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.

Instructions

1. Begin in All Fours Pose. Line up your wrists under your shoulders. Spread your fingers wide and arch your spine to the sky.
2. Loosen your neck and drop your head down. Breathe out long as you meow.
3. Now lift your chest forward and look up with big cow eyes. Dip your belly down and tilt your sitting bones up. Your back will sink down like a cow’s. Make cow lips and moo deeply from the back of your throat.
4. Go back and forth, meowing and mooing.

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 Medley
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.

Have you heard the expression, ‘as sharp as an eagle’s eye’? An eagle can see fish moving in the water from hundreds of feet in the air, as well as rabbits running almost a mile away. Their aerodynamically perfect wings contain about 7,000 feathers. They can gracefully glide great distances without flapping them.

Instructions

1. Stand in mountain.
2. Stretch your arms out to the side.
3. Exhale. Make an X crossing the arms above the elbows and give yourself a hug. Entwine them around each other.
4. Press the palms together in Namaste or interlace your fingers. Lift the arms.
5. Bend your knees. Cross one leg over the thigh and wrap it behind the calf.
6. Ground and perch with your lower body. Ascend and fly with your upper body.

Doesn’t this standing twist feel eagle-riffic!? Unwind. Wrap it up on the other side.

Notes for Parents and Teachers

The wrapping of the arms is a great stretch for the upper back and shoulders, as well as the fingers and wrist joints. If you or your child spend a considerable amount of time at the computer, take regular 1/2 eagle breaks sitting at your desk. Stand up now and then and do the full eagle too. It will energize your legs and invigorate your lower back, too.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Ecological Echoes

The use of DDT, a deadly pesticide, which is still being used today in many parts of the world, almost wiped out the eagle, our symbol of freedom. As Chief Seattle said, “We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us.” When we use chemicals on our grass or in our soil, they eventually come full circle. Teach your YogaKids to respect the earth and all of the flora and fauna that we share this planet with.

Laughing Language

Can you find words within the word eagle? Here are a few to get you started; leg, eel, age. Keep looking with your eagle eyes.

Brain Balance

The combination of the twisting and entwining in this pose invigorates the brain. It increases the flow of oxygen to make you alert and smart.

A camel has two humps, and a dromedary, a type of camel, has only one. Both store fat (not water) in their humps.

Instructions

1. Kneel on the floor with your legs and knees hip width apart.
2. Press the tops of your feet into the floor, push the thighs forward, bring the hands to the lower back with fingers pointing upward and lift the chest.
3. Breathe evenly in and out, as you extend the ribcage and broaden your chest.
4. Continue to lift your chest with each breath as you curl your toes forward and bring your hands to the heels to imitate the camel’s hump. The head can come back (as shown) or tuck into the chest.
5. Delight in the dromedary for ten seconds.
6. Rest in the child’s pose after each of these backbends.
7. Repeat.

Increase the times and repetitions as your spine and chest continue to become more flexible.

Note to Parents and Teachers

This pose strengthens the back and kidneys. Because of its chest opening ability, it can increase lung capacity and can be especially beneficial for children with asthma. It also helps the posture of those with drooping shoulders and rounded backs.

Activity Ideas for Home and Classroom

Ecological Echoes

Camels and dromedaries avoid trotting and galloping whenever possible in order to save water and energy. They can survive for months without water and can drink up to 35 gallons of water at a time.

Awesome Anatomy

Lift your chest, by letting the arch of your spine and your back ribs support you. Imagine your back ribs as lounge chairs for your lungs. Let your lungs expand and rest on these slatted chairs. Feel how much your lungs can expand when you breathe fully.

The lungs are light and spongy and are filled with millions of air channels which provide an enormous surface to absorb oxygen. If your lungs were flattened out, they’d make a slippery surface the size of a tennis court!*

* The Children’s Atlas of the Human Body by Richard Walker, The Millbrook Press Inc., 1994, Pg. 24

Dogs have been our best friends for over 12,000 years. They frequently roam in packs, just like many kids and teens like to do. This is a tough pose but it will make you feel “down-diggety-doggy” good!

Instructions

1. Begin on your hands and knees in all fours.
2. Bend your toes forward.
3. Spread your fingers wide.
4. Press your doggy paws and heels downward, as you lift your hips and tail to the sky.
5. Lengthen your spine. Stretch your arms and legs as long as possible.
6. Release your neck and head down. Growl, yawn, bark and make other doggy sounds.

To Make the Dog go Pee-Pee

Bend your knee and rotate your belly and chest upward. Raise one leg up and ‘mark your territory’ just like dogs do. Keep your hands pressing downward and your arms straight. Dogs leave their scent so other animals know they´ve been there. Lift your opposite leg too.

Note to Parents and Teachers

Take turns walking the dog. Children love to “walk their parents” and give them instructions too. This role reversal is very empowering and fun for the kids. Grab a hold of the back of their shirt like you´re holding a leash. Lead them around. Give them directions; slower, faster, turn around, sit, stay, roll over. Let your doggy rest after the walk. Have her lie on her back with her arms and legs in the air. Scratch her behind her ears. Scratch her belly too. Give her a bone and a kiss on her nose before she rolls over and stretches back into Down Diggety Doggy Down.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Body Benefits
This pose strengthens the legs and arms as well as relieves stiffness in the shoulders. With regular practice, Down Dog can also help correct curvature of the spine such as scoliosis.

Math Medley/Musical Musings/We All Win
Play the Canine Calling game. One child creates a pattern of growls, barks and other doglike sounds. The other child repeats it, and adds more sounds. Go back and forth. Have fun with your whole family.

Awesome Anatomy
This pose works the muscles of the legs; ankles, calves and hamstrings. When you first do this pose, your leg muscles might feel really tight, but with time and practice they will grow stronger and more elastic.

Character Education
Dogs that are treated well have great loyalty to their owners. What does it mean to be loyal? What are some of the ways children can take care of their dogs? Grooming, feeding, loving…..what else can you do to keep your pet safe and happy?