WOCY for Nurseries is about enhancing the nursery's physical and mental wellbeing programme…mindfulness…yoga…to create the ideal state of mind for learning!

There are great benefits of maintaining the health and wellbeing of children from a young age.

At nursery children can learn the skills to develop:

• resilience, to stay calm and positive

• strength, with movements to maintain a healthy body and mind 

• flexibility, to accept understand diversity and the world we live in 

WOCY for Nurseries is about enhancing the nursery's physical and mental wellbeing programme, including mindfulness, through yoga to create the ideal state of mind for learning!

‘The room is their yoga mat'!

Although they want freedom and independence, pre-schoolers also learn through repetition and structure. So, each class includes a familiar breathing exercise, a warm up and the absolute favourite Sun Salutation song, accompanied by Kira Willey’s Dance for the Sun.

Each weekly theme is also related to Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) topics to build on their learning.  We also engage with as many senses as possible. It’s about story-telling, using expressive voices and sounds, song, pictures, photos, picture story books, bubbles, and more. This engages with a range of different learning styles, meeting children ‘where they are at’. In addition, research has shown that active learning through movement, like yoga and dance has the benefit of embedding learning further.

Coming to the end of class, after a period of yoga pose activity, once again the children encounter a familiar structure which helps them to engage with a period of calm and relaxation.

Here are some examples of classes, and we continually develop classes with new themes:

• EYFS topics: Dinosaurs, Space, Mini Beasts, the Jungle, Autumn, Spring, the Beach, the Farm

• British values: Diwali, Easter yoga, Chinese New Year

I can provide a more detailed list of weekly topics, upon request.

Lastly, we know when doing yoga with pre-schoolers, their attention span can vary. Some may do yoga for 5 to 15 minutes doing one to five yoga poses before they wondered off to something else! However, when pre-schoolers do yoga in nurseries, with other children or in a in a mixed aged setting, older and younger , they are often able to engage for a 25-30 minute class.