There’s nothing like 35 happy, little wiggly people. Bouncing through the garden, legs and hands up in the air figuring out what a downward-facing-dog looks like and then flipping their 5 year old energy back up into a tree or mountain pose.

Last week, at Cleveland School Garden, the kindergarten class came into the garden to learn something about plants and their bodies and got to do their first Yoga lesson. What an experience! Hands up in the air, fingers swinging and bodies dancing around on the bamboo-lined patch of grass we use in the far back of our garden for more interactive lessons.

Kindergarten is a blast to teach and an activity like Yoga is very appropriate. We started the lesson with a whole body-pat down. Meaning we started tapping our toes, and moved all the way up our bodies, patting our hips, bellies and shoulders, ending up at the head and ears. We would repeat this until they could remember the names of all their body parts. Because… as I was surprised to find out, very few knew where their shin or hips are located. One little boy was incredibly cute by holding his arm up in the air and repeatedly pointing to his elbow, calling it a knee. But with a few repetitions, these kids learned their own anatomy.

After the body pat-down, we moved on into a series of other poses. Such as curling into a ball, called ‘strawberry’. Reaching for the sky with arms in the air like a ‘tree’. Standing tall like a ‘carrot’, bouncing like a ‘bunny’, and learning to really listen to how our bodies feel.

This was a successful and enjoyable lesson. The kids stayed focused for 25 minutes on moving their bodies, how they felt inside their own skin and learning new positions to stretch their muscles and joints. With the lesson ending by getting to wiggle and twist it all out again across the green grass behind Cleveland School Garden.