Pillows and waterfalls

Today we had many requests for specific poses! Pillows, waterfall and lotus flower were all requested and done today. Svasana was a little noisy at first, but I began a visualization of us all riding on a puffy cloud down the channel, picking up speed as our cloud changed colors. Then the cloud landed on top of the Mendenhall glacier and we all slid down the glacier like it was a big slide - going so fast that we were catapulted to the school and flew in through an open window where we landed on our yoga mats. It was fun!

Waterfall and headstands - the favorites

This day we tried to do child's pose and deepen the stretch with a partner laying on their back like waterfall. The boys ended up facing each other and laughing at looking at each other upside down!

Leprechauns on St. Paddy's Day

On St. Patrick's Day we had fun pretending to be leprechauns and tried experimental poses. One girl, TL, showed us what she thought a leprechaun pose would look like then she scrunched up her face, got into a squat and started making the cutest funny sounds. The whole class was so inspired by her ability to channel the green elf that the whole class started doing it!

Circle of trust

This week I tried something new that worked at my Taproot yoga class. I brought a hula hoop and each student took center stage and demonstrated their favorite pose. Each student had to name the pose so it was fun and each child got everyone's attention!
We also did waterfall pose and some students started crawling around with someone on their back turning it into a "ride." They were giggling and laughing as they were moved around the room.
Headstands are a problem because most students need help getting their legs up so I enlisted people to be headstand and handstand assistants. The kids loved being a helper and it eliminated the need for being everywhere at once.
Svasana was interesting because many preferred to lay on the floor instead of their mats. I guess they all wanted to be more grounded. ;-)

OM energy

Today we talked about yoga sequences. A yoga routine usually starts with an OM to vibrate the area around the heart and loosen things up. We talked about counting in our heads the same number during inhalation and then again during exhalation. One student dramatically demonstrated a proper OM for us including finger mudras that set the class giggling, but her face looked so happy I had to take a photo.
We then talked about the importance of the breath and did some balloon breathing. They asked to focus on balance today so we talked about balance, did some superhero poses and had to wrap up early for the storyteller that was coming.

Wheel breakthroughs

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Today was our shortest class, I had 20 minutes with them due to a storyteller coming to entertain them... We opened up the chest area (where we hold a lot of tension) with a long "om" session, then some forward bends, cobra, side twists and then we spent the majority of time working on wheels/bridges with some major breakthroughs. There was fresh powder snow outside and their energy was high which seemed to translate into higher bridges. One student loves to do the spider pose instead of the wheel.

The New Year starts with compassion

Our first class of the new year was a little rocky as people were excited about being back and were a little unfocused. We opened up our energy channels with balloon breathing, axial pretzel twists, forward and upward bends, hand and headstands. Handstands are the most requested pose.

During svasana I walked them through a small visualization, asking them to send positive thoughts to someone they knew was feeling sad. I asked them to imagine that persons face without the sadness. We'd had a restless start to svasana with people wanting to hold hands with other people on their mats and some rolling themselves up in the mats saying they were tacos and hot dogs. (This thanks to the "pretzel" pose earlier) When I added the "compassion" visualization, they quieted down and maintained the longest silence we'd ever had. I finally broke the silence and we rolled up our mats.