The official start of summer is with the arrival of the summer solstice on June 21st. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this marks the longest day of the year. This is the moment when the Sun reaches the Tropic of Cancer, which is its highest point. For those who live in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the shortest day of the year and the arrival of winter. The solstice happens at the same moment for everyone, everywhere on Earth.
What makes this day even more special is that June 21st is also International Yoga Day which is recognized around the world since its inception in 2015.
What better way then to recognize both of these celebrations than with some family-friendly outdoor yoga?! Check out some of our favorite yoga poses and games!
Do you love yoga and kids? Keep the fun of International Yoga Day going all year long! Introduce the joy and fun of yoga to children while instilling the benefits they will have for life. Enrollment is now open for our Kids Yoga and Mindfulness Teacher Training! Find out more here.
It will be so much fun learning a variety of yoga games perfect for all ages!
These Yoga Games Will:
Create strength physically and mentally for kids
Promote teamwork and team building skills
Build confidence
Increase flexibility
Improve Balance and focus
Enhance creative thinking
Bring joy, laughter, and reminders not to take ourselves too seriously!
Each game include videos, directions on how to enhance and differentiate for kids with varying abilities within the games, as well as game images and lesson plans.
Age Group Characteristics & Groupings for Yoga Games
The following guidelines will help you decide which yoga games and activities are most appropriate for the children you will be working with.
Early Childhood: Ages 2-5
Children at this stage thrive on repetition and routine. This knowledge is helpful not just in their play, but in all areas of their lives. Children at this age have difficulty waiting for their turn, but they learn as it is shown and modeled.
Preschool children are just discovering all of the different ways their bodies can move around—skip, hop, gallop, shuffle, run, walk backward—making active movement games especially beneficial. Incorporating pretend and fantasy into yoga games feeds imaginations and allows for unique personalities and ideas to emerge and grow.
Keeping games short, five to seven minutes at most, and giving simple directions will keep them present and focused. They are easily distracted but they are eager to learn and will engage well with repetitive directions, movements, and play.
School Age: Ages 5-11
As kids mature, they develop longer attention spans, stronger bodies, and more control over their movements. But they also need variation, as they grow bored with anything too repetitive.
Physically, kids this age can handle additional large motor movement and poses, so incorporating more complicated games and activities will challenge them and keep them engaged. Introducing themes helps them retain information and recall it.
This age group enjoys cooperation and teamwork. Friendships are important. Children quickly learning interpersonal skills as they move through elementary, primary, and intermediate schools. They understand the concept of taking turns and often have a developing or well-formed understanding of teamwork.
I have such great memories as a kid with creating May Day baskets with my sisters on the first day of May. We would fill our homemade baskets with little candies, popcorn, and flowers. We would then deliver them to our neighbors. This involved sneaking up to our neighbors’ house, placing the May Day Baskets in front of the door, ring the doorbell and run around to the side of the house to hide. We were almost always seen by our neighbors because our high pitched giggling was sure to give us away.
It was then so much fun to get back home from our deliveries and discover May Day baskets left by neighbors on our front step. It was a sure sign that the other neighborhood kids were celebrating the start of May as well.
Years later, I kept this tradition going with my own children. Although we live in a bigger city, we try to make our own little community by knowing our neighbors and surprising them with this somewhat forgotten tradition.
May is such a beautiful month filled with new growth and life. Celebrate this month and Spring with the children that you love and care about.
How amazing would it be if we all did one small act of kindness each day? What better day to start than on National Random Acts of Kindness Day on February 17th?
This day has grown in popularity over the years and what a game changer it could be if everyone participated.
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
Aesop
We tell kids all the time to share, play nicely and be kind to others. It is one thing to say, but we all know how actions mean more than words.
Often random acts of kindness can go a long way to brighten our day more than we would ever imagine.
Celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Week with the Go Go Yoga for Kids Kindness Bingo Game
Yoga Bingo is a fun and active game for all ages. This game is an engaging and easy way to introduce and teach children a variety of yoga poses. Plus a fun way to help kids practice a wide variety of poses. Yoga Bingo is perfect for large and small groups. Downloadable for immediate play!
Your Complete Kids Yoga Pose Bingo Game Includes:
10 Unique Full full-sized yoga Bingo Cards
Directions on How to Play
40 Different Yoga Poses
Multicultural & Diverse
1 Caller Card
Downloadable for immediate play
Perfect for school, home, camps, clubs, and parties. Ages 3-Adult
Will it be an early Spring, or will there be six more weeks of Winter? The groundhog gets to decide with this fun yoga game for kids! Decide if it will be spring or winter with yoga poses such as Snowflake Pose and Warrior 2.
Select one child to be the lead groundhog. Have everyone begin in Child’s Pose with their foreheads to the ground as if they are hibernating groundhogs waiting for February 2nd.
The lead groundhog will emerge first from slumber, look around, and announce to the other groundhogs if it is Spring or Winter. Based on what the lead groundhog selects, then choose from the following poses:
Winter Groundhog Yoga Poses
Snowflake: Begin in Mountain Pose with arms outstretched above. Next dive forward and bring your arms to the ground as if you are a snowflake falling. Repeat this several times to represent lots of snowflakes falling.
Snowboarder: Stand strong in Warrior 2 with arms outstretched and your front leg bent. Try jumping and switching directions while landing in Warrior 2. Try to get a little hang time in your 180 degree jumps as if you are a star snowboarder!
Snowball: Lie on your back and hug your knees into your chest. Rock and roll back and forth as if you are a snowball being rolled. Do this several times. It is almost like getting a back massage.
Spring Groundhog Yoga Poses
Tree Pose: Get your Spring tree ready for leaves! Bring your foot to your calf and place your hands at heart center. As you become more steady, bring your foot to your thigh and move your hands overhead for tree branches. A tip for holding tree pose is to focus on a spot on the ground that is not moving.
Butterfly Pose: Sit on your bottom with a tall spine, bend your legs, and place the soles of your feet together. Flap your legs like the wings of a butterfly. How fast can your butterfly fly? Then try to go as slowly as possible.
Frog Pose: Come down to a squat position and bring your arms to heart center. Can you hop like a frog?
Take turns being the lead groundhog so everyone can practice several Winter and Spring yoga poses. Finally for the final resting position or Savasana have the kids roll up in a yoga mat or blanket as if they are quiet slumbering groundhog.
It is the month of gratitude and thankfulness. Help kids learn and practice gratitude AND yoga with our “Let’s Give Thanks” FREE Kids Yoga Lesson Plan! Yoga poses, breathing exercises, yoga games, and our fun Planksgiving Challenge are all included!
Celebrate gratitude with children with all year long.
Get kids fit, flexible and focused with our complete step-by-step Kids Yoga Lesson Plan books. Themes, poses, breathing exercises, games, mindfulness, challenges for all ages and much more.
Thanksgiving Yoga Poses for Kids Fun
Thanksgiving is all about family, friends, food and being thankful. Go Go Yoga for Kids shows fun Thanksgiving yoga poses that can be done to prepare your mind and body for the holiday.
First is our fun Turkey Breathing that will help get your mind and breath connected. Next, we lead you into our Planksgiving Challenge. Enjoy!
Check out some of our favorite yoga poses and games!
Find your FREE 
bent. Try jumping and switching directions while landing in Warrior 2. Try to get a little hang time in your 180 degree jumps as if you are a star snowboarder!
