Namaste to you, Om!

This week's Yoga-Snack was a birthday celebration! We started with a recreation of the standard birthday song, by changing the lyrics to:
Namaste to you, Om!
Namaste to you, Om!
Namaste to you, dear (name)!
Namaste to you, Om… namo guru dev namo!

The kids got a great kick out of that and I hear they sang it all day!

We then moved onto a special yoga class where we took a trip to the circus. No, I do not mean that we actually went to the circus, instead we based the whole class on things we see and do at the circus (main ingredients: kids and fun!).

We started by taking three large Balloon Breaths because what is a day at the circus without a balloon? We rode our Bumpy Camel, Washing Machine became the ride “The Whip” and as we turned side to side we called out “Whish” “Whoosh”; Dryer became the “Ferris Wheel” which we rode both forwards and back. Pretending to be in a Moonwalk, we did a series of Frog Push-Ups.

All warmed up and ready to go, we saw our first animal, the Elephant. With our legs wide, we clasped our hands and swung our trunks up and down and side to side, trying our hardest to sound like elephants. Bear walk ( one day I did this as an active pose, but I realized the classroom is not geared for the space, so the next day we did this on our backs, walking in the air; remember to walk with opposite hand and leg moving at the same time. If you do this with children with sensory disorders, then have them actually touch their leg with their hand). Sitting on our feet, toes in, heels out, we leaned back and did Camel and then leaned forward, grabbed our knees with our hands, straightened up our shoulders and did Lion’s Breath with some big roars. With the older kids, we also did Crane, or as we called it, Balancing On The HighWire!

Send in the clowns to add a little Laughing Yoga to our meditation; we did my modified version of “I am happy, I am good” (see entry on Saturday January 30, 2010 entitled “Morning Meditation”). The kids loved it! I call it "I Am Ha-Ha He-He Ho-Ho Hu!"

We slipped “Happy Jio” in here. Kids just wanted to get up and dance.

For our Deep Relaxation, I had the kids lie in Savasana and imagine a birthday candle in front of them. To slow down their breathing, I told them too imagine that as they breath in gently, the flame pulls toward them a bit and then as they breath out gently too, the flame moves away, but that they must remember to breath gently so as not to blow out the candle. On our final breath, I had them think of something that they are thankful for in their lives and with one final blow, out goes the candle.

Namaste to you, Om!