pose_chips-ks

A Zensational Memory Game

pose_chips-ksYoga 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

  1. 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).
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Do you remember the order the chips were in?
  5. OK, once you master 3 chips, try some more.

MEMORY for a group of children

  1. 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.
  2. Now count to 5. Everyone STRIKE A POSE. This allows the children to do anything that they remember.
  3. 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?
  4. 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.

More to Explore

  • Shames, Shames, Go Away! And Don’t Come Back Another Day!

    Inspired by Yoga Sutra 2.16 Heyam dukham anagatam

     

    Avoidable is the sufferingshames regrets doubts
    that has not yet to come~
    That feeling of shame
    That sticks like chewed gum.

    How do we get through places
    That are stuck deep inside?
    Where the holdings, the collections
    The patterns reside?

    The patterns of feeding
    Our suction cupped shames~
    With secrets and silence
    And judgements and blames.

    Attract the energy of movement~
    And comfort with movement~
    Comfort with change~
    Comfort with improvement.

    Create space between impulseZI60-Hands-Button
    And action that binds~
    The stuck feelings that resists
    Our meetings of minds.

    Space is the experience
    Of minds open and bright
    The Wisdom of Grace
    Is filled up with light.

    Grace is the knowing
    Our mistakes serve an aim~
    Instead of allowing
    Our mistakes to serve shame.

    So to prevent future suffering~
    And the feeding of shames~
    Create a steady practice
    Of breath work and aims.

    Here’s a mantra for you
    To embody and embed~
    Press thumb into each finger
    And say in your head~

    {I inhale to prepare~shames 2
    I exhale to share~
    I inhale to release blame~
    I exhale to transform shame~*}

    {Repeat 11 times}~

    Keep your sitting bones rooted.
    Slowly rotate your core ~
    Counterclockwise 3 rounds
    Your breath? Don’t ignore!

    Inhale going backwards,
    Exhale going forward .
    Your movements ride on your
    breath~

    TS24 big

    It’s pretty straight forward.

    Pause and move clockwise.
    Repeat 11 times.
    Close eyes and listen.
    To your heart beat like chimes.

    Find someone you know,
    You love and you trust
    Show them your shames
    And watch your blames turn to dust.

    May we have what it takes
    To transform all our shames~
    To allow our mistakes
    To serve our Great Aim~

  • Grounded….an Adjective, a Noun, a Verb…Redefining for Real

      Can getting grounded bring me back to balanced working order, the way nature intended me to be? Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) defines GROUNDED as mentally and emotionally stable: admirably sensible, realistic, and unpretentious grounded [?gra?nd?d] adj sensible and down-to-earth; having one’s feet on the ground I do aim to know where I belong…

  • Lasagna Savasana

    red-pepper-chevre-lasagnaSedef Dion who teaches a Pre-Grounded class at Springs Yoga shared with me the story of a four year old girl who in the cutest way mistakenly called Savasana….Lasagna.  This inspired me to write a Savasana visualization with a Lasagna theme that Amy and I recently used to connect with our Fernbank Elementary Yoga Club students.  After we did our practice complete with the Lasagna Savasana, one of our students..the Principal’s  seven year old daughter said…”that was so relaxing…this could help me fall asleep at night”.  Since it was her birthday that day, we wanted to put together a recording that her parents could play for her as she lays her head down for a good night rest after a long day.