A Zensational Memory Game
Yoga has become a great way for children of ALL abilities to become aware of their body, in line with their breath, and connected to the beautiful truth and peace within them. As an occupational therapist and devoted yogi, Allison Morgan of Zensational Kids (see www.zensationalkids.com) offers up a joyful and mindful way to facilatate learning yoga with pose chips.
The Elevator Series Pose Chips help provide a fun, interactive game atmosphere that facilitates learning in a natural and enriching way. Here are a few ideas of how to use these chips in a group or individually to help develop visual and motor skills, motor planning, body awareness and most importantly, laughter.
MEMORY for you and a child
- Start with 3 chips, face up. Have the child look at all the chips and go over what each pose is. This can be done either verbally (saying the name of each pose), or motorically (making your body into each pose).
- Turn the chips face down. You can test your memory now, or do something else for a few minutes and come back to the chips.
- OK, do you remember what poses were on the chips? If you can’t say them, do them. As the child remembers the chips, turn them over to reveal the pictures. If they can’t remember the poses, you do one of them, and see if they remember the name of the pose.
- Do you remember the order the chips were in?
- OK, once you master 3 chips, try some more.
MEMORY for a group of children
- Start with one chip per student. All the children see the chips, say the names of the poses, or do the poses. You will see that their memory is enhanced if they can say them and do them. This demonstrates the power of our body and how important it is in our learning process.
- Now count to 5. Everyone STRIKE A POSE. This allows the children to do anything that they remember.
- As a group, can they decide what pose is missing? Can they remember any of the missing poses that no one in the group formed? Can they put the poses in the same order that the chips were in?
- This is also fun to play with a big group, with a little challenge. Divide the students up into groups of 3, 4, or 5. Every group gets the same number of chips. If each group has 3 students, they get 3 chips, 4 students, 4 chips, etc…. See which TEAM can remember all of their chips and form the sequence with their bodies.
We all have a limited, contracted, outer surface. Yoga teaches us to dig deep into our center to know our true, authentic selves. Yoga Teacher Barbie was gifted to me on my birthday and I have chosen to Ground her and help her to expand her consciousness. All of my students are gifts; yet this is my first one who was born in Indonesia and had a non-existent childhood,. No wonder she has restricted knowledge.
