Yoga for Grades K-2 with Julie Epstein

“In the K-2 group (group) we usually begin with each child saying his or her name and offering a movement that we imitate, building a sequence around the circle. It’s a way to establish our community, (also helping me to remember their names) with each child’s individual presence being recognized, and inviting their expression to add to the texture of what we are doing together.

For pranayama we became balloons, inflating and deflating, and buzzing bees.  The vinyasa that we do is a story about a cat playing who is chased by a dog, out into the grass (bodies stretch and sway) and up into a tree (vrksasana).  Each week the story will develop, adding a character or an event that we can act out with our movements. One-by-one the children dove and leapt through a hula hoop, then lumbering downward dog-style, then crab walking.

Then they came through all holding hands in a train, and finally with a partner, holding each other’s two hands, cooperating and being mindful of each other.  When they rest for savasana, I check if their arms and legs are totally heavy and relaxed, picking them up one at-a-time, sometimes wiggling an arm like jell-o or letting a leg feel its own weight; they love this and say, ‘Check me! Check me again!’ To close, we share a song that I love to hear their voices sing together:

‘Namaste is what we say, to the good in you and the good in me.  Say Namaste everyday and the world will be in harmony.’”

-Julie Epstein

Julie Epstein is an Evolution Yoga teacher for adults and children.  She teaches at the studio and in the Burlington schools.