70 Fun and Easy Printable Yoga Poses for Kids
Looking for a fun classroom brain break that doesn’t hype up your kids? Yoga is perfect for keeping your kids calm and getting them moving. Help your students develop strength, flexibility, and mindfulness with these 70 printable yoga poses.
What is Yoga and Why is it Beneficial for Kids?
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice that originated in ancient India. It uses gentle, low-impact movements, breathing techniques, and meditation strategies that encourage calmness, flexibility, and mindfulness.
Yoga has many benefits for kids. It can improve their physical health, reduce stress and anxiety, teach them mindfulness, and enhance their overall well-being.
Yoga is perfect for the classroom.
Research has found classroom yoga practice helps children to focus and concentrate. It also teaches children to be mindful and self-aware. For kids, yoga is a healthy habit that is beneficial physically, academically, and emotionally.
If you want to discover all the benefits yoga can have in your classroom, check out this blog post – The 11 Amazing Benefits of Yoga for Children
Use yoga in your classroom to
improve your student's attention and focus.
help them improve their memory.
boost academic performance.
alleviate stress and anxiety in your children.
build resilience.
provide your students with a healthy coping mechanism.
improve their core strength.
develop motor skills – both fine and gross motor skills.
assist with their self-regulation.
promote mindfulness in your children.
enhance student well-being.
Want to harness all these amazing benefits of kid’s yoga in your classroom?
I have a freebie to help you.
This FREE Classroom Yoga Printables Set contains:
8 free printable yoga cards to print. They are A5 size and organized according to the types of positions. These cards are colour coded.
2 standing poses = yellow cards
2 kneeling poses = blue cards
2 sitting poses = green cards
2 laying down poses = pink cards
An A4 prompt poster.
These free yoga cards are a sample of my larger and more comprehensive set of 70 Illustrated Yoga Pose Cards and BONUS Yoga Flow Posters 👇
This comprehensive set of 70 Illustrated Yoga Cards and Yoga Flow Posters are just what you need if you want to engage and calm your students while promoting physical fitness and mindfulness at the same time.
These easy-to-follow cards have been designed specifically for the early years classroom. They feature fun, age-appropriate illustrations of yoga poses that will help your students improve their balance, coordination, and concentration.
Each card includes clear, simple instructions and child-friendly illustrations that are easy for young children to follow.
If you don’t have a lot of experience with yoga yourself, these cards are perfect for you. You can easily use them to incorporate yoga into your classroom routine because they have clear illustrations and easy-to-follow instructions. They make it easy to teach yoga even if you're not a yoga expert!
THIS SET CONTAINS:
70 illustrated yoga cards. Each card is A5 size and organised according to the types of positions. They are colour coded. (22 standing poses = yellow cards, 18 kneeling poses = blue cards, 16 sitting poses = green cards and 14 laying down poses = pink cards)
4 blank A4-sized yoga flow posters - also colour coded.
Plus 8 short 5-step illustrated yoga flow posters in A4 size.
How to Use the Printable Yoga Poses for Kids
Using these printable yoga poses in your classroom is easy and fun!
Simply print out all the different yoga poses and then cut down the center. There are 2 illustrated poses to each A4 sheet.
These illustrated yoga cards are a great tool for teachers looking for ways to incorporate movement breaks into their daily routine. You don't need any special equipment to practice yoga in the classroom. It can even be done with students sitting or standing at their desks. The easy-to-follow instructions and illustrated poses make it so simple to help your students quickly and easily master basic yoga poses.
These cards are colour coded for easy reference. The 22 standing poses have a yellow card border. There are blue 18 kneeling poses and 16 green sitting poses too. Then there are 14 cards with laying down poses. These cards are colour coded with a pink border.
I love using them as classroom brain breaks. They are a calm way to break up longer lessons and the perfect movement transition between lessons too.
There are so many ways you can use them in the classroom.
You can use them …
As movement activities in your calm down space.
As classroom movement and brain breaks.
To transition between lessons.
As a relaxing circle time activity.
As a fun and engaging homework activity.
As an activity in your gross motor program.
In outdoor play areas.
As part of an obstacle course.
A Classroom Yoga Area
I have used these cards to set up a designated Yoga Investigation area in my play-based classroom.
Because there are 70 colour-coded cards to choose from, it’s easy to create yoga sequences or yoga flows for your children to follow. The colour coding makes this so easy.
I like to start with a yellow standing pose, then follow that with either a blue kneeling or green sitting pose – or both!! Then we usually finish with a pink laying down pose.
You can follow this order or make your own. There’s no right way. If you have more time, do 2 or 3 standing poses before you move into the sitting and kneeling poses.
Short on time? Just do one of the sitting poses.
A Fun Yoga Game
You might like to use the cards to play a game of yoga memory. Follow these steps to play this fun and engaging yoga game
A child chooses a yoga pose card and demonstrates it for the class to follow.
A second child then chooses another yoga pose card. They demonstrate the first pose and then add their second yoga pose to the sequence. The class then does both poses.
Then a third child comes to choose another yoga pose card to add to the sequence. You can play this game for as long as you like.
There are many different ways to use these yoga pose cards in your classroom.
Yoga Stories
Another fun way to use them is by incorporating them into a yoga adventure story. Simply pick 3 or 4 cards that can be used to create a simple story.
There are heaps of different animal yoga poses in the set to make storytelling fun and easy!
For example, you could choose Mountain + Cascade + Turtle.
Then tell a story to the children about how you climbed a mountain to see a waterfall cascade and were surprised to find a turtle sitting on a rock close by. As you tell the story, do each yoga pose together to create a yoga sequence.
You might like to co-write the story together or model writing this story as you do each pose. There’s always a way to include some Math and English learning intentions in your classroom yoga practice. I'm sure you'll find many ways to incorporate yoga into your lesson plan!
Young kids just love these types of yoga stories, so don't be surprised when they become a regular part of your classroom routine!
Teaching Tip: Using the yoga pose cards for storytelling is a great way to reinforce the elements of a story when you are learning about retells in the Term 2 English Unit. Make sure to use the language First, Next, Then, and Finally in your story.
And as a BONUS, there are 4 blank A4-sized yoga posters using this language in the colour-coded set of 70 Illustrated Yoga Pose Cards and BONUS Yoga Flow Posters
You will use these printable yoga cards over and over in your classroom.
Store them in a document wallet or put them on a keyring so you can grab them easily and flip through to find the perfect pose.
Use Warm-up Yoga Poses to Start With
Before diving into the more challenging yoga poses, it's important to start any physical activity with some deep breaths and gentle warm-up poses to get the body ready. Always practice gentle stretching exercises when you first start off a yoga routine.
Encourage your students to take their time with each yoga pose and to focus on their breath.
Most standing, seated, kneeling, and laying down yoga poses are safe and beneficial for children, but always take more care with any poses that involve twists or backbends.
SAFETY FIRST
You should always ensure that the yoga poses and exercises you are doing with the children in your class are appropriate for their age and ability level. You will need to provide clear instructions and modify poses for children with physical limitations or disabilities.
You should always watch the children carefully during any classroom yoga practice to ensure they are practicing safely. The children should be told about the gentleness of yoga and to NEVER attempt any pose that hurts or makes them feel uncomfortable in any way. Body awareness is important in yoga.
Some great yoga poses to try as warm-ups with your children are
Standing pose
The Star
The Tree pose
The Hero
The Cobra pose
The Child’s pose
Balloon Breathing
The Lotus
Salutation Seal
The Fish
Use Standing Poses for Balance and Strength
If you want to build balance and body strength in your students, standing poses are a great activity. These simple poses help to build the inner core muscles and can also help to improve posture and leg strength. Standing poses are empowering and can build self-confidence in children too.
For maximum benefit, encourage your children to focus on their breath and to engage their core muscles as they hold each pose. It’s a good idea to switch sides when doing moving standing poses. This helps to work both sides of the body equally.
There are 22 different standing poses for your children to try in the set of 70 Illustrated Yoga Pose Cards and BONUS Yoga Flow Posters
Use Relaxation Yoga Poses for Calming Down
Of all the reasons that make these cards a valuable classroom resource, using them to help children self-regulate and calm down is the best! Yoga is just a fantastic tool for helping kids relax.
The following poses are some of my favourite kids yoga poses. If you are looking for a wonderful way for your students to relax, you can try any of these
Child’s Pose
Belly Breathing
The Baby pose
Savasana
The Fish
The Flower
Butterfly pose
The Lotus
The Seated Eagle pose
The Rainbow
The Ragdoll
The Mountain pose
Half Forward Fold
Any of these different poses will help your students lower their high energy levels and help them to release pent-up tension or anxiety. I love how many of my students remember to use these poses at home when it’s their bedtime too.
We will often do these poses at school when we need to prepare for changes in our classroom routines. Routine changes can cause anxiety for some of our students. Through yoga, children can learn to manage their anxiety and self-regulate. Yoga is one of the best ways I know to calm an anxious child.
Self-awareness, self-acceptance, and self-control are all developed through regular yoga practice. These skills will help your students to regulate their feelings and manage any stressful situations that might happen at school.
CONCLUSION
So grab these 70 Illustrated Yoga Pose Cards and BONUS Yoga Flow Posters to help you start some fun and easy yoga practice in your classroom.
Harness all the benefits of classroom yoga – keep your kids calm and get them moving!!
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