OBJECTIVE

Teach kids about the 6 senses.

MATERIALS

• Music player and prepared music
• Mats
• Wipes for messy clean up.
• Site objects (small rubber duck, alphabet block, rattle, kiat kiat, car, bird pen, small shoe, shiny cd, cloth to cover everything)
• Smell objects (kiat kiat cut in half, onion sliced in container, perfume on a handkerchief)
• Touch objects (feathers)
• Taste objects  (fruits and vegetables)

DISCUSSION POINTS

How can we refresh and use all of our senses to the best of our abilities? Discover each sense on its’ own and reinforce the students knowledge about the 6 senses.

CREATE THE MOOD AND TONE

• Make sure that all of the room fresheners are active and lit well enough before class to give the studio a warm smell of green apple.
• When the children come in, ask them to use their sense of smell and draw what the new smell reminds them of in the studio.
• Bunny Breath and Dragon Breath. – Place yoga mats in a circle. Let’s begin and open up with a breathing exercise to energize and calm the body at the same time. Body Benefits
• Eyes Around The Clock – Before we work on this sight activity, let’s strengthen our eye muscles.
• Open Eyes/Closed Eyes – All of the sight activity materials are in the middle of the circle with a cloth placed over it. After completing the breathing exercises, remove the cover so that all the students can touch, smell and play with the objects in the middle of the circle. After ample time playing with the objects, ask the students to close their eyes as you take away one object. Ask the students if they remember what is missing!

POSES AS PATHWAYS/INTEGRATE THE ELEMENTS

Introduce the theme for the day (Senses). What sense we just used when we played our game of hide and seek with the objects? Encourage a discussion of the five senses and the body parts associated with each of these senses.

L is for Left – Feel your spine straighten as you take some deep breaths in this position. Humans have 26 vertebrae which make up the total spine which houses our spinal cord. Our spinal cord is what delivers all of the messages from our sensors to our brain! Awesome Anatomy

Diamond Breath – Sit on your heels. Inhale as you lift your arms overhead. Form a diamond above your head with your pointer fingers and thumbs touching. Inhale as you lift your arms overhead. Form a diamond above your head with your pointer fingers and thumbs touching. Exhale as you lower your arms back down to your sides. Repeat 3 times. On the third time, hold your diamond shape above your head. Close your eyes and envision a beautiful, sparkling diamond floating above your head. Feel it grow larger and more brilliant. Now open your thumbs and let the magical sparkly diamond dust flow into the top of your head through your crown chakra and through your whole body, as well as sparkling all around you. Feel the diamond light surrounding you. Feel your beauty and light. Affirmations, Bridge of Diamonds

Finger Dancing/Salutations to Me – Now use this diamond dust to feel your skin, your hair, your skull, your tummy, legs, and down to your toes. How does each body part feel when it is touched? As you shine your body with all of this diamond dust remember that you are feeling both with the sensory neurons on your skin and body part you touch, and those with your fingers as well! Body Benefits

ABC Backrub –  Let’s partner up so that we can draw letters on each other’s backs. Take a few minutes so that we can give each other an ABC Backrub. Using your fingers let’s write all lowercase letters on each other’s backs. Take turns guessing and be sure to erase the letters after your partner guesses correctly. If there is time, pass around sand paper and feathers so that the kids can feel these objects with their fingers as well. Laughing Language

Tarzan’s Thymus Tap –  Let’s us pound and tap our chest. Let’s energize ourselves and send that blood through our carotid artery right up to our brain. Awesome Anatomy, Body Benefits

Sun Salutations –  Now that we got the blood flowing! Let’s put on some music so we can practice our sun salutations and warm up the rest of our bodies! Body Benefits, Musical Musings

Pedal Laughing – I really want to hear those laughing muscles. Let’s lay on our backs and get those feet in the air. As we pedal be sure to laugh in any way that feels comfortable to you. Can you laugh real low? How about nice and high? Do we have tenors? Sopranos? Altos? Can we laugh an orchestra of music? Musical Musings

Monkey See, Monkey Hear, Monkey Speak – Sit on your heels with your legs crossed. Close off your ears with your thumbs, close your eyes with your pointer fingers and close your mouth with your other fingers. Really press your thumbs into your ears so you can hear the sibilant internal sounds of your breath. Experience sensory withdrawal. Quiet Quests

Elephant Ears – Let us begin our listening activity by massaging our beautiful ears. Take note of the folds, soft parts, harder parts of the ear. We have tiny bones in our ears called ossicles. Awesome Anatomy

Whisper in My Ear – Give the kids directions to play telephone by whispering in each other’s ear. Do your best to listen because there are no operators in this special game of telephone. Examples: “Stand like a tree and bark like a dog.” “Fly like a flamingo and moo like a cow.” “Crawl like an inchworm and breath like a chimp.” “Walk like a dog and hoot like an owl.” Laughing Language

Open up a discussion of our “gut feeling.” This is what we call our intuition, and our third eye. Have you ever had a good feeling about something or someone? How about a bad feeling?

QUIET QUESTS

Use eye bags that are scented with lavender and sweet orange. While in Savasana, lead the kids through a visualization/meditation where they will cross their senses to open up for a synesthesia activity at the end.

Let’s concentrate on our breathing for the moment. Inhale filling your lungs so that that are as light as a balloon sailing through the bright blue sky. Exhale as you let all your worries come out of you through your breath. Let those icky feelings and worries come like the hot air and watch all those worries blow away with the wind.

Continue with Exercise 4: Crossing Senses (taken from Spinning Inward)

Lie down or sit in a position that you can maintain for a while. Close your eyes and focus your attention on your breath. Breath in… and… out… in… and… out… as your body becomes more and more relaxed. In a moment, you will hear some music {Spring from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons} and you will listen to the music with your toes as you actually breath the music through your toes. Now you breath the music in through your fingertips. Feel the music with your eyes, nose, and mouth…and now feel it with every hair on your body. (Pause 1 minute) 

And now you begin to experience the taste of the music, soft and gentle on your tongue. You smell the music, and before you beautiful colors and images of this music unfold. (Pause) You find yourself skiing down a long, snowy slope to the music and you feel the sound of the snow. (Pause) Imagine yourself dancing to the sounds of soft blue velvet and smell the aroma of an ice cube. Taste a daisy and see the texture of coarse sandpaper. You move gracefully through strawberry jello and tiptoe through honey. You hear a gooey roasted marshmallow and taste the lowest note on the tuba. Feel the sound of children’s laughter and hear the touch of a kitten’s fur. You taste your favorite treat and spend a minute of clock time equal to all of the time you need smelling, tasting, hearing, moving, and seeing the images of a favorite time in your life. Begin. (After a minute)

It is now time to bring yourself back to full waking consciousness. Become very aware of your body as I count from one to ten. Please join me in counting aloud at the count of six, opening your eyes at ten. You will feel alert and be more conscious of your senses.

VISUAL VIGNETTES

The children will use their journals or speak out loud to discuss the things that they saw, smelled, touched, tasted, and heard.

CLOSING

After we sing the Namaste Song together, I will bring out the fresh fruits of bananas and kiat kiat (clementines) for us to share and taste together.

Namaste Song

by Carolyn Tracy Clark

MATERIALS

• Music player and prepared music
• Affirmation cards
• Tissue
• Lavender oil

SHORT DESCRIPTION/TOPIC

Today, we’re going to focus on our senses. We will keep our eyes closed (cutting off our sense of sight) to help us “feel” (the touch sense). We’ll smell some lavender oil (using our sense of smell) and also we’ll do some quiet listening (using our sense of hearing) which is super cool!

CONNECTING CIRCLE

Sit in a circle, have each child read an affirmation card (such as Manifest your Magnificence). Go over a few key points of yoga (yoga ingredients). Look each child in the eye and clearly, enthusiastically express how glad you are that they are in class! Play relaxing music (Andalu by Chris Spheeris). RCAWY, Affirmation, Musical Musings

POSES AS PATHWAYS/INTEGRATE THE ELEMENTS

In the below series of warm up poses, ask the children to close their eyes and focus on how each pose feels. Stay focused on their breath. Affirm them while they are in each pose. “Feel” the various muscles, and “feel” the ease within the body. Play soft music. Affirmation, Musical Musings

Neck Rolls

Align my Joints

Opening my Wings

Pelvic Bowling

Moo and Meow

Down Diggity Doggie Down

S is for Snake – Have the children close their eyes so they won’t be able to look around the room, just listen. Have the children notice their lungs filling up with oxygen, and then releasing. Share these fun facts about snakes. Ecological Echoes

• Snakes smell with their tongue (stick your tongue out)
• Snakes don’t have eyelids.
• Snakes can’t bite food so have to swallow it whole. (Open your jaw wide.)
• Snakes have flexible jaws which allow them to eat prey bigger than their head!
• Snakes have internal ears but not external ones. (Listen closely. What sounds do you hear in the room?)

Child’s Pose  – Slow down the breath. Open the legs and let the chest and belly fall to the ground. Quiet Quest

Warrior Series with Affirmations – Play Jennifer Lopez’s On the Floor or other upbeat music. “I am strong, I am bold, my own power I can hold!” The tongue is the strongest muscle in the body. Bone can be stronger than steel. Awesome Anatomy, Affirmations, Musical Musings

Freeze and Flow Anatomy – Teach basic anatomy while playing the game. Hold a pose, and ask the children to touch their femur, or cranium. Mix it up and ask them to touch two phalanges together in Tree, or two talus (ankle bones) in Row Row Row your Boat. Musical Musings, Awesome Anatomy, We All Win

Pigeon Series – This series stretches thighs, groin, abdomen, chest, shoulders and neck and hips. Ask the students how they feel, are muscles tight? Come out of the pose and ask them to reflect on how they feel after the pose. Body Benefits

Twist and Blow – Ask the children to use their sense of feel during the pose. This pose stretches the spine, shoulders and hips. It also massages the abdominal organs and improves digestion. Body Benefits

QUIET QUESTS

Swim Ducky Swim – Have the children experience different sensations during Savasana.

• Touch (Place hands on belly, focus on the inhale and exhale)
• Hearing (Play different sounds and have the children determine what each sound is silently. If you have sounds app or cd, use that or use live sounds like a chime, tongue clicking, or a door opening and closing.)
• Smell (Lay a piece of tissue soaked in lavender oil on the students upper chest.)

CLOSING CIRCLE

Fountain of Oms

 

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