Westonzoyland Primary School ‘Achieving, Learning and Growing Together’
Yoga & Mindfulness
Yoga and Mindfulness at Westonzoyland school
Why Yoga?
Yoga is so much more than just a pose. By providing the children with regular yoga lessons, we are gradually equipping them with a tool kit they can use to build a foundation of lifelong wellbeing.
Our aim is for the children to have a fun, engaging yoga lesson but the real magic happens when they gradually learn to take their yoga practise into all the other parts of their day.
How does yoga do this?
- Physical health: Improves flexibility, balance, co ordination and strength. Children learn about the anatomy of their bodies.
- Mind and body connection: Connecting movement with breath to enhance mindfulness and body awareness.
- Emotional regulation: To aid in managing stress, anxiety and emotions through breathing and relaxation techniques
- Social skills: Through partner and group activities to encourage communication and teamwork.
- Confidence: By achieving poses and working towards goals to boost self esteem and confidence in their abilities.
- Creativity: Through imaginative play and stimulating self-expression.
- Better sleep: Relaxation techniques help promote better sleep patterns and sleep quality.
- Fun and playfulness: The playful nature of Children's yoga makes it fun, hopefully fostering a lifelong interest in fitness and well-being.
- Coping skills: yoga equips children with healthy coping mechanisms to manage challenges they might face.
Why Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is about focussing completely in the moment. Regular practice can encourage children to learn these techniques to use to calm themselves, and help them to refocus their energy and attention. This can really help the children to learn to develop healthy responses to chaotic situations around or within them. (The listen to the chime activity is a particular favourite with the children!)
Watch this space to see what we have been up to in our yoga and mindfulness lessons this half term!
(Pop over to the class pages and click on the swan to find some yoga and mindfulness online resources)
The children have been taking it in turns to lead the class with their 'Sun salutations.' They have gained so much confidence over the last few weeks, with more and more children volunteering to lead.
We have been learning about mindfulness and practising this using different activities such as listening to the chime and 'pass the tambourine' without making a noise.
To practise working as a team and learning resilience, we have been taking part in different games. Above, the children formed a human circuit and had to pass the hula hoops round without letting go of their hands!
The children have been repeatedly telling me that their favourite part of their yoga is the relaxation at the end. Today, they asked if they could also do it at the beginning of the lesson! They are learning to acknowledge how they feel when they slow down and how to transfer this outside of the lesson.
We have been learning about our skeletons and choosing poses that use these bones.
