Yoga Calm for Children: Educating Heart, Mind, and Body

Yoga Calm Workshops - A Sustainable Future: Wellness & Environmental Education

Offered in conjunction with Portland State University, Continuing Education in the Graduate School of Education (CE/ED)

Instructors
Lynea Gillen, MS, Jim Gillen, RYT, & Kim Wilson MEd

From the air we breathe to the food we eat to the exercise and solace we find in nature, our personal wellness is inextricably linked to the health of our environment. 

National studies have shown that the experiential and conceptual use of environmental education as an integrating concept improves student health and learning in math, science, social studies and language arts. But some of the great challenges in teaching environmental education are how to get us and our students reconnected with the natural world, how to stay engaged and hopeful in the face of overwhelming issues and how to work together to creatively respond to our changing world.

This course demonstrates how Yoga Calm and environmental education activities can be used to develop high interest, interdisciplinary lessons that meet and support K-8 health, science and physical education standards and curricula. Through exploring techniques of physical yoga, observation, self-reflection, social/emotional skills development, storytelling and simple schoolyard explorations, teachers, counselors and environmental educators will learn how to cultivate children's innate curiosity and appreciation of their bodies, each other, animal life and other aspects of their natural, daily environment.  This foundation provides the motivation and a powerful thematic basis for integrating more cognitive environmental education and natural science curricula. 

With this creative, highly experiential and integrated approach to environmental education, meaningful connections between personal and planetary health can be drawn, fostering a lifelong interest in science and increased environmental citizenry and stewardship.

Overall, you will learn new activities, games, and processes that:

• Simple Yoga Calm practices to develop observation, reflection, communication and imagination skills

• Explorations and inquiries that draw out children's innate curiosity and appreciation for their communities, animal life and the natural world as motivators for science education and environmental stewardship

• Highly experiential class plans that encompass K-8 health, science and physical education standards and curricula

• Use of accessible, everyday environments (e.g., schoolyards, parks, backyards) to teach science and environmental education curricula, and to provide stewardship opportunities

• Social/emotional skills-development processes that nurture teamwork, communication and compassion, and that teach students how to deal with environmental loss and social conflicts

• Activities to develop imagination, positive thought processes and creative thinking

• Lessons that develop an ecological perspective and understanding of our interconnectedness with the world and empower personal responsibility and engagement

10 CEU/Clock Hours and/or 1 PSU Graduate/Undergraduate Credit provided. Coursework also applies toward the Yoga Calm Certification Teacher Continuing Education. Certificate of training hours provided.

Open to all - no prerequisites or prior yoga experience necessary.

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