Celebrate the Summer Solstice and International Yoga Day with Family Yoga Fun!
The official start of summer arrives with the Summer Solstice on June 21st! This special day marks the moment when the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky above the Tropic of Cancer, giving us the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
What makes June 21st even more meaningful is that it is also International Yoga Day. Since 2015, people around the world have come together on this day to celebrate the many physical, mental, and emotional benefits of yoga.
What better way to honor both the Summer Solstice and International Yoga Day than with family-friendly outdoor yoga activities?
Whether you’re a parent, teacher, camp counselor, or yoga instructor, taking yoga outside is a wonderful way to connect children with nature while encouraging movement, mindfulness, and fun.
Our Favorite Outdoor Yoga Activities for Kids and Families
Add excitement to your yoga practice with a beach ball! Write yoga poses, mindfulness prompts, or movement challenges on a beach ball. Toss it to a friend and complete whichever activity your thumb lands on. It’s a simple and engaging way to get kids moving and laughing while practicing yoga.
Can your toes do yoga? Toega is a playful activity that helps strengthen little feet while improving coordination and body awareness. Children love the challenge of using their toes in creative ways while developing important motor skills.
Turn a classic game into a yoga adventure! Write yoga poses on Jenga blocks and perform the pose shown on each block you remove. This game combines balance, movement, teamwork, and plenty of giggles, making it perfect for families, classrooms, camps, and yoga groups.
Benefits of Outdoor Yoga for Kids
Practicing yoga outdoors offers even more benefits for children:
• Encourages physical activity and healthy movement
• Builds mindfulness and focus
• Promotes appreciation for nature
• Reduces stress and anxiety
• Strengthens family and community connections
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.
Spring is here and with that comes the beautiful power of a rainstorm. I love a good rainstorm as it washes away the dirt, and leaves behind beauty, green, and a fresh start.
I love to create a thunderstorm with my students in my yoga class toward the end of class. The perfect time to do this is during the Community Building portion of the class which is right before settling into Savasana. If you are unsure of the correct sequence and important parts of a kids yoga lesson plan, then please check out our bestselling book, Go Go Yoga for Kids: A Complete Guide to Yoga with Kids. It breaks down the complete step by step to put together an engaging and memorable kids yoga class.
Creating a thunderstorm with kids completely quiets the class, mesmerizes them and they feel empowered as they are the ones that created it. This activity also utilizes many of your five senses which is wonderful in helping you feel aware and present.
How to Create a Thunderstorm:
Sit in a close circle with the lights off. Start with step one and the child on your right does what you are doing. Continue around the circle with each student adding to it. After the sound has made it around, continue onto step 2. I like this progression as it shows how the storm ebbs and flows.
Snap your fingers (the sound of light rain falling)
Clap your hands together
Slap your hands on your legs (at this time a student can flick a light switch on and off to represent lightning). They love this part!
Stomp your feet
Slap your hands on your legs and stomp your feet (this represents the strength of the storm lessening)
Stomp your feet
Slap your hands on your legs
Clap your hands together
Snap your fingers
Rub your hands together (the wind)
Open your palms (all is quiet)
This is definitely a fun activity to do with a Kids Yoga Springtime or a Jungle Adventure Theme. Have fun with it. This is something that your kids yoga classes can do over and over again and still be amazed by it.
Balance Practice: Use plastic gold coins to work on balancing them on your hand, head, knee, etc. The children will have lots of ideas on where they can balance their gold coins. You can also use these gold coins for balance relays which the kids think are lots of fun.
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!
One of my favorite things to do is to develop creative new yoga games out of classic favorites. Kids love this as it gives them the opportunity to play a game that they are already familiar with and can learn and practice yoga poses, while working together, and having lots of fun.
Fall is in the air! One of the things that I love about living in the Midwest is the change of seasons. I truly do appreciate the changing trees and landscape that each new season brings. As soon as you get tired of the heat, snow, or rain, then the season begins to magically transform into a new one.
I love incorporating the change of seasons with my kids yoga classes. Kids enjoy the seasonal themes with the poses, breathing exercises, and yoga games. By having a theme, it truly helps the children connect with and retain with what they are learning.
Get your free Kids Yoga Fall Fun Lesson Plan below. Learn many Fall themed yoga poses, play yoga games, practice mindfulness, complete group challenges and much more!
For this kids yoga lesson plan, I use the Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards. These pose cards provide a great visual for the yoga poses as well as the partner yoga poses.
Have you ever seen such a lovely Fall leaf? (Partner Pose)
It is much more fun to try to balance with a pumpkin on your head!
Interested in more kids yoga lesson plans? Our bestselling Go Go Yoga for Kids resources includes hundreds of kids yoga lesson plans, games, poses, mindfulness exercises and much more. Click to learn more.
Spring is here and with that comes the beautiful power of a rainstorm. I love a good rainstorm as it washes away the dirt, and leaves behind beauty, green, and a fresh start.
Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Lessons for Children
earning about yoga and having fun!
