Spring Garden Yoga

Ah, can you hear the birds chirping with happiness? We can finally see the flowers popping up through the grass. It's been positively delightful out there these last few days.  

This weather has inspired me to teach my Spring Garden yoga class where we plant a garden in the middle of our circle. This is one sequence that makes me so happy and even more excited to get out into my own garden! 

Spring Garden Yoga Sequence
Printable lesson plan

1. Sun Warmup: We always start with our suns. It feels great to warm up our body parts with the sunshine. What a perfect way to begin a spring garden yoga class! 





2. Digging a Hole: We take our shovels and dig a hole to bury our flower seeds. Think of what kind or what color flower you are! Put yourself into this hole in child's pose. 

I ask "what does a seed need to grow?" almost every preschooler knows this! They say soil, water and sun. I go around and give each seed some love with a little touch of my hands on their backs. 

3. Seed to a Tree (or Flower): I ask, "do seeds grow fast or slow?" Most kids know that seeds grow slowly. 
"Let's see how slow we can grow into our beautiful flowers." 


4. Extended Mountain: Our bodies stretch into tall, beautiful flowers. I ask, "What color is your flower?" 

The kids love to share their favorite flower or favorite color flower. Rainbow colored flowers are very popular with the preschoolers! 

5. Flower Pose: Next we come back down to the ground into our flower pose, balancing on our bottoms. 

 "See if you can make your petals dance in the wind."

6. Bee Pose: Then we think of all the creatures we may find in our garden. Buzzy Bees are resting on our flowers. These bees fly around doing bee breath (buzzzzzzz), drink nectar from their flowers and then make honey in their hives. 

7. Butterfly Pose: Colorful butterflies rest on our flowers. We sing "fly like a butterfly, fly like a butterfly, fly like a butterfly in the sky!" 
Then we stretch our wings to the sky. 



8. Spider Pose: There are lots of spiders in our garden. The spiders are so good for our gardens because they eat the mosquitoes! We come to four legs (table pose) and spin our web around the mat. We wrap our mosquitoes in the silk and then eat them!                                                                                        

9. Frog Pose: Our peaceful frogs rest in the garden and our hopping frogs like to hop through the garden! 

10. Ladybug Pose: Our gardens also love ladybugs! We come to our knees and gently bow our heads down to child's pose. We lift our arms and flap our wings behind us. 

11. Snake Pose: We come to our bellies to be silly snakes who love to slither through the gardens. "Hissssssss!"

12. Basket Pose: We lift our legs into our baskets, lifting up high. We think about all the beautiful flowers in our garden and put them in our baskets. 

13. Downward Dog: We push ourselves up to downward dog, imagining our doggies running through the garden. Then we jump our feet through to land on our bottom. 

14. Relaxation: It's time for my relaxation routine which consists of roly poly, birthday candle and happy baby. Ahhhhh, it's finally time to relax in our gardens. 



Using our senses for our meditation, I say:

"Imagine you are lying in your garden we planted, surrounded by flowers. What do the flowers smell like? What colors are they? How do they feel around your body? Can you hear the sounds of the butterflies? the bees? the ladybugs? the frogs? & the snakes? Can you feel the warm sun above, warming each part of your body (go through each body part)?"  

What other poses can you do to go with this theme? Do you have your own garden that you plant at home? What are some other ways you like to celebrate spring?