Laughter is an international language. Pedaling a bike is excellent exercise. Put these two together and travel to the land of ha ha he he health.

Instructions

1. Sit in a chair or lie on your back.
2. Bend your arms and legs like you are riding bicycles in the air.
3. Pedal forward: laugh.
4. Pedal backward: laugh.

It might be hard to really laugh at first, but once you get started, you won’t be able to stop. Have fun and be silly with this pose!

Parents and Teachers

Laughing is a great way to lighten up an intense mood or situation. If tension is mounting and bad moods are escalating designate a laughing break. Remind yourself and your children to look at the lighter side of things.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Math Medley/Awesome Anatomy

Count out loud or use a timer to see how long each person can maintain their pedal laughing. Time pulses and heart rates too. Make a chart or graph to look at the comparisons.

Body Benefits

Laughter lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, increases muscle flexion, boosts immune function and produces a natural body chemical called endorphins, which make you naturally feel good.

Musical Musings

Form a pedal laughing chorus or choir. High tone laughters are sopranos, low tone ones are bass. Medium low laughers are tenors and medium high are altos. Take turns being the conductors to bring in different voices, get louder or faster and to stop.

Nutrition Tip

Have fun with your food! Many of us have a “love-hate” relationship with food.  It is a necessary part of our daily lives but is often confusing, time consuming and takes us away from other activities we would rather be doing.  This week bring laughter into your life with the Pedal Pose and bring that laughter and feeling of play into the kitchen.

• Have family members create their favorite meal – participate in the menu planning, preparation and cleaning.
• Play music in the kitchen.
• Keep fresh flowers in your eating area.
• Practice cooking different types of foods – get the children involved in cooking new foods and new recipes.  Connect Food to cultures or countries your children may be studying in school.
• Have family members select a vegetable or fruit of the week – something you have never tried – they find a recipe(s) and help with the preparation.
• Try to sit down and eat as a family at least a couple of times a week – no TV, no phones, no computers.  Enjoy a fun relaxed meal together.

This is our version of the classic pose, or asana, called Trikonasana. Tri- means three. Kona- means angle. Asana means pose. Three angles form a triangle. Can you find the triangles in this pose?

Instructions

1. Begin in mountain. Jump your feet and arms apart.
2. Turn your right foot so it points to the right.
3. Turn your left toes as far to the right as you can. Imagine a line from the back of your right heel straight into the middle of your left arch. Line up your feet on this imaginary line, to provide an even base for your triangle pose.
4. Press down evenly through both feet and feel strength in your legs.
5. Place your left hand on your hip as the teapot handle.
6. Bend your right arm to form the spout. (Photo a shows through step 6.)
7. Sing the teapot song, with these variations:

Om a little teapot short and stout.
Here is my handle.
Here is my spout.

8. Release your left hand from the hip and slide it down your leg. Stretch your right arm straight out to the side, as you extend and lengthen the right ribcage and the hips move left. (Photo b)

When I get all steamed up, I reach out…

9. From the hip hinge, tilt the upper body sideways right, as the hips swivel more to the left. Stretch your ribcage and spine away from the opposite moving hips. Release your right hand down. Lift your left arm up. (Photo c)

Then tip me over and pour me up . ..

10. If you feel yourself pitched too far forward, lift your right hand higher on the leg and rotate your chest skyward.
11. If it’s comfortable, turn your head and look up. If not, look forward or down.
12. To return to center, just wiggle your fingers and return to an upright positon with your arms still extended out to the sides. Turn your feet so your toes point straight forward and jump back to center.
13. Breathe in and out. Jump again to practice triangle and pour tea on the opposite side.

Note for Parents and Teachers

This pose increases strength and flexibility of the feet, legs, hips and neck. It helps lengthen the spine, too.

With young children, ignore the detailed directions of the feet. For children approximately 10 and older, or if they have been practicing for a while, we can begin to give them more details on structure and alignment. When they start asking questions, you will know that they are interested enough to begin to grasp the subtleties of shape and form in their poses.

Activity Ideas for Home and Classroom

Musical Musings

Here’s the YogaKids version of this classic rhyme. This song and other YogaKids favorites can be found on the Fitness Fun CD by Marsha Wenig.

Om a little teapot short and stout.
Here is my handle.
Here is my spout.
When I get all steamed up, I reach out.
Then tip me over and pour me up.

Bridge of Diamonds

Instead of beginning this classic teapot rhyme with I’m, in YogaKids we start with OM. The yogis say Om is the sound of the universe. Uni means one and verse means song. When we join together, we make beautiful music!

Math Medley

There are three different types of triangles. They are:

1. Equilateral (all sides are equal)
2. Isosceles (two sides are equal)
3. Scalene (All sides are unequal)

See how many different triangles you can make with your legs and arms.

Stretch your whole body – arms, legs, toes, spine and fingers. Become gooey and sweet as you fold forward and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Instructions

1. Begin in L is for Left. Reach up and grab the peanut butter and jelly jars that are floating through the air. Can you reach them?
2. Rub PB & J all over your hands and smear it between your toes. Fold forward and make a sandwich by pressing your upper body towards your lower body.
3. Spread it all over your legs and on your belly as you learn the names of your bones and muscles.
4. Wash your face and hair in peanut butter and jelly.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Awesome Anatomy

Teach your children to learn the parts of their body with age appropriate anatomical names and words.

Body Benefits

When you fold forward at the hip hinge, like in this pose, it is called a forward bend. Forward bends stretch the hamstrings, calves and all the muscles of the back. In time, you will become more flexible and be able to lengthen your legs and spine more.

Math Medley

The average child eats 1,500 PB&J sandwiches before he or she graduates high school. How many is that each day, week, month, year, decade, century?

Bridge of Diamonds

In other countries, peanut butter is not as popular as it is in the US and Canada. In Australia, they eat Vegemite, in Italy, they eat pizza. In Mexico, tacos. Black beans and rice in Brazil. Chicken rice in Singapore. Pho in Vietnam.

Nutrition Tip

Since many of you just love PB&J, take it up a few notches with these healthy tips.

• Start with a multi grain, whole grain bread. One fun way to get your kids involved is making bread. The easiest and fastest way is to use a bread machine. Children love to put in the ingredients before they go the bed at night, set the timer and wake up to the smell and taste of delicious, homemade bread. Yummy. And they are so proud of themselves too.
• Try using a jar of natural or organic peanut butter. Try to avoid the peanut butters with partially hydrogenated oils – they have a long shelf life and lots of flavor but the trans fat are unhealthy and do not digest well in our bodies. Did you know you can make butter from all kinds of nuts: almonds, cashews, sesame, pistachio. Try it out.
• How about bananas instead of Jelly? What else would taste yummy with peanut butter? Apples? Honey? Avocado? Experiment and explore. Look for jams made from the whole fruit. These are naturally sweetened without the addition of high fructose corn syrup and other added sugars.

Pose Instructions

Begin on all fours. Line up your wrists under your shoulders. Spread your fingers wide and arch your spine to the sky. Loosen your neck and drop your head down. Breathe out long and “catlike” as your meow. If you have a pet cat you might already know this combination of poses!

Now lift your chest forward and look up with big “cow eyes.” Dip your belly down and tilt your sit bones (your ischium) up. Your back will sink down like a cow’s. Make cow lips and moo deeply from the back of your throat. Moooooo. Go back and forth, meowing and mooing. Begin with four rounds, and increase to as many times as feels good to you.

This combination can be done sitting too. Your child can sit at the edge of a chair, hands resting on the knees, and move the spine back and forth.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Math Medely/Geometry

The arched cat back is a convex curve; that is, it curves outward instead of inward. The cow spine is concave, which means it curves inward. A scoop of ice cream is convex, but the inside of a cone is concave. Help your child find convex and concave objects, or have them pair convex/concave objects like the ice cream example.

Visual Vignettes/Art

In addition of the math activity, have your children draw different convex and concave objects. Some convex shapes include baseball caps, camels, domes of buildings. Some concave shapes include skating ramps, bowls, funnels. Can you think of more? Draw and label these items.

Awesome Anatomy

The bones that make up the spine are called vertebrae. Humans have 26 vertebrae, while cats and cows have about 52. This pose keeps your spine flexible.

Lizards are cousins of dinosaurs and belong to the reptile family. There are thousands of different types of lizards living in all kinds of environments, from rainforests to deserts. The only places lizards don’t like are very, very cold places. Lizards are amazing! Geckos have special toes that allow them to grip and climb surfaces that are too smooth for most other creatures – like glass. Chameleons have built-in camouflage and change color to match their surroundings. Some lizards can swim, some can drop their tails when attacked and grow new ones, and horny toads are covered in spines and shoot blood from their eyes! The smallest lizards are chameleons from Madagascar that are only a few tens-of-millimeters in length, and the biggest ones are the poisonous Komodo dragons of Indonesia, which can reach 10 feet and 150 pounds.

Instructions

Lie down on your belly. Place your hands under your shoulders. Spread your fingers out like lizard claws. Bend your lizard toes forward. Push up until your arms and legs are straight. Draw your shoulders back and away from your ears. Walk like a lizard, slowly and carefully. Flick your tongue in and out as you check for danger and maybe catch a bug for a snack. Your scales protect you and will keep you strong and fearless.

Note to Parents and Teachers

Lizard can be practiced in a stationary position, although children like to have lizard races too. If you need them to do something, like a chore or a task, send them off in lizard pose to complete their mission.

If grinding the teeth or suffering from TMJ affects you or your child, practicing lizard tongue will help. Flick and loosen the tongue to unlock and relax the jaw.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Laughing Language

Make a lizard tongue twister with the letter L, such as “Long lizards lie lollygagging. . .”

We All Win

Take a lizard walk with a partner while you trade tongue-twisters.

Math Medley

How far can you walk as a lizard? Count the steps or measure the distance in feet and inches.

Awesome Anatomy

Clenching the jaw, sends signals of tightness to the brain via the sensory nerves. The motor nerves then communicate that sense back to the body. Practicing lizard tongue, relaxes the jaw, and alleviates tension.