Benefits of Music in Kids Yoga Class:
From birth, parents instinctively use music to calm and soothe children, to express love and joy, and to engage and interact. Parents use music to indicate play time, sleep time or different moments in their child’s daily schedule.
Preschool children enjoy nursery rhymes and songs about familiar things like toys, animals, play activities, and people. Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words. Moreover, toddlers love to dance and move to music. Dancing to music helps children build motor skills while allowing them to practice self-expression. It helps the body and the mind work together just like yoga! Therefore, music – especially yoga songs for children – is very significant part of my classes. I like sparing a few minutes for warm-up with kids songs at the beginning of my each yoga class.
Warm-Up Kids Yoga Songs:
As a kids yoga teacher, you should start your warm-ups by doing some simple body movements. Stretches, bending the knees, squatting, or rolling the shoulders can all be used. It makes children’s muscle ready for stretching by pumping in more blood to their muscles, thus avoiding any major injuries. You can use music as a material for this purpose. You can play a fun song in the background while warming up. You may also choose to warm up with a song relevant to your theme.
Here are some tips on how to use music in your kids yoga classes:
1- Make it fun!
Focus on process, participation and playfulness, not achievement. Spare a sufficient time for kids songs in your kids yoga lesson plan. Don’t rush it. By the way, silly songs make toddlers laugh.
“Wag Your Tail”
Wag your tail like a dog.
Wag wag wag your tail.
Wag your tail with me.
Wag it fast. Wag it slow.
Wag your tail with me.
Thump your chest like a gorilla.
Thump thump thump your chest.
Thump your chest with me.
Thump it fast. Thump it slow.
Thump your chest with me.
“Shake and Move”
Wiggle your fingers, blink your eyes
Wiggle your fingers, blink, blink, blink
Move your hands side to side
Move your hands side to side
2- Prepare a warm-up playlist.
It’s best to start a structured kids yoga lesson with a five-minute warm up activity. A good way to start the warm-up is with an action song, followed by a bending, stretching, twisting or balancing activity.
“Walking Walking”
Walking walking. Walking walking.
Hop hop hop. Hop hop hop.
Running running running. Running running running.
Now let’s stop. Now let’s stop.
“Clap it!”
Let’s clap it right right right
Let’s clap it left left left
Now clap it high
Clap it low
“Fly Like a Butterfly”
Fly like a butterfly through the sky
Stretch like a butterfly up so high
Twist like a butterfly
Sleep like a butterfly through the night
Roll like a butterfly
3- Create a repertoire.
Build a repertoire of songs for various occasions. Children delight in singing them over and over and over again.
You can greet each child in the morning circle with “Hello Hello”;
Hello, hello. (Hello Sun)
Can you clap your hands? (Clap your hands)
Hello, hello.
Can you clap your hands?
Can you stretch up high? (Reach up to the sky on your tiptoes)
Can you touch your toes? (Bend forward and touch your toes)
Can you turn around? (Turn around yourself)
Can you say, “Hello?” (Hello Sun)
You may make the whole class socialize with “Make a Circle”;
Make a circle, big big big. (hand in hand, making circle big)
Small small small. (hand in hand, making circle small)
Big big big.
Make a circle, small small small.
Hello hello hello. (Hello Sun)
Or you may sing and warm up just before a camping yoga story or a school/zoo trip yoga story with “the Wheels on the Bus”;
The wheels on the bus go,
Round and round,
Round and round,
Round and round.
The wheels on the bus go
Round and round,
All through the town.
(Bus Pose: Sitting with our legs out forward and holding the steering wheel, we steer side to side stretching each way. Then going up a hill, we strengthen the core by leaning back. Going down a hill, we lengthen our spine by folding forwards.)
The doors on the bus go,
Open and shut,
Open and shut,
Open and shut.
The doors on the bus go
Open and shut,
All through the town.
(Butterfly Pose: Sitting tall, bring the soles of your feet into touch. Flutter you knees up and down.)
You may also row your boat by starting with the boat pose and then rowing pose so that it does not only warm up but also opens the hips and stretches the legs. It will be perfect start before the story of Jack and the FlumFlum Tree, for instance.
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream
4- The key to kids yoga songs is repetition.
Repetition encourages language and memorization of both the lyrics and movements. It helps strengthen memory skills. Besides, they sometimes feel more confident with a song they know. Just observe the children. They may like some songs more than others. Then feel free to warm up with the same songs over and over again.
“Stand Up, Sit Down”
There once was a troll
Who guarded a bridge
Wouldn’t let you pass
Until you did what he said
And His special request
Went something like this
Stand up, Turn around, sit down
Stand up
Sit Down
Stand up
Turn around
And now
Sit down
Stand up
Turn around
Sit Down
5- Remember to rehearse and memorize the lyrics and movements beforehand.
Music can set a mood and define a tempo, sparking children to get up and move or to rest quietly on their mats. All you need to do is to get carried away.
Finally, my favorite resources for kids yoga songs are:
- Super Simple Songs (https://supersimple.com/)
- Bari Koral: Kids Yoga, Music and Mindfulness (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bari+koral)
- Patty Shukla Kids TV – Children’s Songs (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=patty+shukla)
Let the child inside you always shine! Namaste!