Seedling Yoga and The New Zealand Curriculum

Key Competancies

Thinking:

The ability to notice the type of thinking that is, or was, happening in any context and identify how that affects how they think, feel and respond to situations in their lives.

Relating to Others:

Become aware of how their words and actions affect themselves and how they then choose to relate to others.

Language, Texts and Symbols:

Create a personal vocabulary to describe and communicate emotions and needs to more effectively understand and respond to their own needs and the needs of their whanau, friends and communities.

Managing Self:

Students who manage themselves are able to make choices and take actions to care for themselves. By better knowing themselves and possessing a tool-kit to care for themselves they know when to lead, when to follow, and when and how to act independently.

Participating and Contributing:

By empowering young people with tools to better understand and manage themselves they develop confidence to willingly participate in new experiences and cultivate a sense of belonging

Learning Areas

Each Lesson Plan is designed to align with Achievement Objectives from Specific Curriculum Learning Areas. These are then translated into Success Criteria and Special Learning Outcomes’s (SLO’s) that supports and guides teaching, assessment and reflection.

Using the Health and Physical Education curriculum as a foundation it also includes suggestions for Achievement Objectives and SLO’s in Mathematics, English, Social Sciences and Science.
Yoga embodies The New Zealand Curriculum’s vision for our young people by exposing them to activities that encourage and facilitate thinking about themselves, their emotions, feelings, physical and mental needs and exposing them to practical solutions to support and manage these needs and experiences.

Through Yoga students are:

Encouraged and empowered to talk about, and develop confidence in, moving and using their bodies
become more resilient through an increased tool kit for caring for their physical well being and creating a vocabulary for identifying and communicating their emotions to care for their mental and emotional wellbeing
able to discover and access support tools and strategies for themselves and others by developing self awareness and understanding of how emotions may make them respond to certain people and environments.

What do you mean by “Yoga”?

Seedling Yoga Defines “Yoga” as Stretching, Breathing and Awareness.

We do not teach spirituality in any form but rather focus on the practical and anatomical functions of the stretches.

The purpose is to provide students with useful, practical skills that enable them to stretch their bodies and control their breathing whilst paying attention to what sensations and thoughts these actions bring up for them both inside and out of the classroom.

How does it work?

Designed as a Unit Plan consisting of an overview and weekly lesson plans, this Term long program is designed to stand alone or it can be taught as a Term Inquiry unit and integrated across other curriculum subjects including but not limited to Mathematics, English, Social Science and Science.

Teaching is a creative act and so the sky is the limit to how creative you want to be with the program. In your life outside being their classroom teacher you might be an expert in anatomy or have experience with neuroscience, sport or nutrition. There is space to include not only your prior knowledge but also your students.

But what about data for Report Writing?

This program has been written by a qualified Primary School teacher which means we thought about this!

Each lesson plan identifies specific Achievement Objectives and Success Criteria.

It provides a marking sheet with space for notes so you are able to easily assess students learning and participation for record keeping and report writing.

The Yoga teacher also takes their own notes and reflections in order to support your Overall Teacher Judgement (OTJ).

But what about when the Yoga Teacher leaves, what do we do then?

This program has been designed to Empower Youth which means that we want you to be able to continue without the Yoga Teacher. Ultimately we want you to be able to continue using Yoga in your classroom and we teach specifically so that you have th relevant knowledge and resources to do that.

Of course, we are always here to support you and your Yoga teacher will continue to be available to answer questions and adapt the program. A Seedling Teacher is a part of their community and therefore part of yours and they want to make it easy for you and your students to use these tools inside and outside the classroom.