“Teach yoga in the classroom? But I’m not a yoga teacher!” If you’ve thought this, then you’re not alone.

Yoga is an effective way to keep healthy and reduce stress levels. By bringing it to your classroom, it can help everything to run more calmly. 

But it’s not something everyone is an expert in. In this blog, we’ll look at ways to bring yoga to your class even if you’re not a yoga teacher. 

5 Reasons Why Doing Yoga in the Classroom Is Important

Yoga will help your students individually and as a class. As a result, this is going to be good for you too. Yoga can help to transform your classroom ethos and atmosphere. 

Yoga can:

1. Promote physical health and wellbeing

Yoga helps coordination through fine and gross motor control. By bringing yoga into your classroom, you’ll increase children’s strength, flexibility and body awareness. It’s important these are learned side by side so children know and understand how to look after their bodies and work safely. 

2. Calm your classroom

Classrooms can be a busy hustle and bustle of daily activity. Taking a little time out regularly can help you find a cohesive reliable down time. These times build a feeling of calm and safety. This is particularly important for those children who experience anxiety and can find the school environment intimidating. Yoga helps children develop self-confidence and become more aware of how they are feeling. 

3. Move the body so the mind is ready to focus

When you take care of the physical body and allow it to move, it becomes more receptive to focusing. This is vital to learning. For some children this will be the difference of being able to learn or not learn. You can encourage those with high movement needs to take a yoga movement break so they can self-regulate.  

4. Inclusive exercise where everyone succeeds

One of the greatest things about yoga is that it’s for everyone. Children can feel unmotivated in PE because they feel like they can’t succeed. In yoga, children have space to take it at their pace. The flexible and less flexible can practice together. When we focus on the quality of yoga, everyone can succeed. 

5. Make your classroom a happy place

When you bring calmness and yoga into your classroom, it becomes a happier place for everyone. The children benefit from feeling relaxed within the boundaries of the class. You can relax knowing that you can come back to restoring a harmonious atmosphere with yoga when needed. 

You can see similar benefits for children at home too. If you’re reading this as a parent, we would also recommend the following poses for use at home.