“Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse!” by Laura Numeroff is one of my favorite Valentine’s Day books. There are several animals (mouse, dog, cat, bunny, moose, fox, pig) so it is great for a kids yoga class. Each animal in the story has a unique strength & I love how Mouse takes the time to make a special card for each of his friends…. and the friends have a special surprise for Mouse 🙂
How we did the poses for this book: mouse – child’s pose, upward facing dog, cat, bunny breaths (3 quick sniffs in), moose -a variation on “deer” pose from Yoga In My School (http://yogainmyschool.com/2010/07/19/kids-yoga-poses-deer-pose-marichiyasana-ii/) – we added holding our hands up on our heads as antlers, fox – the sign for “fox” http://www.babysignlanguagedictionary-mysmarthands.com/fox_-_ASL_sign_for_fox.html – looks like the Gyan mudra around the nose, & pig – the yoga freeze dance since pig & mouse are dancing on that page in the book 🙂
Symbols that I made to use with the book are available as “exclusive content” to supporters over on my page on Ko-fi (1-page PDF without watermark):
I think Pig & Mouse are dancing to the MC Yogi song “Give Love”… so we did Yoga Freeze Dance to this song. When the music stops you freeze in your favorite yoga pose.
(http://www.yogafriends.com/mc_yogi_give_love.mp3 – “right click” on this link & “save target as” to save the mp3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpVUih5nY9g
The Valentine’s Day playlist on my Soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/omazing-kids-yoga/sets/valentines-day-playlist/
Bari Koral’s Hearts song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejwrUXNoDds
Hugs & Kisses Pose from Yoga Rocks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvLeXxbA2Wc (another version at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5HKR8krGpg)
This is a great feel good pose, hugging yourself and throwing kisses out to the world. This pose helps kids to feel love and give love.
Sitting tall on your yoga mat, bend your legs so your knees are up and your feet are close to you. Wrap your arms around your legs and give yourself a big squeeze for “Hug”. Then open your arms and legs up and out into a big “X” for “Kiss” making a kiss sound.
Fun partner pose ideas & a free printable in this post from Playful Learning: Yoga for Kids: V-Day Edition
Heart Pose from Sprout
Mini video on Sprout website: http://50.57.13.175/sprout/Activities/detail.aspx?id=5a853f61-20b4-4f4c-ae7a-997a0181a942
Partner Heart Pose from Yoga in Mar Vista
click on the photo to go to their Facebook page 🙂
Strike a Valentine’s Day Yoga Pose! 5 Festive Stretches For Kids
Heart Mudra – Sit with your legs crossed. Then hide your arms behind your back before you show your valentine the heart you made for them with your hands.
See all 5 poses from Lara Benusis, the youth program director at Pure Yoga at: http://www.lilsugar.com/Valentines-Day-Yoga-Poses-Kids-13881568
We worked on friendship social skills during our Valentine’s Day yoga class by asking each other about our two favorite colors & two favorite animal valentines. Then we colored two animal valentines to give to each of our friends in the class.
animal valentines to color
animal valentines (colored version)
Depending on how much time you have, you could also do yoga poses for the animals on the valentines.
We made this super easy heart-shaped valentine holder from Making Learning Fun: http://www.makinglearningfun.com/themepages/ValentineHeartHolder.htm
I saved it as a PDF to make it easier to print: heart valentine holder printable
Heart Mandalas: I saved 24 heart mandalas in a PDF document to make it easier to print them – heart mandalas. A valentine’s gift of 2 dozen mandalas 🙂 Coloring mandalas is a calming activity for most kids. Some of these mandalas are simple & some are more complex so please keep each child’s level of fine motor skills & ability to handle detail in mind when picking ones for them to color.
Links to the source for each mandala can be found on each picture in the album on my OMazing Kids Yoga Facebook page: www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.317072695010409.90378.174264525957894&type=3
Note: These mandalas are for non-commercial use only.
Look at the cool handout that Laura Fuller from Yoga in Mar Vista made with one of the Heart Mandalas! Click on each pic to open up that PDF (2 separate 1-page PDF’s):
Love coloring sheet
Make your own Candy Heart messages:
http://www.cryptogram.com/hearts/
Link to the HeartMath website (mentioned on page 2 of the mandala handout): www.heartmath.org,
Shift and Shine Technique® for Ages 3-6: http://www.heartmath.org/free-services/tools-for-well-being/shift-and-shine-age-3-to-6.html?submenuheader=2,
HeartShift™ Tool for Ages 7 – 11: http://www.heartmath.org/free-services/tools-for-well-being/heartshift-age-7-to-11.html?submenuheader=2
The Quick Coherence Technique® for Ages 12-18: http://www.heartmath.org/free-services/tools-for-well-being/quick-coherence-age-12-to-18.html?submenuheader=2
Loving Kindness Meditation – click pic to open PDF (Source: SoulShine Life – Yoga for Kids and Families – Facebook post)
Valentine’s Day Finger Puppets:
Valentine finger puppets (color version)
& Valentine finger puppets (black & white version – for kids to color)
A fun idea for Valentine’s Day Affirmations from Stress Free Kids:
More Valentine’s Day coloring pages: http://twistynoodle.com/coloring-pages/holiday/valentines-day/
Lots of great free Valentine’s Day stuff on the Super Simple Songs website: http://www.supersimplesongs.com/valentines/
A craft for later: These would take more time than we would have in a kids yoga class but would be fun to make at home and a great way to reuse broken crayons: http://thelongthread.com/?p=5646 & more tips: http://www.makeandtakes.com/recycled-chunky-crayons
Want even more ideas for Valentine’s Day themed yoga? Check out these posts: http://yogainmyschool.com/2010/02/11/kids-valentines-day-yoga-class/, http://yogainmyschool.com/2012/02/13/valentines-week-tlc-challenge/ & http://www.lilsugar.com/Valentines-Day-Yoga-Poses-Kids-13881568.
Looking for even more great books?
Love and Kisses by Sarah Wilson
Here are the symbols I made to go with it. I put a small piece of velcro on the back of each heart & on the front of each character so kids can add a “kiss” to each one as we read the book…. great for working on vocabulary, following directions, great book for kids yoga with the added message of the love you give coming back to you…. https://omazingkidsllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/love-kisses.pdf
All Kinds of Kisses by Nancy Trafuri
Totally LOVING the new book “All Kinds of Kisses” by Nancy Tafuri! Each spread has an animal and how they kiss their little ones (ex: “Little Piglet loves Oink kisses.”). Again lots of animals so it would be great for kids yoga, great for teaching vocabulary (including names for the babies of each animal), teaching animal sounds, great repeated line (good for emergent literacy, use of a BigMack voice output communication aide, intraverbal fill-ins in an ABA Verbal Behavior program, etc…) and the bluebird is included somewhere on each page so it encourages looking for that detail. I made symbols for this book too: https://omazingkidsllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/all-kinds-of-kisses.pdf
Big Hugs, Little Hugs by Felicia Bond
I love this new book by Felicia Bond too! Although it would fit with a Valentine’s Day theme, it could be used anytime of the year & has tons of opportunities for kids yoga poses/activities. And for SLP’s out there, lots of great vocabulary & opposites word pairs. I got a great deal on this book at Sam’s Club 🙂 Here are the symbols I made to go with the book: https://omazingkidsllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/big-hugs-little-hugs.pdf
How Do I Love You? by Marion Dane Bauer
The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond
Never Too Little to Love by Jeanne Willis
My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall (see ideas on the Storyoga Facebook post: http://tinyurl.com/7p3p6xq; a printable resource guide from the publisher: http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/harperchildrensImages/Printable/my%20heart%20is%20like%20a%20zoo%20activities.pdf )
Cute Carson Dellosa heart crafts to go with this book – click pic to open PDF:
Love is the Color of a Rainbow by Kathy Parra (see my blog post for a review & giveaway: http://omazingkidsyoga.com/2012/02/13/review-giveaway-love-is-the-color-of-a-rainbow-plus-some-rainbow-yoga-ideas/)
Can you tell that I love Valentine’s Day? 🙂
Angela Moorad, MS, CCC-SLP, IAYT, RCYP-2
Speech-Language Pathologist
Founder of OMazing Kids Yoga, LLC – inclusive yoga for kids & teens of all abilities in Norman, Oklahoma
Radiant Child Yoga Certified – Levels 1 & 2
E-Mail: amoorad1@juno.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/OMazingKidsYoga
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/amoorad1
Blog: http://omazingkidsyoga.com
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Captain Grimy – Losing his leg to some greedy pirates turned Captain Grimy into a dirty, mean sea captain. But when a smart dolphin decides to show him respect and love, Captain Grimy cleans himself up and changes his ways. A beautiful story of how we can help change others by seeing the goodness deep inside.
Manny the Mouse – After losing his tail to the baker’s cat, Manny the mouse quickly learns the consequences of stealing flour from the bakery. In this delightful and twisted tale of a tail, the mouse learns the importance of respecting what belongs to others.
OMazing Kids AAC Consulting 