. 

There we go, look at all those steady, long bubbles. Perfect. That’s exactly how you do it.If you can maybe fill the whole glass with little bubbles then you are doing this really, really well. And that’s how you breathe with pursed lips.

For more information on yoga exercises that help children visit yogainmyschool.com.

A complete listing of pranayama exercises for kids can be found on the Breathing Exercises Page.

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While researching labyrinths I came across a number of wonderful resources, including the photo which is a food labyrinth made by a youth group as part of a fund raising/food donations drive, and had to share. Hopefully these will spark your creativity and make it easy for you to develop lesson plans about labyrinths. My children love using the printables as finger labyrinths. I simply printed off a number and put them in plastic paper protectors so they are reusable. These are also great to use with whiteboard markers. Voilà – instant mindfulness.

How to make a Labyrinth - video tutorial showing how to start from a plus sign to create a Classic Seven Circuit Cretan Labyrinth.

Labyrinth Print-ables - from basic to challenging, traditional to modern, this site provides a plethora of print-ables to color, trace and enjoy, including Cretan, Roman, Church, man in the maze, triple spiral, and many more.

Ball in a Labyrinth – a Flash game where you use your mouse to tilt the board moving a ball from start to finish – just beware the holes – highly addictive and progressively more difficult.

Virtual Labyrinth Walk – using your mouse you can trace a Classic Labyrinth with a variety of symbols to help you focus along with simple meditations.

101 Ways to Use a Labyrinth – Dan Johnston, PhD provides great suggestions on how to use a labyrinth including New Year’s, Hello/Goodbye, Beach Labyrinths and much more.

iPause App for iPhone - trace any one of six labyrinths or visually follow the green marble as it makes its way to the center and out again, will link to any music in your iPod.

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So you’re somewhat interested in labyrinths and the kids find them a great place to skip along a path and play, but what’s the point? What can one learn from walking a labyrinth or tracing a finger labyrinth? The answer: all kinds of great things from focus to mathematical formulas. Here is a list of some of the ways labyrinths can be used as a learning tool with children and teenagers.

Mindfulness

Labyrinths are a right brain meditation activity. In other words labyrinths develop creativity and imagination while focusing and calming the mind and body. Using labyrinths as mindfulness tools will reduce stress and increase concentration helping to create an optimum learning environment in the classroom.

Gross Motor Skills

Whether you are walking precisely, hopping, skipping, or playing along the path, a labyrinth will develop gross motor skills such as coordination, balance, body awareness, and spatial orientation. These skills are essential to proper physical development in children and also prepare the body for fine motor skills.

Fine Motor Skills

Finger labyrinths help refine fine motor skills. Using a finger or pen to follow the path in to the center and out again requires concentration and develops the small muscle movements in the hands as well as finger/eye coordination. Coloring labyrinths furthers this development.

Social Studies

Labyrinths are found throughout the world. Explore numerous countries (France, Italy, Estonia, Sweden, India - use the World Wide Labyrinth Locator for more)  and cultures (Roman, Greek, Hopi, Religious) to learn the use and symbolism of labyrinths.

Language Arts

Labyrinths have been used as a metaphor, cultural symbol and narrative structure in literature and film. Examining their use and various examples throughout history is an interesting and illuminating journey. Journaling about any lessons learned or insights gained while walking a labyrinth is a valuable self reflection exercise. Here are some observations from youth.

Math

From patterns to advanced calculations, labyrinths are a mathematicians playground. Understand patterns by learning to draw a labyrinth. Tony Philips provides lesson plans and activities which connect math with labyrinths here. Examine the geometry of various labyrinths.

Science

Build a labyrinth out of materials used during science lessons: tulip labyrinth, rock collection. Observe local bird species with the help of a birdseed labyrinth. Celebrate Earth Day by building a labryrinth with found items in nature: sticks, leaves, twigs, rocks, sea weed, grass, etc.

Physical Education

Walk, run, skip, hop, jump, backwards, forwards or sideways through the labyrinth. Get the heart rate up or bring it down. Compare how your body feels and the energy various activities create. In the winter enjoy building a snow labyrinth with snowshoes.

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