Free Children’s Yoga Lesson Plan: Reading Our Bodies (Ages 5-10)
This lesson plan for ages 5-10 focuses on the principle of svadhyaya (self-study) by equipping children to turn their focus inward and decode the body’s cues. Direct instruction is in grey; instructions for the teacher are in blue.
THEME: Reading Our Bodies (Svadhyaya; self-study)
AGES: 5-10; can be modified for early childhood or adolescence
MATERIALS: Mats optional
DURATION: 60 min
THEME SETTING (5 Min): Out bodies teach us lessons all the time, but it can be hard to notice. Here is an example: One time I touched a hot stove and I got a burn. What do you think I learned? Cue students to think-pair-share. That’s right, my body taught me that the stove is too hot to touch. Today we will learn to read our bodies just like we read books. We will decode messages in our bodies to make meaning of what our bodies are trying to tell us.
WARM UPS (10 Min): Choose a posture (not an asana, but rather a natural bodily stance) that is common in each season in the climate where you live. Don’t tell kids that you are doing seasonal postures — they will decode the postures later on. Here is an example of WINTER in Minneapolis:
Pull your shoulders up to your ears, tight and close. Wrap your arms across your body and hug them tight. Look down at the floor and bend your spine forward like you got punched in the belly. Now stomp with heavy feet and knees lifted high. Stomp stomp stomp!
Repeat with spring, summer, and fall.
REFLECTION (5 Min): Let’s come back into our first pose. Cue the posture one more time, then bring kids to a seat. Lead them through the following series of questions, using think-pair-share.
What did this feel like in your body?
What did you imagine or see in your mind?
What was your body telling you in the pose?
When do you hold and move your body like this?
Repeat with spring, summer, and fall. Allow all answers and encourage discussion. Guide them toward the connection that each pose represented a season.
BREATHWORK (5 Min): Our breath is part of our bodies. When we hold our bodies in hunched and scrunched ways, it makes our breathing shallow. Let’s practice that. Guide students into “winter” pose. Have them breathe and notice how restricted they are. Now, release yours arms — let them dangle loose. Lengthen your back, standing tall and proud on feet rooted firmly in the snow. Roll out your neck, loosening your imaginary scarf. Last, shine your heart forward so it can catch the sun. Now breathe. Imagine breathing so fully and deeply you can see your breath on the cold winter air!
Repeat with spring, summer, and fall.
Discuss: What pose did you have to change the most in order to breathe? Which pose did you change the least? What does this teach you about your body? Think-pair-share.
NIYAMA GAME (10 Min): Out faces also have messages that can be decoded! Let’s play a game to decode facial expressions. By learning how to recognize and name our feelings, we are empowered to speak up for exactly what we need.
Sit in a circle, knee to knee.
Model by example: Make your biggest smile and ask the student to your right or left to "pass" it around the circle by making the same facial expression.
Once your facial expression has made its way around the circle, pause momentarily to discuss the feeling attached to the expression, i.e. "When you make this face [model it], how do you feel?"
Keep moving around the circle, allowing each student to pass an expression. To encourage active listening and participation, set the expectation that there will be no repeated expression (this may not be possible in larger groups, so you may have two smaller groups or allow repeats.)
Older students: Give the students a scenario and then ask one student to create a facial expression based on the way she would feel in this given situation. Everyone in the circle tries to mimic the people before them. Last person can guess the word that the first student felt. Alternatively, you may let the students create scenarios and have each person in the circle make a facial expression and explain why that expression expressed her emotions toward the scenario.
ASANA FLOW + MEDITATION (15 Min): Let’s connect what we’ve learned to movement. Cue students through the flow, noticing and naming how each movement connects with different bodily sensations. Notice and name the facial expressions you see to help kids connect.
Virasana (kneeling) + neck rolls, sidebends and spinal twists
Balasana (child’s pose)
Tabletop to Cat/Cow with opposite leg/arm extensions
Tabletop to Gate (repeat on both sides, connect the breath)
Downward-facing dog to Sun Salutation A (half or full) x 2
Warrior Series (right side): Anjaneyasana (high lunge)
Virabhadrasana II (Warrior II)
Viparita Virabhadrasana (Reverse/Humble Warrior)
Anjaneyasana (high lunge) step back to Downward-facing Dog
Repeat Warrior Series on left side
Downward-facing dog to extended child’s pose (arms reaching forward)
Return to restful position (back, body or side)
Cue deep breaths and close with meditation: Your body speaks to you all the time. If your body feels busy right now, talk to it with your mind — ask it to settle. When your body has come to stillness, tune in. Listen. Breathe deeply and hear your body talk. What is it trying to say?
Give kids a few moments to tune in. Guide them out and invite a few students to share what they heard in a whisper voice. Remind them: You can return to this conversation (with your body) any time by slowing down and tuning in. Your body is always ready to talk.