We lost our Yoga instructor last month, and rather than cancel the events or try to hire someone, I decided to try yoga and play storytime. This morning we had four kids and four adults all participating in the yoga stories, games, songs, and cards, helping each other playfully try to stretch and move our bodies.
Our First book was Good Morning Yoga by Mariam Gates, and was a great way to get loose and moving. We went right into The Yoga Game by the Sea by Kathy Beliveau. While it was challenging to try to hold the book and try the pose, the small group made it work, and we all took turns trying a pose and showing others how to do it.
We then each took a card from the yoga deck I have and tried to illustrate the pose to the group.
We were flexible and ready to move using Steve Jenkins and Robin Page's Book MOVE! Which was a fun way to run around and pretend to be animals.
Then I pulled out the parachute. The secret to the parachute is that you can do the song "Parachute Up" 10 times and the kids will ask for it again.
"Parachute Up, Parachute Down, Parachute dancing all around the town. Shake it at your shoulders, shake it at your head, shake it at your knees, then tuck right into bed!"
We also did "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"
Finally we did "Popcorn, popcorn sizzling in a pan. Shake it up, Shake it up, and POP it if you can" The kids hung out underneath and loved to have the parachute lift high for the POP!
We then brought our energy down by using the parachute to calmly lift and fall with our breaths.
For our final calming down we used some breathing and mindfulness exercise cards from my Yoga Pretzels Deck.
We also read some short selections from this beautiful book of mindfulness poems. Breathe and Be by Kate Coombs. This is the book that a parent loved so much, she took home to help her wiggly four year old work to practice quieting down.
The caregivers were very enthusiastic about the program and we talked a little bit about how the books I used were available to check out and that you (and I) do not have to be a professional to engage kids in exercise and play like this. Another thing I liked about using this format for storytime is that I was able to talk about the early literacy tools of moving bodies being important for calming down and a bit about the research that shows that exercises and stretches that cross the mid-line of the body help engage a kid's brains for reading, math, and other concept work. Also, I loved this program because my endorphins are flowing and I got a fun 40 min workout in the beginning of my work day.
