My journey with using yoga in my preschool room started in early Spring of 2018. The early childhood team along with the school counselors visited a school in Des Moines to see how yoga starts their day. It was a wonderful experience to see the growth from the young students to the older students. After that, it lead to a yoga training in August of 2018. From that training, it sparked ideas and confidence in myself to incorporate yoga into my preschool classroom!
At the beginning of the school, I began my school day with introducing various yoga poses and breaths. The breaths have lead well with our social-emotional curriculum, Second Step, to help they calm down and self-regulate themselves. Throughout the year, yoga time has transpired to be more connected to our letter of the day and/or theme in which we are discussing in the classroom.
From the school visit in the Spring of 2018, we gained an idea for our calm down spots in the classroom. Many classrooms in our building have calm down spots but what we saw was more structured. It is a red and green mat. The red mat is for students who need more time to calm down and self-regulate. Once they feel they are ready to join the class, they move to the green spot. This has really helped my classroom para and me know when to process with the child as well as allowing the child to still listen and engage. The location of my calm down spot is in a spot where they can see almost everything so they can still see what is going on but just need space alone. As you can see below, I have included some visuals for my young learners. I have the Second Step feelings chart up as well as zones of regulation to help them process their feelings.
Stay tuned for how yoga and the calm down spot have eliminated
some behaviors that I use to see from year to year!
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