Happy Hares Yoga

“Every Wednesday Afternoon, we are very excited to have a yoga teacher called Amy come into the setting.”

During Autumn/Winter term (29/09/2021-15/12/2021), I have incorporated various themes and topics in the pre-school activity sessions that I have delivered including topics such as ‘In the sea’, ‘Olympic sports’ and ‘Going into space’. There have also been sessions with activities centred around a story book that is appropriate for the age of the children including ‘The hungry caterpillar’, ‘Hairy McClary’ and ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’.

During all these sessions there have been mini-yoga and pre-school gymnastic shapes built in throughout the activities and the children have done very well to practise shapes such as downward dog pose, cobra pose, tree pose, happy baby pose, dish and arc shapes, star shape variations and front/back support shape, to name a few.

Apparatus has also been used in all the sessions to enhance the activity experience and develop hand apparatus skills such as holding, catching, and throwing at a target. We have used hoops, cones, coloured spots, and scarves, tap sticks, a large parachute, and small light balls to take part in activities on an individual basis, working in pairs and working together as a group. These have been used during the warm-ups, mobilisation elements and the main activities dependant on the theme. Interaction related skills have been practised during various group formation activities including working spread out, working together or in a circle, on a line or grouped.

We have practised a lot of locomotor skills during all sessions such as rolling, crawling, running, jumping, hopping, and galloping. The progress made by many of the children when jumping two footed has been remarkable particularly the younger ones. All activities have been body related and for some activities draw specific focus to using various body parts in isolation such as just mobilising our arms or legs. These are then practised using specific actions such as moving, not moving, balance and body shapes e.g. stretched, tuck shape, star shape. We have also been using spatial related elements drawing attention to the direction of movement such as moving forwards, backwards, sideways, along and changing direction of travel. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the children on these activities and I look forward to delivering more fun activity sessions in 2022!