This school year is still up in the air for many teachers in the U.S. They aren’t sure if they are teaching remotely, in the classroom or even a hybrid situation. As the COVID variant continues to wreak havoc on, well, pretty much everything, there are a few suggestions I can offer for teaching preschool and kindergarten.
Regardless of your teaching situation, it’s very likely to change in some way at some point as we take this adventure together (trying to stay positive — is it working?). Teaching younger children has its own challenges when things are going smoothly, so to throw in a pandemic just adds another unpredictable element.
Never fear, my teacher friends. I am here for you. No, seriously, I am. Yes, I’m a yoga teacher. Yes, I sell a curriculum that I developed. All that being said, here is my solution: Yoga. SURPRISE!!!! Right?!?!?!?!
Jokes aside (hopefully you’re laughing along with me) yoga can help you this year — and every year. Let’s start with yoga in general and move on from there. Yoga has so many benefits for children. We know this. Studies show this. It can help to calm, focus, and even re-energize if need be. It’s good for the body, the mind and the spirit. Yoga can be a wonderful tool to accompany an existing lesson plan, or you can even center lesson plans and daily schedule around yoga.
“Yoga improves balance, strength, endurance, and aerobic capacity in children. Yoga and mindfulness offer psychological benefits for children as well. A growing body of research has already shown that yoga can improve focus, memory, self-esteem, academic performance, and classroom behavior, and can even reduce anxiety and stress in children.”
Marlynn Wei, MD, 2016
Teaching In-Person?
Okay. So you’re teaching in-person. For now. Where do I start with the stress and anxiety? For you, the children, their families, and on and on. Many children will be going back to school after a year of at-home learning. You don’t know what to expect and they don’t either. Yoga can be an ice-breaker right off the bat. Use it for a first activity, to get everyone in the frame of mind to learn. Use it as part of your routine, something they can look forward to and count on.
I encourage you to do yoga with your students. Sure you can pull up a video and let the children follow along with the video, but it’s not the same unless you are participating with them. Talk to them about how yoga can help YOU and also can help THEM. If you’ve never practiced yoga before, no big deal. It’s not. Not flexible? Not an issue. The point is you are asking the same from your students. Use it to bond with your students — a learning experience you are tackling together. If you have practiced yoga before, then you know. You know how it helps you, how it makes you feel. Share that experience with them.
You can also use yoga for brain breaks throughout the day, when children are anxious, tired, restless, or just need a little movement in order to be able to plow through the rest of the day. Mask breaks are also a great time to do some simple yoga poses outdoors while social distancing.
Teaching Remotely?
For those of you who might be teaching remotely, it’s a challenge. Even more of a challenge if you are trying to teach younger children. It’s so much more difficult to keep little friends engaged if they aren’t right there with you. There are possibly distractions going on around them, which makes it even more difficult.
Yoga and movement can be a way to get children to engage remotely. You can use that as a warm-up to class, as a way to transition into the “meat” of your class. Or use yoga as a break if you’ve been on one topic or activity for awhile. One of the best ways to incorporate yoga when you are teaching remotely is to use it along with or as your lesson plan.
There are a crazy amount of options available to you — there are free yoga pose cards, yoga pose cards that go with the exact theme you are teaching, and maybe even some you haven’t even thought of before! New lesson plans! Woohoo!
When COVID hit and everything shut down, I found that quite a few occupational therapists and physical therapists were using my yoga cards for teletherapy. The positive feedback was awesome! Using the yoga pose cards helped them to connect with their clients when they couldn’t do in-person therapy. Teachers enjoyed having the yoga cards to use remotely because not only did the children love it, but often times parents and siblings would participate too!
“I have become such a HUGE fan of using your yoga bundles with my preschoolers with special needs, especially during distance learning! I’ve had siblings want to join in during our Yoga zoom calls! Amazing resource!” — Lisa C.
Regardless of how and where you end up teaching this school year, I encourage you to try to use yoga with your students. It can be a constant for the children that can teach not just whatever theme or skill you are teaching, but also can teach children coping and calming skills that can benefit them for the rest of their lives.
Be sure to check out our Yogalore product lines on TeachersPayTeachers!
