Kira Willey: Music, Yoga and Life
Kira Willey shares her experiences in sharing music, practicing and teaching yoga and living with a heart full of color.Through Fireflies Musical Yoga for Kids and her award winning CD Dance for the Sun Kira brings the love of yoga to young and old. Going from being a music teacher and Mom to receiving a phone call from Dell Computer to use her song “Colors” in a major ad campaign, Kira’s life has taken some interesting turns. Unique and whimsical, Kira’s music includes a variety of genres and has touched lives around the globe. Get the inside story from Kira herself and maybe even a preview of her next CD – yeah!
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Giant Yoga Board Game
Kids Yoga and the Power of Storytelling
Fourth of July Kids Yoga Sequence
Yoga and Friends
A Day at Kids Yoga Camp
Ten Trees: Varieties of Tree Pose
Discover how to take a basic yoga tree pose (vrksasana) and make it into something playful, creative and interesting. From tree pose with namaste hands to tricky tree and beyond you’re sure to find inspiration for your next kids yoga class in Ten Trees. All these versions of tree pose build balance, focus and concentration while increasing creativity, poise and grace. And best of all they’re FUN!
Which is your fave?
How many varieties can you come up with?
Aesops Fables with a Twist: The Farmer and the Fox
Dinosaur Yoga: A Yoga Class for Kids
Aesops Fables with a Twist: The Lion and the Mouse
Kids Yoga Games – Body Chalk Board
Body Chalk Board is a great way to increase body awareness and sensory perception. Learning to rely on touch alone is a challenging skill and helps to focus attention and improve mindfulness. In the ‘olden days’ my sisters and I would play Body Chalk Board on long car trips. (Yes, we did have cars back then.) Today, I often use this technique when reviewing spelling words with my own children or often to simply tell them I love them with a short message written on their palm. It is always a hit when we pair up during kids yoga class and children try to spell the names of the poses on one another’s backs before practicing them. This game is also fantastic for learning cooperation and communication skills. You may even want to try it with your teens to keep them connected to their body.
Body Chalk Board
Divide group into pairs. Sitting in easy pose (sukhasana), often referred to as criss cross, with one partner in front of the other use your partner’s back as a chalk board. Using a finger draw numbers, shapes or letters of the alphabet on the ‘chalk board’. The person whose back is the ‘chalk board’ guesses what is being drawn. Wipe the ‘chalk board’ clean with flat palms from top to bottom or side to side before switching roles.
For more of a challenge send a message via the ‘chalk board’ that the person in front writes down letter by letter as it is received.
To encourage sensory development and awareness do the same thing using other parts of the body: stomach, soles of feet, palms of hands. This is a wonderful game for children with sensory processing challenges (SPD, Autism, ADHD, etc).
Visit our Yoga Games page for more amazing & fun yoga games to enjoy yoga with kids and teens.
Meet Donna Freeman
Donna Freeman, founder of Yoga In My School, is interviewed by Stacey Shanks of Yoga and Life. We discuss building a kids yoga community of sharing, where to get inspiration for kids yoga classes, benefits of yoga for children, the impact of yoga on kids minds & bodies, the wealth of information found on Yoga In My School and in Once Upon a Pose, and the power behind thematic yoga adventure stories.