This week our story cafe was all about Yoga and Mindfulness. Twelve families and their children came along, to join in with the fun.
We start by singing the listening song - tune of Frere Jacque "Eyes are watching, ears are listening, lips are closed, hands are still, feet are very quiet, you should really try it, listening well, listening well." We take off our shoes and socks so we can feel the earth beneath our feet and help us to balance.
Then we have a little introduction to yoga and mindfulness - what is it and why? Here's what we learnt-
WHAT?
- Gentle movement exercise
- Nurtures a strong healthy body
- A calm contented mind
- And inner peace
- Lots of the poses (asana) are based on animals which the original yogis thousands
- of years ago observed and imitated
- The breath (pranayama) is a bridge from the body to the mind
- The simplest mindfulness is simply to focus on the breath
WHY?
- Strengthening and stretching our muscles
- Increasing our circulation
- Increasing our energy levels
- Producing feel-good hormones called endorphins
AND it’s good for our minds too
- Helping us to concentrate
- Focusing our minds
- Calming us
Peace Breathing - next we do some simple peace breathing. Sit cross legged, put hands either on knees or in prayer position. Breathe in deeply. On breathing out, whisper "Peace....."
Warming up - then we do some gentle warming up - make circles with our wrists, we make circles with our ankles and we make big slow circles with our heads. Now we are all warmed up and ready for some yoga stories.
Yoga Babies by Fearne Cotton - this is is a lovely rhyming story about lots of different children doing lots of different yoga poses. So we do butterfly pose, downward dog, cat pose, tree pose and lots more.
The Purrfect Pawse by Avril McDonald and Tatiana Minina - this picture book is divided into 2 stories, the first is a sun salutation (a sequence of poses that give thanks to the sun) in pictures. So we read this, look at the pictures and flow through the sun salutation.
Making something to take home - we have a break from the yoga to make some cards to take home with pictures of the yoga poses on them, stuck onto some card, and put into a little envelope. Then we have another little break for some refreshments.
More yoga and mindfulness... we come back to the carpet, sing the listening song again, and then all lie down flat on our backs with our eyes closed. The second story in "The Purrfect Pawse" is a really short, simple meditation for very young children. , called "Stars in the night". The children listen as I read the story, quietly breathing and lying still.
Everyone gets to take home a certificate and a book.
The we blow some bubbles while the children pop them, and the parents fill in the evaluation.
More yoga stories - here's what I also got from the library...
Links to the EYFS
Yoga and mindfulness obviously link here to physical development as we learn to move our bodies. But it is much more than that too.
link to early years outcomes document here
Other resources
Cosmic kids yoga on You Tube here
Mindfulness from zero to three here
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