Classroom Yoga Breaks: Brief Exercises to Create Calm (Hardcover)
Description
Easy and brief ways to incorporate yoga techniques in the classroom.
Stress is everywhere in kids’ lives and impacts their well-being at home and school. Exercise is known to reduce stress, yet students have never been more sedentary. And teachers have little time to add yet something else into the school day.
Enter Louise Goldberg and Classroom Yoga Breaks. In this essential book, readers will find a comprehensive guide to incorporating short yoga breaks into their classrooms. Teachers will learn how to promote movement, learning readiness, attention skills, cooperative community, and self-regulation—all in just a few minutes a day. Goldberg’s evidence-based principles of “Creative Relaxation”—creating a peaceful environment where students feel safe, engaged, successful, and independent, promoting empathy and mutual respect—lead the way toward successful use of yoga in the classroom.
The book includes a step-by-step curriculum for integrating yoga breaks into the classroom and over 200 illustrated exercises—enough to incorporate one every day of the school year. Twelve units are arranged by theme, with lessons consisting of one- to five-minute exercises, that can be done from the seat or standing. Each unit includes topics for discussion or writing, movement, breathing exercises, focusing activities, relaxation techniques, mindful practices, and self-calming skills.
Yoga is a complement to social and emotional learning, mindfulness training, and physical education. It can help address bullying behaviors, students with autism and special needs, and promote overall resilience and executive function. With this book in hand, readers can integrate these fun, relaxing, and healthy breaks into the daily lives of their students and themselves.
About the Author
Louise Goldberg has been a yoga teacher and educator for over 35 years. She is the author of Yoga Therapy for Children with Autism and Special Needs (2013), Creative Relaxation® Yoga for Children DVD (2004), and co-author of S.T.O.P. and Relax, Your Special Needs Yoga Toolbox (2006). She is the director of the Yoga Center of Deerfield Beach, Florida, and is a licensed massage therapist. She leads trainings in Creative Relaxation yoga for children to educators, therapists, and parents nationally. Louise has been a reading specialist and has taught English at the middle school, high school, and college levels. She leads yoga and meditation retreats in Florida and Europe.
Praise For…
The book makes a great gift for your own children’s teachers, because it will not only assist your child now, it will be a gift that keeps giving for years to come.
— The Huffington Post
[D]eserves a spot on the bookshelves of educators and school administrators at every grade level. . . . Goldberg’s instructions are concise and the accompanying photographs provide an additional layer of information . . . it is my hope that it will find its way into the hands of teachers, parents and school administrators throughout the country. With the availability of this resource, I believe we can transform the classroom experience for our youth, one breath at a time!
— LifeForce Yoga Newsletter
Louise Goldberg has successfully written the most comprehensive book on yoga for children and in schools available. Grounded in science, full of helpful anecdotes, and rich with engaging, user-friendly activities, Classroom Yoga Breaks brilliantly makes the case for yoga integration at school, and then guides the reader through best practices for implementation. A "must-read" for anyone who wishes to support children and youth with tools for physical, social, emotional, and cognitive well-being in and out of school!
— Lisa Flynn, founder of ChildLight Yoga® and Yoga 4 Classrooms®, author of Yoga 4 Classrooms Activity Deck and Yoga for Children
Our adult population has discovered the benefits of yoga for managing stress and emotion, increasing mind-body awareness and mindfulness, improving physical fitness and well-being, and enhancing quality of life. It is high time we shared these life skills with our children and adolescents in school settings. This comprehensive volume thoroughly describes the scientific rationale for yoga in schools and provides simple and practical strategies for the implementation of yoga effectively and seamlessly into the school curriculum.
— Sat Bir Singh Khalsa, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Classroom Yoga Breaks is a fabulously comprehensive book on the why and how of yoga as a pathway to learning readiness and self-regulation. Louise Goldberg goes into great detail presenting compelling studies and the neurobiology to support yoga breaks—while making it accessible and utterly compelling. If you are thinking of implementing yoga in your school or district, this is THE book to get you up and running.
— Joanne Spence, Executive Director, Yoga in Schools