Yoga with 3 year olds? Is that even a thing you ask?
Yes, yes it is and when enthusiastically engaged they absolutely love it.
So what does a yoga class look like with 3 year olds? Firstly, for me they are only 20-30min MAX long!
This is important as it is a developmentally appropriate time to expect them to remain focused and engaged.
Keep it fun, resources are great, songs are great, games are great and yoga stories work especially well with this age group! Keep it fast moving based on attention levels gaged throughout the lesson.
So let's actually get into the nitty gritty of how to break down a lesson, what specific songs, games, yoga stories are my favourite and what resources are great for this age group.
Lesson Break Down.....
✨ Introduction - welcome the children, make sure they know your name and some basic expectations. I always introduce the children to a "listening pose" I blend it in like it's a yoga pose when really it is a reset pose that I use to gain their calm and attention if I feel the kids are becoming distracted or getting a little loud. My listening pose is simply sitting cross legged with hands resting palms up on the tops of the legs.
✨Breath work - There are a great range of fun breathing techniques for kids, all of which are attached to fun visual ideas such as bubble breathing, rainbow breathing, butterfly breathing. To find some great resources just head to Pinterest and add in "kids breathing exercises" for a great list of ideas. With this age group I will normally run the same breathing exercise at the beginning for 3 weeks before changing it.
✨Affirmation Cards - I am such a fan of affirmation cards with kids that I have made my very own cards, go to my Etsy account to download your very own copy! I use these every lesson, children take turns to draw a card and we read it and repeat it together. I read the fine print with them to further reinforce its value and then I elaborate further on what it means using age appropriate language (keep it simple!) Hot tip: with little ones I always use a range of words to describe something, for example if I say "I am unique" I will follow up by saying unique means you are one of a kind, you are special, there is only one of you!
✨Introduce Asanas/Poses - Use a great set of yoga cards (I will list my favourite below) to show and demonstrate several yoga poses that are your focus for the lesson. Use the exact same ones that you will do in the next section (games, songs, stories section).
✨Games, songs or stories - This is the really fun part! Time to do either a short yoga game, yoga song or yoga story which reaffirms the yoga poses that that you have just taught and gives the children an opportunity to practise those poses. See my other blog post on my favourite games, songs and stories for 3 year olds.
✨Wind down - By now you will be running out of time a bit depending on how everything has unfolded. I will normally finish with a few wind down type poses and stretches such as butterfly with arms stretching over each side and in front, I say silly things like "let's smell our dirty feet", anything fun and silly the kids always love. Then I finish off with my favourite part.....laying down in savasana time for a visualisation story.
✨Savasana - Once the children are in this pose I then place gently on their tummies a little beanie bean who also stays in savasana. I remind the children to stay still in this pose and not to touch the beanie bear until the end when they can sit up, have a look and give a cuddle to their beanie bear. I then read a visualisation story from my favourite book, which I will list below in the resources section. After this I sit the kids up and we finish with some praise for how well they did, we thank each other, I share some words of wisdom for the day and their favourite part, some stickers.
My favourite yoga resources;
✨ Mindful and Co. Kids yoga cards.
✨ Lil Eve Positive Affirmation Cards for Kids
✨ Relax Kids - The Wishing Star
52 Meditations for Children
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