How to Adapt When Schools Change Your Kids Yoga Plan

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