Aims

Our aims were twofold:

2. The second aim was for the children to work in small groups and at times in whole group depending upon the posture. This meant that this was another terrific opportunity to enhance group skills and extend the aspects that we were encouraging in that term’s yoga, namely:

Listening, saying ‘well done’ and helping each other

                                       Figure 1

We kept it simple, the only extravagance being a metre high Hungry Caterpillar which you can see was beautifully made by a professional prop designer – well it was forty years old and a good excuse to push the boat out!!!!

We kept the music simple too, humming a ponderous melody as the caterpillar made up of five children sauntered about in the presentation area.

The children were highly motivated, exceptionally creative and went about their work with total enthusiasm   

We were staggered by their ability to build on their existing yoga knowledge and create credible postures not just body movements. 

The enjoyment was obvious as they grasped opportunity after opportunity to show their creativity and flair.

Ultimately the presentation, which was watched by the whole school, Foundation, KS1 & KS2 was a great success. Undoubtedly it worked well because:

As part of the presentation some children were able to demonstrate to their audience how they had worked on specific skills in groups and at the same time show the process of creating or inventing new postures

2.Social skills

The self monitoring cards gave the children a focus and helped them decide which skills to work on next time.

Teachers reported that many children developed their skills and showed them at other times apart from yoga. 

Specifically staff reported better listening behaviours during the weeks of the project and more children were specific in their praise of peers.

Conclusion 

We were unanimous that it had been a highly successful project because:

• It was great fun for staff and children
• Progress was made each week and that progress was clear for everyone to see
• We covered all the physical learning objectives
• We covered several of the SEAL learning objectives i.e. most children developed and improved listening, being helpful to each other and praising each other
• On the creative /yoga side the story had yielded twenty six new postures

 If you would like to learn more about this project or news about our current projects do contact us.

Copyright Yoga at School and Michael Chissick 2010. Not to be reproduced or distributed without permission.