THE YOGA PROJECT Alderwood House School, London Road campus

THE YOGA PROJECT 2016/2017

Lead Teacher - Nicola Thompson Teachers - Melina Ericastilla & Pat McKay Pedagogical Coordination - Pamela Wallberg Photographer - Helene Cyr

Children - Aiden Auston Alexander Alex Erin Evan Hugh Jasper Kazja Kieran Lila Molly Noelle Tommy

Yoga is a therapeutic discipline that has been around for thousands of years. Adults crave the relaxing benefits of a yoga practice and as we’ve found in our classroom, children do too.

Our journey with yoga in our classroom began when we used yoga as a tool to explore feelings of calm, serene and mellow in our social emotional curriculum. It was then complemented through the MindUp program. Both of these studies - mindfulness as well as building an emotional literacy vocabulary - require children to understand how their body can be calmed and how different emotional states feel, kinaesthetically. Yoga offers one way to explore this - from powerful poses to sleepy ones, children are able to focus in on their body, breath and feelings, exploring how to calm their body, but also building kinaesthetic confidence and control.

The yoga picture books we used at group time became popular play tools as the children led each other in yoga poses during free play. This illustrates the connection the children had with the physical practice of yoga. Often the provocations offered by the teachers - in this instance, yoga poses - will surface in children’s free play. As children explore the different learning concepts in multiple contexts (direct instruction at group time; through art media; through dramatic play and so forth), this solidifies the learning. When one student Thomas suggested, “we should make our own yoga book”, a deeper and long-term exploration of yoga began.

What makes yoga so appealing to the children?

First, the gross motor movement of poses allows the children to use their bodies in new and different ways. The children build body awareness when they move their arms and legs, trying to hold their balance. With a steady practice over time the children saw how their wobbly legs became stronger and their balance more stable.

Yoga creates an opportunity for low-energy, pleasant feelings. When asked to share about their yoga experience, the children describe themselves feeling calm and happy. The pure bodies of children quickly feel the relaxing benefits of yoga. Being able to control our feelings through breathing is a powerful tool that will help the children navigate the complex social world we live in. So often with young children, the focus is on the next “exciting” thing - the new game, the birthday party, the play date. Even young children’s play can tend towards high-energy, physical play. Children’s spaces are often designed for high-energy play…and so the idea of designing space and time for children to come together, socially, for calm and physical play can be a novel one. Yet, children have the right to live and experience with all of the emotions - including low-energy, positive ones.

This study allowed an opportunity for children to begin to understand their body as a tool that they can control. Our MindUp program introduces the parts of the brain and how they affect our behaviour; it also introduces the idea of a calming breath. Our yoga study extended this idea - not only of our breathing and how we can change our breathing to change our energies, but how our body parts and poses will also affect and change energy. As children can connect the physical and emotional feelings that result from kinaesthetic movements, they begin to develop confidence in / understanding of how they can control their bodies and feelings.

The completion of our yoga book is not the end of our yoga practice. Instead it is part of a life long journey of self-awareness through a mind-body connection.

BUTTERFLY

It's a butterfly! Our legs go together and our hands go together. I feel calm. - Lila 

Butterfly pose because your feet are making butterfly wings. You are sitting, put your feet together and your knees are wings. Your hands go on your feet. It makes you feel calm. - Erin

LADYBUG

Hands are heart centre and candle pose. Then squat on a leaf.  It is strong and balance. - Molly

BEE

The bee. I love the buzzzz. You sit down and the head goes down. The knees is bent. I love this posture. - Jasper 

Start by sitting, put your head on the floor and arms back. It makes you feel happy. - Alexander

TREE

You are standing. Then we have to put your foot on your legs. Then your hands go together. Then you take deep breathes and close your eyes.  It makes me feel shy because sometimes I feel shy when I balance.  - Stella

BIRD

Eagle pose, because it's like a bird. Stand up straight and bend forward, putting your arms out and leg out

It makes me feel happy, because it stretches my leg. - Logan

CLOUD

Hands go up. Feet are down and knees go up and down. - Hugh

MOON

A moon posture because it's a moon. A crescent moon. You go sideways and the other sideways. Your feet stand still. Makes you feel good like a moon. It's yummy because it's made of cheese, but really it's made of rock and soil. - Noelle

BRIDGE

Start standing and then lie down on the floor. Lying down nicely and comfy. Put my legs up like a bridge. Arms are on the ground. You feel good in this pose. - Aiden

BOAT

You are sitting on the ground. Your clothes might get wet if you are sitting on the ground. Put one toes with your friends toes and out the other toes with your friends toes. Then you hold hands together. - Lila

BALANCING TABLE

You are on the ground. One leg is straight and one is bending on the ground. One arm is straight down and one is straight up.  Body feels good. - Alex

Start standing up, then on the ground. Legs are bending and hands are straight. - Stanley

Sitting down, then put your leg up and then put hand down and other hand up. Your head is going straight. It makes you feel feel good and comfortable. - Aiden

SKI POSE

This is Snowman Pose. Start standing, put your head forward. Bend your legs, your hands are reaching your back.  You feel happy in this pose.  - Alexander

LIGHTNING

You are standing and your hands are up. And then you bend your legs. Your head is looking up.  This posture makes you feel like you are almost sitting. - Logan

VOLCANO

First I stand on my feet and I put my hands over my head. My body is still. It makes my blood go down better. It makes my blood go faster. - Kieran

Feet stay on the ground –Lila

It looks like a volcano –Erin

It calms my body down –Kieran

It makes me happy –Lila

Our legs are standing and you get your hand together like you’re clapping. But you are not clapping –Stella

You hands go over your head –Molly

STAR

Star pose, because there are stars and you make a star. It's really easy because you out your hands apart. Then your feet are apart, nailed to the ground.  It's feels good because your legs are stretched apart.  - Tommy

TWISTING

Wiggle Posture! You twist and wiggle your body. Your feet move side to side. Your arms are twisting.  It makes you feel good because it's relaxing.  - Noelle

You’re twisting your arms sideways –Molly

Side to Side –Hugh

Be careful if you are in a small space. You might crash –Stella

Only wiggle your body –Hugh

It’s wiggling but not playing –Erin

Feet stay still –Jasper

Toes together –Hugh

You turn your hands so each hand gets a turn –Kieran

FORWARD BEND

Gentle pose. Put your head down and your hands down, feet on the ground and you are curved and eyes closed. - Molly

Very tricky, you can’t bend your knees –Stanley

I can’t touch my toes without bending my knees –Thomas

You stand up and put your hands up in the air. Then you go down –Logan

Your head bends down –Molly

Your head feels heavy –Erin

DOWNWARD DOG

I like it because it's like a dog, and how you have your body in it. You bend over with with head on the ground and hands on the ground and feet on the ground. This posture makes me feel like a dog. Like woof, that's how I feel.  - Tommy You bend down and put your legs back a bit –Molly Hands down –Stanley Far apart –Logan Your feet have to be straight and flat –Thomas It’s a triangle – Stanley

CALM BREATHING You put your fingers together - Logan

You close your eyes - Alexander 

You can calm your body - Hugh

You keep your hand open - Alex

You sit cross cross apple sauce or on your knees - Molly

Mudras are the starting points of energy flowing through our body, like the beginning of an electrical circuit. Each finger is associated with an different energy in our body. The children squeezed each finger and reflected on what they noticed:

Turns a different colour -Logan Feels so ouchy and squishy -Jasper  You pinch them and you feel happy -Alexander It feels like my fingers are going to fall off -Logan Thumb is hotter and this one isn't. Maybe there is more blood in it -Thomas It's burning -jasper There is less blood in our index finger -Alexander  It's hot -Evan  It's squishy -Stanley It's very hot -Molly I think middle finger has more blood than index finger -Thomas  The pinky, It hurts the least -Logan It's the least blood -Jasper It's really hot when squeeze it -Thomas

MUDRAS

My thumb feels Like a lava snake - Logan My feels like the ocean - Thomas The ocean is like water - Molly And the sea - Stanley  Earth makes me think of trees - Erin

The different sensations in each finger are associated with different elements. The elements are symbols to help the children remember the different energies in each finger.

The thumb is fire, the index finger is air, the middle finger is space, the ring finger is earth and pinky finger is water.