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Welcome! What’s in the Course?

Welcome to the Cosmic Kids Online Teacher Training!

Your training takes place across seven modules:• Practice• Structure• Anatomy• Postures• Development• Performance• Assessment

1. Practice - experience kids yoga yourself and have fun practicing!2. Structure - what is the recipe for a successful kids yoga session?3. Anatomy - understand the systems in the body and how yoga relates to development for kids

aged from 2-11 years old.4. Postures - learn over 100 postures and how to instruct them to children.5. Development - emotional, cognitive and social development from age 2 to 11 years old.6. Performance - how to hold the kids attention and deliver an engaging class.7. Assessment - Work on your delivery of Squish the Fish and upload a video of your performance

for feedback from Jaime and final Certification.

This is an active learning experience. You will be learning through:• Video lectures• Reading and study• Quizzes and practical exercises• and.....Your final challenge - learning and performing a kids yoga adventure.

Copyright Cosmic Kids Yoga 2016 1

Introduction to F.L.A.R.E

Having a structure for your kids yoga sessions creates a reliable template for both the teacher and the children in the class.

Here’s a helpful way to think about it and remember it:

F. L. A. R. E.

• F = FOCUS• L = LIMBERS• A = ADVENTURE• R = RELAXATION• E = ENDING

Focus - getting the kids engaged at the beginning of class.

Limbers - the warm-up stage.

Adventure - a story sequence brought to life with yoga.

Relaxation - winding down to a place of calm stillness.

Ending - ending your class well for you and the kids.


F - Focus

This phase is designed to get all the kids together, looking at you, in the right position and ready for yoga.

1. A place to be: Using mats or towels to indicate a spot on the floor for each of the kids offering per-sonal space for their yoga.

2. How to sit: Focus everyone physically - ‘Sitting on our bottoms and crossing our legs and bringing our hands together at our hearts’.

3. ‘Namaste’: Verbally and mentally focus everyone with the ‘secret magic yoga code word’ – create a sense of beginning yoga together.

The fundamentals of the Focus phase:

• A place to be• How to sit• Namaste

3 more ideas to get kids to focus at the beginning of yoga class:

• Focus on the kids who ARE following instructions. Offer verbal praise for those behaving well and doing as you have asked.

• Invite the children to choose their mat.• Use a picture to show what the story is about - which you will show everyone “as soon as they are

sitting in the correct way and ready to start.” This usually tempts everyone to get settled.


L - Limbers

Limbers is the warm-up phase in a kids yoga class:• To prevent injury• To get the energy up• Create heat for the exercise which follows.

Get the kids into the story. The trick with Limbers - make it part of the story. Do things which have meaning in the story – getting ready, or travelling to where the adventure will unfold.

Warm-up moves to get the kids ready for an adventure:

E.g In Squish we pack a picnic – seated spinal twists.We hop into our hot air balloon – a quad stretch, with a little balance and coordination in the mix. We blow it up with a long deep breath – integrating a breathing technique.

Others to include could be:

• Rolling shoulders - for carrying a backpack.• Folding forwards with crossed legs, keeping the bottom on the floor to open the hips- reaching for

a picnic basket.• Hello Sun Salute - to bring the sunshine out for the adventure ahead. You will learn this in the Pos-

tures stage of this course.


A - Adventure

The adventure phase is at the heart of a kids yoga class.It needs to be engaging enough so the kids stay with you while you get them to do the yoga.

What’s required:

• A good story.• An involving performance from the teacher - so the kids believe you and your story and have an

emotional connection with it - A successful class has the kids feeling the story as well as doing the yoga – to grow emotionally as well as physically.

• Weave the postures in with the story. The yoga in the adventure stage is the most active of the class. • Generally there are around 20-25 poses in a story.• A journey where we meet a hero or become a hero. Helping kids feel strong and brave cultivates

these heroic feelings, to build confidence and a sense of responsibility.

E.g - In Squish The Fish, we go on a journey under the sea and meet our hero in that story - Squish. Through the story we learn to be by ourselves, to be brave and to have our own adventures.


R - Relaxation

• Create a sense of calm after the exercise.• Routinely experiencing relaxation at the end of a yoga class helps kids learn that this state exists, so

they can access it when needed. It’s a coping strategy for stress.• We land the moral of the story, communicating social and emotional development messages. In

Squish, we help kids deal with separation anxiety.• Make the transition to relaxation part of the story. Make it feel like something that we all REALLY

want to do rather than telling the children to do it. Role-model getting relaxed so that they know what to do.

• Kids will often fidget – use lavender pillows across the eyes, blankets, and the promise of a friendly puppet to come round and wake them up to help them get settled.

• Let the kids choose what position they want to relax in.• Wait until the kids are relaxed and then quietly go round the room and talk about what we learned

in the story.• Play relaxing music.• Helpful phrases - “don’t worry while your eyes are closed, I’ll keep mine open” and “let’s see if you

can still hear me while your eyes are closed”.• Relaxation can last 3 to 5 minutes. Keep your energy relaxed, and you will eventually find that the

class is in a lovely relaxed place.


E - Ending

• Begin by ‘waking’ the kids after relaxation either using a puppet, or with chimes (something like the ones pictured make a lovely gentle sound).

• Give simple instructions of ‘wiggle your fingers’, ‘wiggle your toes’, ‘give your knees a hug and roll over onto your side.’ ‘Come up to sitting with your legs crossed and your hands together at your heart.’

• Pause after each instruction to allow the children to do it.• Continue with: ‘closing your eyes for just a few seconds and after 3 saying our secret yoga code word

Namaste.’• Pause ‘One…Two…Three…NAMASTE.’• Ending well leaves everyone feeling good. It is your opportunity to steady everyone a little before

they leave.• Congratulate and thank everyone for their efforts - gives everyone a sense of achievement and leaves

them feeling keen to try yoga again.• Ask the children to share what they thought about in the relaxation phase.• Hand out something to take home related to the story such as a printable colouring page or suggest

an activity such as drawing a picture of the character in the story.• Sing a song together, play a game, or have the kids share a new yoga move they’ve invented. All of

these work well as incentives given in the Focus stage of the class.• Get the kids ready to go – shoes and socks on, tidying up mats and meeting parents.


Introduction to Kids Anatomy

In this section you will learn how kids’ bodies work - so the yoga you teach will be safe and appropriate.

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

• Skeleton – how the bones develop and the skeleton matures in childhood years.• Joints – the junctions in the skeleton which we must be aware of for safety and prevention of injury.• Muscular system - the impact of muscle development and growth.• Respiratory system - how breathing develops and fluctuates for children.• Cardiovascular system – how blood and oxygen goes round the body and where kids are in our de-

velopment of this system.• Nervous system - the developing highway of sensory communication.• Endocrine system - the glands and where hormone regulation happens. • Immune system - how little bodies fight to stay healthy.• Digestive system - key information about nutrition to ensure everything functions well• Brain development - the development of neural pathways, the ‘emotional’ brain of the lower limbic

system and the ‘thinking’ brain of the outer neocortex.

Lecture Summary


The SkeletonWe are born with over 300 bones, some of which are made of cartilage others are connective tissue. As we grow up, the cartilage hardens, turning to bone, others fuse together turning several bones into one, for example we start with five bones at the bottom of our spine that fuse together to become one – our sacrum. By the time we reach adulthood (sometimes into our 20’s) we have 206 bones.

Skull – plates fuse by 2 years

Vertebral Column – 24 vertebrae made up of 7 cervical, 12 thoracic and 5 lumbar. Each vertebra is made up of three separate bones at birth. C2 is the exception with four. These bones fuse by puberty making the fi-nal ring shape of each vertebra.

Sternum – this starts as four separate bones at birth and two more appear between 1 and 6 years. By 25 it has all fused into one.

Spine developmentAge 3 – the lumbar spine becomes concave forward.Age 10 – the lumbar curve is at it’s adult shape.

Carpal bones – we develop the 8 bones that make up our wrists from birth to late teens.

Tarsal bones – we develop the 7 bones that make up our ankles from birth to late teens.

Kids yoga and safe skeletonsTry to avoid sweeping back arches with arms overhead. It loads the lumbar spine.Bend the knees in forward bends to allow for tight hamstrings – all that sitting on chairs!Lengthen the spine before twisting.Avoid hyperextension in the elbows and knees – encourage strength vs flexibility.Not too wide with the legs in wide legged stances – causes smaller children who’s heads are propor-tionately bigger to lose balance.Spines are extra loose with children so be aware of jamming the lower back in backbends

Areas susceptible to injury in yoga:

NeckLumbar vertebrae

Knees

Hinge joints Elbows, knees, fingers, toes. The bones swing in 2 directions.

Ball and SocketHips and shoulders allowing some rotation, side to side and back and forth

LigamentsInelastic tissue connecting bone to bone, providing joint stability. Some are born with tight ligaments others loose. Ligaments should never be stretched.

Tendons Connect muscle to bones at the joints and are not to be stretched.

Pivot joints Allow a rotating or twisting motion, like that of the head moving from side to side.

Many children have hypermobile joints where they have more flexibility than usual. Exercise is super important for hypermobile children as they need to strengthen the muscles that support the joints. Although many children see this extra flexibility as a special trick e.g bending their thumb back to the forearm, don’t encourage them to ‘show off ’ as it will ultimately cause more strain. Lots of children have flat feet which means they may be a little behind with their gross motor skills (walking, running, hopping etc.)They need to build strength in their feet and stretch the calves so yoga can really help – although they may struggle with spatial awareness, balance and coordination to begin with.

Kids yoga and joint safetyKids bones are growing ahead of their muscles meaning muscles and tendons can become tight and easily strained.Growing bones will affect a child’s coordination and balance.Keep an eye on the knee alignment making sure when possible the knee stays in line with the ankle.The shoulder joint is not hugely stable with kids with the socket of the scapula being quite shallow. So downward dog is hard to hold for long.Wrists are soft as the cartilage is developing into bone so children can be unstable in handstands, donkey kicks and bunny hops – these are best introduced after the age of 5.

Developing Joints

Flexibility and Balance

Babies and toddlers have more cartilage than fused hardened bones and joints, so are therefore very flexible.

Toddlers tend to topple over easily as they have a disproportionately large head compared to the rest of their body.

Growing bones affect balance.

Sitting at desks and chairs for long periods causes tight hamstrings and the shoulders to curl forwards.Yoga can help counter poor posture development and alleviate tightness and stiffness.

Hyper mobility - more flexibility than usualLook out for: • Bowed arms - where the elbows curve outwards. • Backs of the knees - the back of the knee bows. • Kids showing you their ‘tricks’ - e.g pressing the thumb back to the wrist.

1. Encourage strength over flexibility - weight-bearing moves like surfer pose, chair pose, or squats like lobster. Strengthen the core with boat pose, and the wrists with moves like crab and downward dog.

2. Bend our knees - any forward bends - e.g sandwich pose and ragdoll.3. Check the children are not standing with the legs too wide which can cause loss of balance.4. Flow through postures – not holding to build flexibility but gently increasing the range of motion

alongside building the necessary strength to support the joints.

Lecture Summary


Kids yoga and the respiratory system

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Respiratory System

by12yrsthe respiratory system is fully

developed

Smaller Airways

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Shallow breathing

Breathing in

Breathing out

Kids yoga and the circulatory/cardiovascular system

Cardiovascular System

Heart rates-

Strong heart-

The heart <’s

MONKEYJUMPS!!

Smaller hearts

Kids yoga and the nervous system--

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Nervous SystemAutonomic System

SympatheticParasympathetic

Sympathetic system

Parasympathetic system

Somatic System

sensorymotor

Central Nervous System

Peripheral Nervous System

Kids yoga and the endocrine system

Endocrine System

Girlsbetween

9 & 13 yearsold

Boysbetween

10 & 15 yearsold

Puberty

Endocrine System Regulation

Chemical messengers

Hormone levels

Hormones & Endocrine system

Hormones regulate:

• Growth, • Metabolism• Mood• Sleep quality• Reproductive process

Hormones are affected by:

• Stress • Infection• Changes in the balance of fluid and minerals in the blood

For example:Stress causes adrenaline, then cortisol to be released from the adrenal glands, burning into our energy stores and converting it to glucose.

The consequences of this:Stress uses up the nutrients from the energy stores that could have been used for growth.An excess of glucose with no outlet may lead to children misbehaving - becoming ‘hyper’.

Yoga, calm breathing and relaxation are all ways to help kids balance their stress levels and regulate hormones.

Here’s what you can do:1. Use guided visualizations to soothe nerves.2. Twists help unravel tension and let go of pent up anxiety and stress - use postures like deer pose,

eagle, mermaid or making a sandwich.3. Incorporate a rest in every session. Regular and routine practice will have a beneficial effect on a

child’s hormomes and nervous system.

Lecture Summary


Kids yoga and the immune system

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Immune SystemRunny noses

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Stress

Exposure--

Seated forward bends

help reduce stress!

Kids yoga, nutrition and the developing digestive system

Digestive System

Fruit is a good pre-yoga snack

Growth

Salt warning!

MemoryMemory is vital to the learning process and there are factors that affect how well memory works; emotion, repetition of information and association with the familiar. Yoga postures together with stories stimulate emotions. The sequences and choice of postures ensure there is a repetition element from week to week and the situations or subjects that form the basis for your sessions will be familiar to the children in many ways be it curriculum or personal understanding. Playing games like Yogi says (the kids yoga version of Simon says) will help too in the development of memory by giving the children cues for memory retrieval.

MotivationMotivation is a big factor in child development. Basic needs must be satisfied first before a child can develop.Children who are hungry and tired will not be curious to learn, they will not play or be able to dive into ac-tivities that help them make sense of their world.

Chaotic lifestylesChildren who are frightened and live chaotic lives will have trouble becoming competent in social activity and appreciating the beauty of the world.

Developing Body & Mind

Cognitive developmentCognitive development is what children can be per-ceived to do when they think, learn, remember, un-derstand, judge and use ideas.

PerceptionPerception is an active process of sensory informa-tion. Yoga encourages children to be more tuned into their senses and to start perceiving a link between emotions and senses in the body.

ConsciousnessEncompasses perception of the senses, voluntary initiation and control of movement, memory, learn-ing and emotional response.

Emotional brainThe emotional brain (lower limbic system) devel-ops during early years and connects to the ‘thinking brain’ (the higher level) to help children understand situations and respond with the appropriate level of emotion. Where the emotional brain has been ne-glected, the thinking brain is less able to maintain self-control when situations make them angry or frustrated.

Emotional validationChildren need to know that ALL emotions are valid, not just the happy ones, but sadness, frustration, anger and pain too. Many children perceive these more negative emotions as wrong – they are often met with dis-approval or shushes from adults. This means children learn to produce an outward sign of something they do not actually feel to hide the real emotion to protect themselves. They may appear to be distracted and happy again with a favorite toy for example, but their bodies will show signs that the stress chemicals (like cortisol) are circulating – an increase in their heart rate, blood pressure and breathing.

Social development and understanding feelingsAs children develop socially it gives them points of comparison in the context of others. They begin to un-derstand feelings better as they see others going through them and then can recognize, express and hope-fully understand them when they occur in themselves.

EmpathyChildren are considered to be socially adept when they have learnt how to read the cues in other people’s behavior. They develop empathy around the age of 4 and 5 years old and can spot the emotional cues in oth-ers such as being angry or sad.

Social normsYoung children see their world defined by social norms – “Mum does the cooking”. Whereas older children recognize these norms are not quite as fixed as they once thought. “Dad does the cooking when Mum’s at work.” Part of feeling secure when we are very young is having a grasp on the way the world works. It is only as we grow older and mature that we can accept life being more fluid, ever changing and flexible.

Developing moralsMoral development means understanding the difference between right and wrong, behaving within socially understood moral rules, and being able to feel pride or shame.

Testing moral boundariesChildren often know the ‘right way’ to behave but choose another way when peer pressure affects them or if they see a possible short term gain to be had. Often they will want to test the water and see the consequences of going against the grain. We have to allow for this and let children learn for themselves.

Moral compassYoga stories give children a moral compass, offering them role models and examples of being an active member of a caring, sharing society. We hope to pass on moral guidance so children grow up understanding that suc-cess in life is not defined by material wealth or lies and cruelty.

Basic Needs

Children need to be fed, watered and well rested to function properly.One of our roles as a yoga teacher is to help kids learn how to look after their bodies.

Helping them understand:

• The importance of hydration and eating well.• Why it’s important to rest and sleep.• How breathing can be a tool to help in stressful times or when trying to get to sleep.• What exercise does for our body and mind.• The impact our basic needs have on our moods and how we feel.• If children are being listless, under energised, grumpy or badly behaved they may need some water

or food or some quiet time to just chill out. Once you have covered these bases, if there is no im-provement week to week, there may be more fundamental issues affecting them related to health, diet or stress.

Ideas to meet those basic needs:

1. Encourage kids to drink enough water and stay hydrated. Hydration helps to prevent headaches and keeps the blood flowing round the body easily.

2. Help kids learn how to relax – lie down often, incorporate forward bends and make sure the kids feel as comfortable as possible in the final relaxation stage.

3. Invite the children to share how they are feeling - offer examples of your own experiences and feel-ings to show that it’s ok for them to share theirs.

4. Sitting out - as and when it’s clear that a child would rather not join in, give them the option to rest or sit to the side of the room where they can be quiet and peaceful and not distract the others. If this starts recurring, speak to a parent or teacher and ask them to talk to the child outside of class to find out where the reluctance is coming from.

Lecture Summary


Kids Yoga Postures Introduction

You are about to learn a magic yoga language for kids. How we take traditional yoga postures and translate them to work for children.

We combine the postures into a sequence to tell a story and the postures bring the story to life.

Get ready to learn 115 postures. 114 videos and an extra one in the Big Yoga Posture Book. (See if you can spot it!)

The first 25 are the postures from Squish, which you will hopefully already feel familiar with after the earlier practice.

Then there’s an option to skip ahead or keep learning the rest of the postures - see how you get on and decide when you get there.

For each posture there is:• A video of the posture - so you can see how to verbally and physically get into it and take the kids

with you.• A script of how to instruct the posture• Notes about each posture’s benefits and the anatomical focus.• Helpful teaching tips to make the most of the posture.• Make it easier to remember them by physically trying them out - Make some room in front of your

screen and have a go at each one.

What else do you get in this section:

• A general lecture about instructing the postures - what to say and do to introduce the postures.• How to blend postures into the narrative of the story and sustain the kids’ attention.• A to Z Yoga Posture Book of all 115 postures which you can print out and use whenever you need.

Lecture Summary


12 tips for instructing kids yoga poses

• Participation rather than perfection: This is a fun introduction for kids into yoga. Give them the freedom to enjoy the experience and try not to dwell on corrections.

• Do both sides in a pose: Balance for the body. Make the second side different to keep things in-teresting.

• Don’t worry about lefts or rights: They will watch and mostly mirror you to see which leg or arm to use and copy you. Unless you are doing a story to help them specifically learn about lefts and rights that is!

• Repeat the posture name to help kids learn it: Use repetition of the posture name so the kids start to learn the posture.

• Give encouragement: Tell all the kids how well they are doing to help build confidence and enjoy-ment of yoga.

• Make poses interactive: Encourage the kids to come up with ideas and get involved with certain poses.

• Ask for feelings: Ask the kids what sensations they are feeling as they are doing a pose.• Give names to characters: Makes them come alive and feel more connected to the posture.• Use sound effects and songs: To emphasise the movement in poses and make them more fun.• Play with words to enhance actions: For example ‘tweet your arms’ in tweety bird.• Add to the character of the pose with extra actions: Add special moves to add character.• Count in to poses: Use a count of 1, 2, 3 before launching into a pose so that everyone does it

together.

Lecture Summary


Kids Development Introduction

In this next section we will look at what’s happening at an emotional, linguistic and social level for kids through the ages of 2 -11 years old.

This will help you:

• Design classes and create yoga stories which are age-appropriate.• Understand what to expect from each age in terms of behaviour.• Communicate well with different aged kids.

In this next section:

• You will be studying worksheets about each of the different age groups. Print them out to continue to build your training manual.

• Learning from a range of videos about certain key aspects of development. • I will also recommend some extra reading for you to continue your learning about kids development

alongside this course.

*Note: Understand that stages of development happen at different times for different children, so the observations and points are given in a general sense. Also, many of the points are relevant across a number of age groups.

Lecture Summary


Yoga tips for this age group

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2-3 year olds

Yoga classes for 2-3 yr olds can be around 20-25

mins.

Song/warm-up – 5 minsYoga story – 10 minsRelaxation – 5 mins

Puppet/activity/song – 5 mins

What’s happening at this stage?

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Getting Kids to Follow you

Kids between 2 and 5 years old will be developing their sense of resistance - to be an individual and to keep safe. This is fine, but needs to be managed when you need everyone cooperating and following you in the yoga.There is often resistance at being ‘told’ what to do. Instead we steer and allow the action to flow using techniques that keep everyone in tow

Here’s how:

1. Let the story lead

Make the story interesting by changing the energy regularly and supplying enough twists, turns and surprises to keep everyone hooked.

2. Make them part of the decision-making team.

Ask the children questions such as “Do you think we should.... “ “Shall we....” ‘The Magic We’ – using the word we puts us all on the same team. When the children feel they own the ideas, they usually want to do them.If they say ‘no’ change the approach and challenge them a little: ‘Are we brave enough to look around?’ This usually encourages everyone to step up.

3. Asking for ideas

Invite ideas from the children (usually best with older groups - 6/7+) and go with their suggestion – so I might pick someone to give us an idea.To keep it within your parameters - offer them options to choose from, then you can empower the chil-dren to make their choices, but keep the action moving in a way that works for the yoga.

4. Spot resistance and change tack

Some children like to have a go at taking over and controlling the story. To avoid the losing the fun, but regain the control come up with new angles to keep the story moving. Try doing something out of the blue to break controlling behaviour patterns - it’ll surprise them back into the line of the story.

Adaptability - We encourage imagination but we need to deliver the yoga. It’s a balancing act between fun and keeping control. Don’t take resistance from kids personally – if kids are resistant they aren’t trying to hurt you. They’re just trying on roles and testing limits. We are somewhere between fun and school for the kids so they try to work out what is acceptable.

Lecture Summary



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3-4 year olds

Yoga classes for 3-4 year olds can be up to 30

minutes

Warm-up – 5minsAdventure – 20 minsRelaxation – 5 mins


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Modelling and Validating Emotions

Adventures provide a safe place to explore emotions.Between the ages of 3 and 5 years old kids are learning about their feelings, their place in the world and how to interact with other people.In the stories we model feelings so kids can identify them and validate their own.We introduce the idea of noticing how you’re feeling – mindfulness.

How to explore kids emotions in our classes:

• Roleplay emotion - We as teachers show and express the emotions being felt at any time within the story.

• Relaxation - Use this time to highlight what feelings were explored in the story.• Time to talk - As a group afterwards we talk about what we felt in the story. Keep it positive by ask-

ing the children to give each other ideas or advice.

Helping kids understand their emotions will help them grow into healthy people.

Lecture Summary


Get the child’sattention

first

Get down to the child’s level andengage their attention beforespeaking or asking a question.Young children find it difficult tolisten and carry on with an activityat the same time. Saying theirname first encourages them tostop and listen.

Use simple

repetitivelanguage

Keep sentences short.Describe your everyday activities.As you talk about what you aredoing (‘I’m washing the cup.’),repeat your words slowly andclearly. Saying things more thanonce helps children to join in andpick up new words.

Build on what the

child says to you

Talking very clearly, add one ortwo more words to the child’ssentence. For instance, if the childsays ‘look, car’, you could say ‘look, red car’. By doing this you’llbe signalling that you’ve heardwhat they’ve said and modellingthe next stage of languagedevelopment.

Imitate the child’slanguage

With very young children, simply imitate their words andsentences. This will show themthat you‘re valuing their words and will encourage them to keepon talking.

Rather than criticise,demonstrate

the right way

Praise the child’s efforts, even ifthe results aren’t perfect. If a childmakes an error in a word orsentence, simply say the correctversion rather than pointing out themistake. For example, if the childsays, ‘I goed to the park’, you mightsay ‘Wow, so you went to the park’.

Give the child time to

respond

Children often need time to puttheir thoughts together beforeanswering, so give them longer torespond than you would with anadult. Make sure to maintain eyecontact as you wait for them tocomplete their remark.

Make learninglanguage

fun

Play around with words, soundsand sentences. Don’t be afraid totalk in funny voices or have daftconversations. The more childrensee you experimenting withlanguage, the more likely they’ll be able to do it themselves. And experimenting with languageis a vital aspect of learning.

Use the full range of expression

Speak in a lively, animated voiceand use gestures and facialexpressions to back up yourwords. You’ll be giving more cluesabout what your words mean,which can be very useful if the childis struggling to understandlanguage. You’ll also bedemonstrating the importance ofnon-verbal communication.

Be careful with

questions

Try not to ask too many questions,especially ones that sound likeyou’re constantly testing the child.The best questions are those thatchallenge the child to think ratherthan give an instant answer, like yes or no. Too many questionscan easily block the flow of natural conversation.

Top techniques to develop children’sspeech and languageA guide for early years practitioners

Use all the senses to

help teach newwords

Make learning new vocabularyfun and memorable. For example,if you’re teaching the names offruits, encourage the child to feeland smell the various fruits as theylearn the words. Another idea is touse familiar songs and rhymes asa learning tool by missing outwords for the child to fill in.

LEARNING TO TALKTALKING TO LEARN

© I CAN 2007 Registered charity No 210031 PHME 52561 Printed on recycled paper. www.ican.org.uk www.talkingpoint.org.uk

Poster_small_AW 30/8/07 14:06 Page 1

Encouraging Independence of Thought

In early childhood, much development is done through imitation - other children, parents and family members.

We want to encourage children to start finding their own voice coming up with their own original ideas and opinions.

So what can you do?

• Give opportunities for the kids to make their own suggestions – What’s in their sandwich? What colour is their surfboard? What do they think might be in the treasure chest? We create interactive moments for the kids to come up with their own ideas.

• Encourage kids to think creatively about the story afterwards – for example you might ask them to do their own drawing or colouring in to bring in the following week.

• Praise each and every suggestion made by the children so they feel confident about offering ideas.

Lecture Summary



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4-5 year olds

Yoga classes for 4-5 year olds can be around 30

minutes

Warm-up – 5minsAdventure – 20 minsRelaxation – 5 mins

Activity – 5 mins


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Developing Social Skills &

a Moral Compass

Stories help kids understand right from wrong. Yoga stories offer a sense of moral guidance - engaging both the body and the brain.From around the age of 4, children start to develop empathy.Yoga stories help them explore right from wrong and offer positive and negative role models in the form of the characters and their behaviour.

We tell stories that allow us to experience a range of emotions to help children learn to read emotional cues in others.Examples of the moral focus of yoga: • Loving one another• Truthfulness• Not stealing• Moderation• Non-possessiveness.

Examples of more everyday issues to focus on with yoga stories:• Healthy eating• Sleeping well• Concentration• Stress

What do you think is important to communicate in your stories?

Ask for ideas from parents and teachers about issues.

How to bring morals alive in yoga stories:

1. Tell simple stories based on what is going on in the children’s lives. Make the issues relevant, so the children can connect with the ideas.

2. Use the relaxation phase to land the message.3. Stop occasionally in the story to ask the children to suggest what each character may be thinking or

feeling – or what they think the best decision might be for the character to take.

Lecture Summary



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7-9 year olds

Yoga classes for 7 - 9 year olds can be

around 45 minutes

Warm-up – 5minsAdventure – 20 mins

Partner work – 10 minsRelaxation – 5 mins

Concentration activity – 5 mins


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9-11 year olds

Yoga classes for 9 - 11 year olds can be around 50/60

minutes

Relaxation – 5 minsSequence – 25/30 minsPartner work – 10 mins

Relaxation – 10 minsConcentration activity – 5 mins


-

For further information and advice visit:www.talkingpoint.org.uk

This poster describes the stages of typical language development, with examples of what you might see and hear in a classroom or school environment.

Language development in the primary years steadily builds on the solid foundations that are established during the early years. Children’s attention, listening, understanding, vocabulary, speech, grammar, storytelling and conversations all develop further in terms of skills, knowledge and complexity.

Children develop at different rates and this poster tells you what to expect at different ages. Although it is not an assessment, the information could help you identify children who are not developing language skills as expected.

Children with English as an additional language are at the same risk of speech, language and communication needs as any other child, however, this can be more difficult to identify.

Knows to look at who’s talking and think about what they’re saying. Listens to and understands instructions about what they are doing, without needing to look up.Understands 2 to 3 part spoken instructions:

e.g. “Finish your picture, then sit on the carpet and look at a book.”Can answer a ‘How’ or ‘Why’ question:

e.g. “Why do we need sunhats on?” “To stop the sun burning our face.”

Understands a range of related words to describe concepts:

e.g. soon, early and late; soft, hard, and smooth. Knows words can be put into groups and can give common examples in them:

e.g. Animals: dog, cat, horse...Uses words more specifically to make the meaning clearer:

e.g. “I saw a funny monkey. It was a spider monkey.”

Says words clearly although may struggle with a few complex speech sounds, consonant blends or words with lots of syllables:

e.g. ‘Wabbit’ for ‘rabbit’, ‘bow’ for ‘blow’, ‘sketti’ for ‘spaghetti.’ Uses well-formed sentences:

e.g. “I played with Zoe in the park.” but with some errors: e.g. “I falled down.”

Joins phrases with words such as: e.g. if, because, so, could.

Lists events with some detail: e.g. “I went nanny’s. I had fat chips

for tea. I played games on the pooter.”Retells favourite stories - using some of their own words:

e.g. “……and she said what a nice mouth you got and the wolf said, ‘I can eat you!’ Gulp!”Describes events but not always joined together or in the right order:

e.g. “I went on the top of the bus with dad. That big slide is scary. We taked the ball as well.”

Confidently starts and takes part in individual and group conversations. Joins in and organises co-operative role play with friends and can pretend to be someone else talking.Uses language to ask, negotiate, give opinions and discuss ideas and feelings:

e.g. “Are we going to Nana’s today? Can I take teddy with me? He will be sad by himself.”

Starts to ignore unimportant information. Is aware when a message is unclear and comments or asks for explanation.Understands complex 2 to 3 part instructions:

e.g. “Finish your picture from yesterday then with a partner, choose one of the topic books and talk about it quietly on the carpet.”

Compares words, the way they look, sound or mean:

e.g. “There are two words ‘sea’ at the beach, and you ‘see’ with your eyes.” Can guess the word from clues, or give others clues using shape, size, function, etc. Uses newly learnt words in a specific and appropriate way:

e.g. “Dad, you know when you have lots of lions together it is called a pride of lions.”

Speech is clear with occasional errors, especially with consonant blends. Has good knowledge of sounds in words. Asks lots of questions to find out specific information including ‘How’ and ‘Why’.Uses different ways to join phrases to help explain or justify an event:

e.g. “I’m older than you so I will go first.”

Tells stories that set the scene, have a basic plot and a sequence of events. Begins to be aware of what the listener already knows and checks:

e.g. “You know where I live, right? Well, in that big house by the shop…”Accurately predicts what will happen in a story.

Takes turns to talk, listen, and respond in two-way conversations and groups.Keeps to a topic but easily prompted to move on if it takes over.Copies others’ language and begins to be aware of current peer language:

e.g. Copies swear words, says, ‘Cool’, or ‘Yeah right.’Uses and experiments with different styles of talking with different people.

Listens to key information and makes relevant, related comments:

e.g. “So all mammals are warm blooded, have fur or hair and their babies all drink milk.”Identifies clearly when they haven’t understood:

e.g. “What’s maize?” or “Get a blue what?”Able to infer meaning, reason and predict:

e.g. “It’s getting very hot in here,” means open the window.

Uses a range of words related to time and measurement:

e.g. century, calendar, breadth. Uses a wide range of verbs to express their thoughts, or about cause and effect:

e.g. “I wonder what she’s thinking,” or, “If we run we should get there on time but we might arrive late.”Joins in discussions about an activity using topic vocabulary:

e.g. “I saw some chicken eggs hatching in the incubator on the farm last Friday.”

Speech is clear, uses words with three sounds together or words with lots of syllables:

e.g. splash or string; rhinoceros or identical.Uses regular and unusual word endings: e.g. walked or fell. Uses complex grammar and sentences to clarify, summarise, explain and plan:

e.g. “So the bee collects the pollen from the stamen and then flies to another flower and pollinates it.”

Stories have a good structure with a distinct plot, an exciting event, clear resolution and conclusion:

e.g. “…and everyone got home safely which was great.”Uses intonation to make storytelling and reports exciting and interesting.Adds detail or leaves information out according to how much is already known by the listener.

Uses formal language when appropriate in some familiar situations:

e.g. Showing a visitor around school.Understands conversational rules:

e.g. Looks at listener to judge feedback. Gives more detail if needed.Uses tone of voice, stress on words and gestures naturally to add meaning. Uses language for full range of different reasons:

e.g. complimenting, criticising, negotiating.

Sustains active listening to both what is said and the way it is said.Follows longer instructions that are not familiar:

e.g. “Put the stripy folder that’s on top of the cupboard into the bottom drawer of my desk.”Understands different question types:

e.g. open, closed, rhetorical. Understands simple jokes and simple idioms, but can’t really explain why they are funny or what they mean:

e.g. You can’t have your cake and eat it.

Makes choices from a wide and varied vocabulary:

e.g. ‘Leap’ instead of ‘jump’, ‘terrified’ instead of ‘frightened’.Uses sophisticated words but the meaning might not always be accurate:

e.g. “My bedroom was meticulous.” Knows that words can have two meanings and uses them appropriately. Can’t always explain how they are linked:

e.g. ‘Hard’ (rigid object and tough person).

Uses long and complex sentence structures:

e.g. “I will come with you only because it means you will stop going on at me.”Uses questions to help conversations flow.Sentences average about 7 to 10 words - longer in stories than in conversation. Knows when a sentence is not grammatically correct and can explain rules of grammar.

Tells elaborate entertaining stories which are full of detailed descriptions.Everyday language is detailed and not always about their immediate experience. Incorporates a subplot in telling stories and recalling events, before resolving the main storyline.Uses complex joining words: e.g. meanwhile, therefore.

Uses different language depending on where they are, who they are with and what they are doing:

e.g. Formal style with the headteacher in school; relaxed and informal with family at home; and ‘cool’ language with friends in the park.Communicates successfully; shares ideas and information, gives and receives advice, and offers and takes notice of opinions.Realises when people don’t fully understand and tries to help them.

Attention, Listening and Understanding

Vocabulary Speech Sounds, Grammar and Sentence Building

Verbal Storytelling and Narrative

Conversations and Social Interaction

What’s typical talk at Primary?

5-7 years

7-9 years

4-5 years

9-11 years

I CAN 8 Wakley Street London EC1V 7QE. Registered Charity Number 210031. Copyright 2011.This poster is based on a wide range of sources from many studies, resources and books on language development, together with professional experience.

Additional Reading Recommendations

Level 3 Diploma - Children and Young People’s Workforce - Early Learning and Childcare

By Penny Tassoni, Kate Beith, Kath Bulman and Sue Griffin. Available here on amazon.co.uk and here on amazon.com


How to Talk so Kids will Listen & listen so Kids will Talk By Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. Available here on amazon.co.uk and here on amazon.com

Performance - Introduction

In this section we share a range of powerful techniques to help you tell stories so that the kids stay in-terested.

“Performance is the secret sauce in Cosmic Kids”

This is what makes the kids follow your every word and move as you tell a kids yoga story.It’s time to become playful so we will need to change our state. So much of storytelling is about letting ourselves go and being childlike – so we’re going to start with an exercise called ‘Hi, My Name’s Joe’.

Hi my name is Joe.I’ve got a wife and three kids and I work in a button factoryOne day, my boss said to me, “Hey Joe, are you busy?”I said, “No”.He said “Push this button with your left hand.”

Hi my name is Joe.I’ve got a wife and three kids and I work in a button factoryOne day, my boss said to me, “Hey Joe, are you busy?”I said, “No”.He said “Push this button with your right hand.”

Hi my name is Joe.I’ve got a wife and three kids and I work in a button factoryOne day, my boss said to me, “Hey Joe, are you busy?”I said, “No”.He said “Push this button with your left foot.”

Hi my name is Joe.I’ve got a wife and three kids and I work in a button factoryOne day, my boss said to me, “Hey Joe, are you busy?”I said, “No”.He said “Push this button with your right foot.”

Continued...



Hi my name is Joe.I’ve got a wife and three kids and I work in a button factoryOne day, my boss said to me, “Hey Joe, are you busy?”I said, “No”.He said “Push this button with your head.”

Hi my name is Joe.I’ve got a wife and three kids and I work in a button factoryOne day, my boss said to me, “Hey Joe, are you busy?”I said, “YES”.

An Expressive Voice

Lecture notes

Time to introduce the voice tools!

So much of the life of the story is created by the way you use your voice.

The three main techniques you will be using are:• Pitch (basically how high or low your voice goes) • Pause (using breaks in your voice for effect) • Pace (your voice going fast or slow)


Playing with your PitchThe pitch of your voice is how high or low you are making it. The up-and-down of your voice.

Exercise 1 - to test your range and bring awareness to the pitch of your voice.Start at your lowest note or pitch and work up to your highest note.

“I CAN MAKE MY VOICE GO HIGHER AND HIGHER”

What did you notice about your range?Try it the other way, starting high and working to the lowest note with this phrase:

“I CAN MAKE MY VOICE GO LOWER AND LOWER”

This is an exaggeration of your normal range, but it helps you break out of that ‘normal, everyday’ mid-dle pitch into the wider more animated range we have available to us. Exercise 2 - have some fun with pitch! Try this:“Honestly! You have to believe me! I saw that banana dancing!” Now say it keeping it flat.Now say it again with a lower, deeper pitch: “Honestly! You have to believe me! I saw that banana dancing!”Next say it higher: “Honestly! You have to believe me! I saw that banana dancing!”

Exercise 3 - pitch for communicating excitement – because excitement is infectious and makes kids want to come with you on your adventure. Try this with an excitable sounding pitch:“I’ve got my giraffe parked outside! Come on, let’s go jump on!”

Exercise 4 - pitch for the completely incredible – say it using an exaggerated range of pitch to express your incredulity.“Don’t be ridiculous! Nobody puts socks in a stew!”That full pitch range really communicates incredulity. Try it with a low, menacing pitch now…“Don’t be ridiculous! Nobody puts socks in a stew!”

Exercise 5 - a phrase for pitch practice. Use various pitches to play with the meaning of the same phrase.Use this phrase – “Look, a wiggly worm!”1. Use your pitch to make it sound scary.2. Use your pitch to make it sound friendly.3. Use your pitch to make it sound menacing.


Pausing for EffectHow to make moments when you can hear a pin drop!Using pauses will create anticipation, emphasis, excitement and tension.

Exercise 1.

Shall we have a look in the treasure chest? (Gasp) It’s a……small…smiley…fish!

Exercise 2.

Right in front of us…in a big…wobbly…tree…wearing a tiara…is…a…troll!

Pausing is one of the best ways of holding the attention of the kids.

Exercise 3.

Use this following poem playing with the points at which you pause to create different effects:

In a dark, dark wood,

There was a dark, dark house.

And in that dark, dark house,

There was a dark, dark room.

And in that dark, dark room,

There was a dark, dark cupboard.

And in that dark, dark cupboard,

There was a dark, dark shelf.

And on that dark, dark shelf,

There was a dark, dark box.

And in that dark, dark box,

There was a GHOST!!!!!!!


Voice Basics

Audibility

Clarity

Projecting your voice

Exercises for projection

Exercises for clarity

Aside from using your voice in a performance related way when telling the stories, there are some gen-eral points worth mentioning to equip you with the necessary vocal techniques for being a great teacher. Here are the main areas to be aware of and some exercises to practice for improving your vocal technique teaching kids yoga.

To teach, you need to be heard. To teach a group of 5 year olds, you really need to be heard! Practice projecting your voice. To project your voice you need to breathe into your diaphragm and think of your voice coming from your belly, rather than your throat. Projecting is different to shouting, which does come from your throat and will cause you to strain or damage your voice.

1. Make repeated ‘Hah’ sounds with the breath bouncing down to the diaphragm between each one. Think of the sound coming from your belly.

2. Build the following phrase, taking a diaphragm breath between each line. Imagine you are calling to someone over the other side of the street. Try and keep your volume/power sustained to the end of each line.

Hey you Hey you over there wait Hey you over there wait for me Hey you over there wait for me please

Practice good diction to make your words crisp and clear. Kids are learning words every day and are vo-cabulary sponges so make the most of the words and use muscularity in your speech – tongue, lips, hard and soft palates.

Speak the following tongue twisters being as clear and crisp as possible. This will over time improve the muscularity of your diction.

Articulatory agility is a desirable abilityManipulating with dexterityThe tongue, the palate and the lips.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppersA peck of pickled peppers, Peter Piper picked.If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,Where is the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

Tone

Pitch

Avoid speaking to kids like they are frightened rabbits! A simpering tone may be suitable when they are babies, but once they are toddlers (i.e 2+) it commands much more attention when you speak like a normal person to them. It’s more honest, and children have an uncanny knack at sensing the unauthentic. They are usually wary when they pick this up. Speak as you normally would and as long as you do it with a happy, open and kind face they will warm to you and respect you more for it. It usually helps me to try and channel a Disney princess to add a level of brightness, without it becoming unnatural.

Exercise for tone

Exercises for pitch

Ice breaking questions for meeting children and making them feel comfortable. Get down on their level when you meet them individually, smile and use your natural tone of voice, which is friendly, familiar and warm. When you ask a question – ask it genuinely.

Hello! Lovely to meet you. My name is….Great that you are here!What’s your name?Now, how old are you?I love your dress/t-shirt…I’m looking forward to teaching you some yoga today.Now do you have a favourite colour?You can pick any mat you like!

We purposefully use varied pitch to enhance the storytelling aspect of the class and this is covered in the section - Performing a Yoga Story. On a more general level, it is useful to be aware of your pitch, especially when you are projecting to a group of kids who are being a bit noisy. We want to avoid being shrill or using a strange high-pitched ‘sing-song’ voice.

Practice an AUM sound. The pitch you usually take is probably a lovely velvety, lower pitch. This is a good place to think of your voice, and will encourage you to breath from your diaphragm. Often an ‘Om’ is a better way of quieting a class than a shush! “Aum.....”Inhale deeply, down to your diaphragm and lower ribs. Starting with a hum, open the sound into an Ah, Aw, Oo, Oh, Ee, Ey. So it goes: MmmmAh, MmmmAw, MmmmOo, MmmmEee, MmmmEy. Taking a big deep inhale down into the diaphragm and ribs between each sound.Practice on different notes and cultivate your lower register. Have your hands on your belly and lower side rib to help you breath into the right place, then as you open up the sound into the vowel open your arms out too to develop a strong, resonant sound.

Voice Health

The Voice and Organs of Articulation

Take lots of care of your voice. You will be using it a lot and coming into contact with lots of children who have colds, coughs, sneezes etc. Here are my top tips to preserve your voice:

1. Look after your immune system – eat more fruit and veg-etables than you think. I juice every day and know that this intake of nutrition is a major source of my wellbeing gener-ally and especially my voice.

2. Keep water with you. Nerves make for a dry mouth and that will not help. Also after a class, you will be thirsty. Keep your throat and mouth lubricated.

3. Warm water or herb teas are wonderfully soothing for your voice.

4. Avoid dairy products and milk before you teach. They make your voice claggy and often cause a mucus build up mean-ing you need to keep clearing your throat. I find coffee does something similar too.

5. Try to project rather than shout, as shouting will strain your voice.

6. If you do lose your voice, you need to rest it. Steaming may help as will lots of water, but avoid any voice & throat sweets (e.g strepsils). These dehydrate your voice even more. Of course, alcohol and coffee should also be avoided. It will come back within a few days, so try not to worry about it.

This diagram shows the main areas of the body involved in us making any sound, including our voice. It helps to see and understand your voice especially when it is so key to you talking a lot or teaching!

Big FeelingsTop tips for bringing ‘Big Feelings’ into your storytelling

1. Put the feeling into the words as you say them - Use the WORDS as the canvas for your feelings.2. Get confident about the yoga sequence first - Learn your story and the yoga, and then put the feel-

ing in.3. Use sudden changes of energy to keep interest - Keeps it surprising and interesting.4. Watch cartoons! - Brilliant for showing what exaggerated feelings look like.5. Be playful - Have lots of fun yourself! Smile, be silly and enjoy the experience of your story.


Squish Performance Practice

First focus on the script without the yoga postures.

• Read it • Learn it• Inject it with performance energy

Helpful tips:

1. Practice it in smaller sections – to help you learn the story and the sequence of events.2. Ad-lib – put your own spin on it.3. Wide range of pitch - make the story as involving as possible.4. Work out where to use pauses and changes of pace to add more excitement.5. Facial expression – use your face to tell the story.6. Watch the Cosmic Kids Yoga channel – you might find it helpful to be able to see how I do it.

With this performance energy, the kids are sure to follow your yoga! Enjoy your practice!


Squish the FishYoga Story Script

Today we’re heading to the seaside to meet a fish called Squish. We get ready by packing a picnic (sand-wich/suitcase) with all the yummy things we want to nibble on for our outing. Let’s put on some sun cream (rubbing and patting arms, legs and body) and give our mummies and daddies a big hug (tweety bird) as we’re going on our own to the beach. We open the door and wow…outside is a hot air balloon to take us. Let’s hop (flamingo pose) in, sit down with our legs crossed and blow up the hot air balloon.Once in the air we stand and bend forward over the side to look down (standing half forward bend) and wave at everyone below. We’re here all by ourselves and we’re feeling brave about having our own adventure.

Warm-up

StoryWe land in a tree! Can I blow you over? Let’s try, you stand still and I’ll have a go. Ready? (Blow the children and be amazed at how still and strong they are.) Try the other side too! We take big steps over the sand dunes (sticky mud walking) and get to the beach.There’s a whole cast of crabs playing football and we join them! We can’t wait to get in the sea so grab a surfboard and run (run on spot) into the sea. We swim out into the big waves. Then we’re ready to surf so we jump up onto our board to ride a wave (surfer pose). Such an amazing feeling! We jump, re-balance (surfer pose) and surf the other way.That was tiring so we lay down (savasana) on our board to float and rest a while. All of a sudden, whizzing towards us is a fish. He’s standing on the water using his tail as a surfboard so looks a bit like a penguin! He comes to a stylish stop in front of us! “Hey man?” he says… “wanna come for a ride? I got some adventures ahead and I know you gonna dig it” Well how can we refuse…

Together with Squish we start to spin (standing spinal twists) down, into the blue world of the ocean below. Squish swims ahead and we follow swimming behind. We love being with Squish. We’re glad we’ve got a friend down here. We are heading towards a shipwreck! (boat pose). Then we come to a tunnel (house pose). We swim through on our tummies (snake pose). At the other end we find a treas-ure chest. We can’t open it… we try everything… jumping on it, trying to lift (chair pose) it up above our heads, rocking it from side to side (butterfly pose - rocking), but nothing seems to work.

Squish says he has an idea and needs to go and find someone. He leaves! Wow… we’re on our own in a scary shipwreck and suddenly we feel a bit alone. We cuddle up (sit up – hug knees) to ourselves, rub our ears so we feel calm… but we can’t help worrying. What if he doesn’t come back?

Copyright Cosmic Kids Yoga 2014

We swim up (Owl pose - kneel – raise arms up breath in/lower arms breath out) to a gap in the ship to look out through our sea goggles (binoculars). Uh Oh! Circling above us are a group of sharks. One of them is coming towards us… Oh no! What shall we do? What would Squish do? Let’s be brave, place our hands beneath our shoulders to lift up and say Hello (Cobra pose)! The shark gives us a big smile and to our utter relief and amazement says Hi back! He swims back up to his gang.

We are really having our own adventure! We swim back down to the shipwreck (boat pose) back through the tunnel (house pose) towards the treasure chest. Sure enough Squish the Fish is there! He came back! Yay. We give him a great big hug and see that he’s brought a friend. A beautiful mermaid who swishes her tail one way and looks over her shoulder then swishes the other way too! She’s holding a starfish. This is the key to the chest! We jump (in star pose) forward as we put it in the starfish shaped keyhole and tilt to one side to turn it one way then tilt the other way too. The lid of the treasure chest opens and what’s inside?

It’s another fish that looks just like Squish except he’s smaller. “Daddy!!!!” he says….and swims straight under Squishes fin. Squish introduces us (easy pose)… “Dude… Meet Titch. He always off exploring, but you know, I will always be there for him. You kids have gotta have your own adventures… but you know even if it seems a really long time we mommies and daddies will always return.”It makes sense, but talking of mommies and daddies, it’s time to return to our own. We blow bubbly kisses (kiss hands and blow your lips with a long breath) to Squish, Titch and the Mermaid and swim up (Owl pose - kneel – raise arms up breath in/lower arms breath out). Once at the surface we find a little rowing boat. We start to row (sing row row your boat). The telephone rings… It’s our Mummy. “Hello mum! We’ll be home soon! Bye!” Then we row with the other oar (singing again) and the tel-ephone rings again (use other foot) It’s our Daddy. “Hello Daddy! Yes, Looking forward to seeing you too! Bye”. We get back to the beach where we find our hot air balloon. We blow it up and begin to rock and sway up into the sky, saying our special mindfulness rhyme “Tick tock like a clock until I find my centre.”

We’re home so we tiptoe inside. Everyone is in bed! We’re very tired so we head to our lovely comfy bedrooms and snuggle into bed, we lay down here feeling all cosy and rest (relaxation).

We lie back let our legs and arms rest and be still and allow our eyes to close. We can hear the sound of the ocean and we feel like we are floating over the waves. Just like we’re back there resting on our surfboard The sun is shining down on us from the sky making our bodies and faces feel so warm and calm. We remember how brave we were being left by ourselves today and feel happy and pleased with ourselves, there really was no need to worry. It makes us feel like smiling. Here are ten counts of peace and quiet. Now start to wake up by wiggling your fingers and toes, taking a big long stretch and hugging your knees into your chest. Roll over to the side and come to sitting with your legs crossed and hands together at your heart.

Relaxation

Copyright Cosmic Kids Yoga 2014

12 Tips for Practicing & Learning a Yoga Story

Now we need to add in the yoga postures to bring the whole story to life.

Here are my top tips for practicing a yoga story:

1. Print out the script and read it through several times.

2. Highlight the postures using a highlighter pen.

3. Break it into smaller sections and see if you can remember postures in smaller chunks.

4. List the sequence of postures without looking at the script.

5. Do a ‘yoga walk-through’.

6. Add your performance of the story and try to make it all the way through to the end.

7. Notice which moments you get stuck on and make a note of what comes before and after.

8. Don’t worry if you miss bits out or freeze. Smile, keep going and improvise by adding in another posture. Smiling is a brilliant way of looking like you know what you’re doing!

9. Practice with one or two willing participants - kids or grown-ups.

10. Film yourself so you can do a run through and then watch yourself back.

11. Upload and share your performance for feedback from me – remember I am here to help you learn.

12. Share your Squish with the rest of our Cosmic Kids campus on Facebook - we all benefit from sup-portive feedback.

Good luck – you can do it!


Wrap up and Summary of your Course

This is a summary of all that we have covered in this course:

Kids Yoga Experience - You tried out Squish The Fish as a child would, following a teacher in a class.

Structure of a kids yoga class - You know how to structure a successful kids yoga class using the FLARE model – Focus, Limbers, Adventure, Relaxation and Ending – with a range of techniques to make each phase run smoothly.

Kids anatomy – You have studied the developing skeleton, the joints, flexibility and balance, the mus-cular, respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous and endocrine systems. Hormone regulation and behaviour. The immune system, the digestive system, nutrition and the developing body and mind.

Postures – You now have a posture book and access to a video for each of these postures showing how to instruct them, the anatomical focus of each and specific teaching tips to help you make the most of them.

Kids development - You now know what’s happening in terms of emotional, social and mental devel-opment through childhood.

Performance - You have learnt how to use your voice expressively, and how to use ‘big feelings’ in per-formance to help the kids understand and name their emotions as well as hold their attention.

Practice story – You have Squish the Fish to learn and practice. To upload for feedback from me and our supportive network on Cosmic Kids Campus. Making sure you are fully prepared to get out there and deliver a great kids yoga class!

What an achievement!


Professional Liability Insurance Contacts

To teach kids yoga professionally in certain countries* you need Professional Liability Insurance. Most schools require you to have your own independent cover, as do gyms and yoga studios. They will need a copy of your insurance certificate for their records. Occasionally it won’t be necessary as you may be covered as a ‘staff member’ by the venue or school you are working in.

On successful completion of Getting Started in Kids Yoga - the Online Cosmic Kids Teacher Train-ing you will qualify for the Insurance cover you need to teach professionally. If you are looking to find insurance for teaching kids yoga, here is a list of insurance companies (by Country) who have given cover to graduates of our online program:

UK

DSC-Strand Yogalink This insurance company have officially underwritten our course and will be able to offer cover to all UK graduates.BGi UK Insurance and Risk ManagementBalens

USA

Philadelphia Insurance Co (Yoga Journal’s policy)Sports Insurance SolutionsNacams

Australia

Insurance HouseAON

*In some Countries insurance is not a requirement to teach kids yoga professionally.


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