You are a graceful swan, sailing from side to side as you move smoothly through the water.

Instructions

1. Begin All-Fours pose.
2. Bend your lower legs, point your toes to the sky and glide your body forward.
3. Lift your chest and lengthen your graceful neck.
4. Drop your shoulders and keep your arms strong. Y
5. Breathe in and out.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Affirmations
Play with the following affirmations while doing this pose:

• “I am graceful as a swan.”
• “I sail with ease through hard times.”
• “I am gentle and beautiful.”

Musical Musings
Play Tchaikowvsky’s Swan Lake while moving around as swans.

Body Benefits
Practicing Swan pose keeps the spine and lower back flexible. and increases upper body strength. It can help to lengthen the neck, improve posture and broaden the chest to help counteract slumping.

 

Instructions

1. Close your eyes and picture a balloon in your lap slowly growing bigger, as you breathe in through your nose.
2. Picture it getting smaller as you breathe out through your nose and release all your tummy air. Breathe in, fill your balloon, and let your arms rise away from you to encircle the balloon.
3. Now gently press your balloon flat, letting your arms come back in towards your belly.
4. Repeat several times.

Note for Parents

This pose can be done at a desk or sitting on the floor.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Awesome Anatomy
Give each student a balloon to inflate. Let them blow it up and then let the air flow back out, observing the shape of the balloon. The balloon shrinks because of the elasticity of the material. Students can learn that their lungs are also elastic: they inflate with an inhalation and will deflate on their own, with no muscular effort. Students will also be interested to learn that the lungs do not have muscles at all; we inhale by expanding the ribs and/or flattening the diaphragm muscle. The lungs are held against the inside of the chest wall by a vacuum.

Body Benefits

Breathing deeply and fully with Balloon Breath brings more oxygen into our blood stream to make us more alert and focused.

Math Medley

Play with a 2 to 1 ratio as a pattern to increase your breathing capacity. For example, breathe in for 2 counts, and breathe out for 4 counts. Gradually let your breath and number power expand.

“Take 5” is an expression that means “take a short break.” Take 5 breath gives you a quick rest whenever you  need it. If you get angry, tired, nervous or frustrated — just breathe and Take 5. Before tests or while you’re studying, Take 5 breath will help you focus and concentrate. This pose can be done anywhere, at any time. Breathe in for 5 seconds and breathe out for 5 seconds.

Instructions

1. Stand tall, with your feet hip-width apart.
2. Pivot your feet so that your toes are wider than your heels.
3. Bend your knees until you are squatting. Try to keep your heels on the floor.
4. Bring your palms together at your heart.
5. Stay here for several breaths.
6. Be sure to ribbit like a frog!

 

Activity Ideas for Home and Classroom

Ecological Echoes

Did you know? Frogs don’t drink water — they absorb it through their skin. They also completely shed their skin about once a week. After it pulls off the old, dead skin, the frog usually eats it.

 

Body Benefits

This pose opens your hips and stretches your groin.

 

Affirmations

Try these affirmations as you do the pose: “I feel grounded” and “I feel balanced and strong.”

Instructions

1. Lie on your back, arms at your sides.
2. Bend both knees and place your feet flat on the floor hip-width apart.
3. Press the feet into the floor, inhale and lift the hips up, rolling the spine off the floor.
4. Press down into the arms and shoulders to lift the chest up.
5. Breathe and hold for several breaths.

 

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Ecological Echoes

There are many different bridge types. And the type that is build depends on the the terrain underneath. The first bridges were made of logs — but not can be made of oncrete, metal, and other materials. Which bridges have you visited?

 

Math Medley

The world’s longest bridge is the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China. The bridge, which opened in June 2011, spans 102.4 miles. How many feet is that?

 

Instructions: Lie on your back, or relax in a chair with your head on your desk. Breathe in and out slowly and deeply. Imagine that you are sipping sour lemonade through your toes, and sending it to every part of your body. Hold your breath as you curl and pucker your toes. Breathe out as you relax your toes. Work your way up the body, tensing and then relaxing your legs, then your belly, chest, shoulders, and arms; sip, pucker, breathe, and relax.

Make a sourpuss face. Wrinkle your nose. Squeeze your eyes shut. Grit your teeth and pucker your lips. Hold this facial squeeze for a few seconds, and then release. Finally, tighten your entire body all at once, and hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Completely release. Relax.

Now you are ready for Savasana. It may be difficult, but try to clear your mind of all thoughts. Stay in Savasana for at least one minute — and build up to 10 minutes. Stay awake, but completely relaxed and peaceful.

 

 

Instructions

1. Sit with your legs wide apart in a triangle position.
2. Flex your heels and bend your toes toward you.The person with the smaller triangle should press her heels into her partner’s ankles.
3. Reach across with your right hands and shake hands or wrists.
4. Lift your left arm up above your head and over and as you stretch this entire side, shoulder, arms and fingertip. Keep your sit bones on the floor.
5. Lean over. Look up. Smile and breath in and out.
   Change sides.

Help each other to obtain the best feelings in your body by helping each other in this wonderful stretch and find your edge (the place where it feels just right without too much trying).

Note to Parents and Teachers

Partner yoga poses are great ways to help children learn about cooperation, have fun and get fit too.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Musical Musings
Sing age appropriate songs or ditties as you connect and stretch. Have fun using reciting nursery rhymes, pop songs, knock, knock jokes or any call and response songs. Tell some really funny jokes or stories to each other and have a rib splitting laugh together.

Awesome Anatomy/Body Benefits
Feel the bones in your chest. They are called your ribs. When you practice this pose you create space between your ribs and this helps your breath become deeper, fuller and stronger. This rib splitting pose stretches your legs, hips, waist shoulders and fingers too. Remember to press through your sit bones. The fancy name for them is ischial tuberosities. Can you say that? How about Ischium? That one is a little easier.

Math Medley
Draw a circle or a square. How many triangles can you put inside of each of these forms? 2, 3, 8, 10? Have fun counting and color them too.

Nutrition Tip – Triangle Foods
What is one of most children’s favorite foods that is served in the shape of a triangle or a circle? Yup. Yum. Pizza. Instead of buying pizzas, make healthy ones together. Use whole grain dough, bagels, English muffins or tortillas. Use organic tomato sauce, lowfat or soy cheese and lots of veggies. Make funny faces with colorful strips of peppers, cherry tomato eyes, pineapple slices and other goodies.

Tyropitakia (pronounced tee-ro-pee-TAHK-yah) means “cheese pie triangles.” These tasty triangular cheese-filled pastries are fun finger foods for kids. Let young cooks try their hand at this. Once they get the hang of the folding, there will be no stopping them!