Planning kids yoga lessons for different ages

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Although I do teach in nursery settings and senior schools occasionally, my experience is mainly with the primary age group. This is the age that I have worked with most in my 20+ years in education. So this blog is mainly with this age group in mind.
When we are teaching yoga to children of different ages it can sometimes feel like we need to do completely different lesson types for each age group. I don’t actually think that is true, but I do think that there are some things that we need to consider when working with children of different ages.
Firstly I would like to bust some myths:

• All kids like toys, stickers, and fun things like that! Just because children are in year 5 and 6 (ages 9, 10 and 11) and may seem like they are too cool for school- most of them still love an opportunity to play and sadly, often don’t get much opportunity any more.
• All age groups like a bit of silliness.
• You don’t have to sing to teach younger children! Sure, they love it, but if you don’t love it– don’t feel you have to do it!
• You don’t need to act like a different person when you are teaching different ages- this is just exhausting!
  

Here are some things to consider about teaching yoga to different ages:
Teaching younger children:

• Young children move, a lot! Get them involved and joining in with everything that you do- if you don’t want them dancing and spinning off around the hall! They want to move their bodies so make sure that they are doing this with you rather than despite you!
• Young children have shorter attention spans, they need shorter activities- use shorter songs
• Talk less! Move more! Their language processing skills are still developing, too much talking can be tiring and confusing.
• The pace of a lesson with younger children may feel ‘pacier’ as to engage them, you’ll need to ‘add novelty’ more regularly.

 
Teaching older children:

• Older children crave freedom and autonomy- allow freedom to choose who they work with, and a variety of tasks to choose from.
• Partner work, and group work (ensure that you are clear here about how you expect them to work together).
• Ask them why! Get them thinking about what benefits the activities that you are teaching have.
• Explain why! Older children especially love to know why they are doing something. Sharing scientific facts is a winner.
  

 
All children need:

• Rules and boundaries, ‘this is what I expect, this is what you can do…’ Get my rules poster and guide here
  
• Demonstration ‘this is an example of what it might look like’
• Structure and understanding what will come next ‘first we will… then….’
• Resources to scaffold their learning, such as visual aids- things like yoga cards to help them base their learning on.
  
• To know what it is they are learning and how this fits into their previous and future learning.

 
Ways to make teaching multiple classes of different ages manageable for you but also suitable for each group:

• Use the same props but do different activities with those props. If you are not sure what to do with the props, check out the training Props like a Pro or the freebie, Top of the Props!
  
• Use music to help you manage timings and the ‘vibe’ of the room. Use different playlists for different age groups- shorter songs for younger kids and ‘cooler’ tracks for older kids (ask them their favourites!).
  
• Keep the structure of the lesson the same, just vary what goes in it. Check out training ‘Structure for Success’ get my free lesson planning grids.
  

I hope that you found this article helpful or interesting. I would love to hear about your approach to teaching different ages.

Is there something you would like me to write or talk about concerning kids yoga? If so, email me.

Would you like to work with me? Email me to discover if I can help you develop skills and grow in confidence in your kids yoga business.
 
X Julia