As we all know, the morning routine sets the tone for the entire day. Starting the day on a positive note is an imperative.
However, a good and often overlooked method of beginning the day is with classroom activities like yoga.
Today on TeachHUB.com, frequent contributing writer Janelle Cox, who also is a seasoned elementary school teacher based in Upstate New York, looks at some classroom activities you can use to implement a yoga morning meeting sequence into your school day.
Janelle’s ideas include easy steps to implementing yoga, including:
After a few breaths, have students reach their arms up and over their heads then dive down to touch their feet as they exhale. Encourage students to hang here for a few breaths and shake their heads “Yes” and “No” while either holding their elbows or hanging their arms loosely.
Next, have students do a sitting mountain pose by sitting at their seats with their feet planted firmly on the ground and their hands on their laps. Instruct them to sit up tall and slowly breathe in and out through their nose.
After this sequence, have students do a seated back bend. To do this pose, students should start in seated mountain pose, place their hands on the back of their chair, and push back so that they are looking up at the ceiling. Another option is to do this pose standing.
She also includes a paragraph on Encouraging Breathing : “One of the hardest things students have when first learning yoga is how to breathe properly. If you find that students are forgetting to breathe, then encourage them to count as they inhale and exhale. You can also teach them how to properly breathe when just sitting in a chair before you even teach them a new pose.”
Janelle sums up her article thusly: “Before trying it in the classroom, make sure that you take a class or try a free one on YouTube. This will help you feel confident when instructing students. Namaste.”
Do you incorporate yoga classroom activities into your morning meeting? Which poses do you like to do? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
