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If you teach kids yoga in schools, you’ve likely experienced this scenario: you’re all set to teach Year 1 and Year 2, but at the last minute, you get an email saying Year 1 is on a trip, so now you’re teaching Year 4 instead!
This can feel overwhelming, but with a little preparation and flexibility (in more ways than one!), you can handle these last-minute changes with confidence. In this blog, I’ll share some simple strategies to help you adapt and make your lesson a success. 1. Treat It Like a One-Off Class Instead of worrying about where this lesson fits into a long-term scheme, think of it as a standalone session—just like you would for a well-being day or a special event. This shift in mindset can help ease the pressure and allow you to focus on delivering a fun and engaging experience for the children. 2. Stick to Your Usual Structure Even though the year group may be different, keeping a familiar structure will help both you and the children feel grounded. Structure is important, and children thrive on knowing what to expect. If you don’t already have a structured approach, my Planning freebie can help you establish one. If you don't know what to include within your lessons, then the training Structure for Success will be useful. 3. Keep It Simple—Reuse What You Can Rather than reinventing the wheel, look at what you already have planned. Keep the same props and materials you were going to use and adapt the lesson content to suit the new age group. This saves time and prevents unnecessary stress. 4. Build on What the Children Already Know If you’ve worked with this class before, review your notes to see what they’ve already learned. Rather than introducing brand-new concepts, find ways to extend and deepen their previous experiences. For example, if they’ve learned Tree Pose, challenge them to try it with a partner or play a balancing game. 5. Make It Age-Appropriate Without Overloading New Content If you’ll be working with this class again in the future, avoid using material you’ve planned for upcoming lessons. Instead, modify familiar activities to provide a fresh challenge. This way, you keep engagement high without disrupting your long-term curriculum. 6. Keep a Log of Past Lessons Having a record of what you’ve taught at each school can be a lifesaver. This prevents you from repeating the same lesson year after year and ensures a varied experience for returning students. I keep both digital and paper copies of my plans, making it easy to check back when needed. 7. Have a Backup Plan Ready Consider creating a simple, adaptable Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 lesson plan to keep in your bag for those unexpected switches. This will give you peace of mind, knowing you always have something prepared. Final Thoughts Last-minute changes are part of working in schools, but with the right strategies, you can adapt with confidence. By keeping things simple, structured, and flexible, you’ll be able to handle any surprises that come your way while delivering engaging and effective yoga sessions for the children. For more help with structuring your classes, check out my Planning freebie or my Structure for Success training. And if you want to learn more about building a sustainable, well-sequenced yoga curriculum, my Captivate with Cards training has everything you need! I love hearing from other kids yoga teacher, get in touch if you have a question: [email protected] Julia
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Relationships are the most important thing to me in my classes. I believe that the main reason that my classes are so successful is because I value relationships and they are at the heart of everything that I do. I LOVE this quote by Psychiatrist Bruce D Perry, whose clinical research and practice focuses on examining the long-term effects of trauma in children. “The more healthy relationships a child has, the more likely he will be to recover from trauma and thrive. Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love.” Even if you only spend a small amount of time with the children that you teach, it is still possible to build a healthy strong relationship in which children feel secure and can thrive. Research consistently shows that children who develop secure attachments early in life tend to have higher self-esteem, better emotional regulation skills, and healthier relationships later in life. I’m going to be drawing on the work of clinical professor of psychiatry Dr Daniel Siegel 4 S’s of secure attachment. This work really heavily influences how I am as a parent and as a teacher. Dan Siegel outlines four key elements needed for secure attachment which are: Safe, Seen, Soothed and Secure. I’m going to talk about how we can achieve each one in our classes. Safe
Seen Here we are talking all about making each child feel important and valued for who they are. This is easier in community classes or extra curricular activities, where numbers are likely to be smaller and you will often have more time to interact with each child and hear what they have to say on an individual level. This can be tricky to achieve when you are teaching large groups, but here are some ways that you might try:
Soothed This is all about helping children to regulate their emotions and teaching coping mechanisms. It also involves supporting children if they are upset or distressed, by offering comfort or reassurance. This can be a tricky one, as when we are delivering a lesson, our main focus needs to be teaching the children. We can’t stop the class every time someone is upset because it will very quickly descend into chaos! Also, with having a small amount of time with the children - we might not be the best person to ‘soothe’ if there is an issue at play. The way that I view this is acknowledging and validating feelings of children. If someone is upset because they didn’t get the soft toy that they wanted- commenting on how hard it is when we feel disappointed. We can offer support and comfort by asking the child if they would like to sit next to us, by having a quick chat with them when the other children are involved in an activity, by checking in with them. Ultimately though, it may be best to pass the information on to another adult who the child has a closer relationship with, such as a teacher, teaching assistant or parent. Secure Children feel secure when they know what to expect both from you and from the lesson itself. This means:
This was just a really quick overview of how we can foster healthy relationships in our kids yoga classes, I hope that you found it useful. If you struggle with any elements discussed here, you may be interested in further training, or mentoring. Don't hesitate to email me at [email protected] My little yellow book…
Everywhere I go I take with me a very tattered yellow book. I have many notebooks and I have an unhealthy habit of buying new notebooks thinking that they are going to transform my life and make me more efficient and organised! But this book is different. I call it my book of sunshine and I use it to brighten dark days. Sometimes, being self-employed can feel a bit dark. Sometimes, I can find myself questioning why I am doing what I am doing. When I need to do a boring admin job that HAS to be done. If I get a job cancelled. If I teach a class and it goes to sh!t! If I have lost motivation, ideas, energy. If I’m considering getting a ‘normal’ job. This little book cheers me up and reminds me why I do what I do. Inside it are lovely moments of sunshine that I have experienced as a kids well-being specialist. In include:
I love doing this for two main reasons. It makes me look for the rays of sunshine They are always there, but sometimes it can be hard to see them without consciously choosing to. I love reading back previous things I’ve said Especially on those dark days that we all have. I just thought I’d share my little book of sunshine with you today. Maybe you already have a book like this, maybe you will consider getting one. It’s really hard running your own business sometimes and remembering why we do what we do is important! I'd love to know what keeps you doing what you are doing on days when it is tough! Using a theme for kids yoga classes and workshops can be a lot of fun.
It can also be a sure way to spend lots of money on a one-time class! Take it from someone who has done this. Today I’d like to share with you some things to consider about theming classes. I hope that you find these thoughts useful. I have definitely had times when I have worked out that after I had spent money on resources for a particular class or workshop, particularly themed ones, I didn’t have much profit at the end of it. It might sound a bit ‘icky’ to be talking in the way and using words like ‘profit’ might not feel comfortable for you. I know that I didn’t say that I had a business for a really long time, but as my own business mentor said to me, the fact is, if you aren’t making a profit, you haven’t got a business, and if that is the case then really what you have is a hobby. This is lovely if you can afford this, but if you- like me, need to earn money teaching kids yoga, then you need to consider where your money is going and for me- themed classes was a big one! So today, I’ll be talking about some ideas that you might like to try to keep costs down and also reduce the impact of our business on the environment too. Instead of this… Buying lots of props that are specific to that particular theme It can be tempting to buy a class set of soft toy hearts for valentines day, or lots of toy pancakes for pancake day (yes, toy pancakes are a thing and yes, at one point I almost bought some!). But before you pay lots of money for something, consider how much use you are likely to get out of it. If you can envisage lots of uses and you feel excited and inspired with lots of creative uses- then go for it. If you can only really think of a couple of times that you would use it - or ways that you could use it- then consider alternatives. Try this… Make your own, or get the kids to make their own Children are so creative and they love using their imaginations. Kids love novelty, they aren’t bothered that a new thing has been home made. Instead of buying pancakes, make some paper or card ones. Instead of buying soft toy hearts, stick some paper hearts onto some bean bags or on soft toys that you already have. Even better, involve the children in some way. Use props that you already have in creative ways, Using your props in different ways is a great way to foster this creativity and imagination. It also saves space in your storage and also saves you money. For example: Some simple artificial petals can be: blossom from trees, snowflakes, fireworks, flowers on the ground, clouds etc. That are fairly inexpensive but can be used in different ways. Pose Cards It can be tempting to buy themed pose cards for a particular class- there are many beautiful ones out there and I can definitely see the draw to these. In fact, my seasonal bundles have themed pose cards in them! You can also use cards for multiple purposes. This is why I created my nameless pose cards which are included in the Captivate with Cards resource and training bundle. They can be used time and time again to represent whatever your theme is. The children can even pick out the pose to suit their ideas. You don’t necessarily need these cards to do this, you could pop a new name over the original name of pose cards that you already have. Picture Cards Creating your own theme cards that you keep and use again in future is a low cost and sustainable way to add a bit of novelty. I have a cheap laminator and it has been really useful for me to laminate cards that I use for theme classes. Instead of …. Buying/ using a book for every theme Using a book can often make us feel organised and like we have a structure to stick to. It can be comforting to use and kids yoga teachers often use books to build their class around. However, using a book every single time can sometimes miss the mark. The kids might not really like the story, they may think that it is beneath their age range, or they might find the structure rigid and boring. I’m not saying never use books, but you may like to consider mixing it up sometimes. Consider…. Creating an adventure with the children around the theme. This could look like picking pictures or toys out of a bag that link to the theme and creating an adventure together. Co-creation is something that Rainbow Kids Yoga talk about in their trainings and I love the freedom and creativity that comes with this type of class. Allowing the kids to take ownership of the session/ class or workshop adds in an extra bit of magic and there will be things that come out of it that you could never have planned to achieve. Instead of … Single use craft activities Surely I can’t be the only kids yoga teacher who has spent a small fortune on craft supplies? I know how it goes, we want the children to take something with them, or we see a really cute craft in The Works or Hobby Craft and it’s reduced! It might be a bargain for one but when we are buying for a whole class it suddenly becomes less than cheap! I’m not saying never do this, but I am saying consider if there is a cheaper more sustainable alternative. Consider… Re-using, repurposing, recycling Some of the most engaging activities that I’ve done in workshops have been the cheapest and simplest. Here are some ideas you might like to try:
It is important to remember why we are doing what we are doing. Why are you giving children this experience? Is it so that it looks picture perfect on Instagram? Or is it so that the children enjoy an experience that feels good within. Because if it is for the second reason, we don’t need lots of expensive props for that. If you are interested in using props effectively in your classes, you might find the training Props like a Pro useful, or this free video or this free guide. Thanks for watching this video. I’d love to know how you make your themed classes sustainable and fun. |
From Julia
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June 2025
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