Education : Intl Yoga Day : Children's books : Yoga for well-being !

International Yoga Day

credits: courtesy of UNSRC and E. Wolff./ UN

https://www.un.org/en/observances/yoga-day

“Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.”

B. K. S. Iyengar

On 21 June, we celebrate the International Yoga Day, the tradition inscribed in 2016 on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage List.

Recognizing its universal appeal, on 11 December 2014, the United Nations proclaimed 21 June as the International Day of Yoga.

Yoga-sutras 196 aphorisms that constitute the foundational text of Ashtanga yoga (The eight limb path of yoga) 

written some 2200 years ago by Indian Sage Patanjali

credits: Shri Nirmal Chander Dandriyal
© Sangeet Natak Akademi, India, 2015

https://ich.unesco.org/

The International Day of Yoga aims to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing yoga.

Yoga is an ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. The word ‘yoga’ derives from Sanskrit and means to join or to unite, symbolizing the union of body and consciousness.

Today it is practiced in various forms around the world and continues to grow in popularity.

Theme:

"Yoga for Health. Yoga for Well-being."

While the social distancing measures adopted by countries to fight the COVID-19 pandemic have shut down yoga studios and other communal spaces, yoga practitioners have turned to home practice and online yoga resources.

Kids hold their position during a yoga class/ AP

http://si.wsj.net/

With schools closed and summer break activities cancelled, parents may find it challenging to keep their children physically active. Yoga can help. UNICEF says kids can practice many yoga poses without any risk and get the same benefits that adults do. These benefits include increased flexibility and fitness, mindfulness and relaxation.

via Yoga Journal

https://www.yogajournal.com/

Education:

You might be wondering whether it’s safe or even beneficial for your kids to practice yoga. It’s both! Kids can practice many yoga poses without any risk and get the same benefits that adults do. 

These benefits include: increased flexibility and fitness, mindfulness and relaxation.

Yoga is a great form of exercise for people who are looking to stay in shape with a low-impact activity. Of course, not all yoga poses are ideal for children. Like adults, they need to master the basics before moving on to more advanced stretches. 

Books:

So here two lovely books to teach your kids to practice yoga at home. The first one I Am Yoga in English, and two Zen Un Jeu d'Enfant in French.

I Am Yoga

Susan Verde

illustrations : Peter H. Reynolds

https://www.susanverde.com/

"An eagle soaring among the clouds, a star twinkling in the night sky, a camel in the desert, or a boat sailing across the sea . . . Yoga has the power of transformation. Not only does it strengthen bodies and calm minds, but with a little imagination, it can show us that anything is possible..."

I Am Yoga

Susan Verde

illustrations : Peter H. Reynolds

https://www.susanverde.com/

Anything is possible with a dose of imagination. Tree Pose can stretch you above the clouds into the limitless sky. Star Pose can set you asparkle. Boat Pose might float you all the way across the sea. And Camel Pose could expand your loving heart enough to hug the whole wide world.

I Am Yoga

Susan Verde

illustrations : Peter H. Reynolds

https://www.susanverde.com/

I Am Yoga encourages children to explore the world of Yoga and make room in their hearts for the world beyond it.

New York Times bestselling illustrator Peter H. Reynolds teams up with author and certified Yoga instructor Susan Verde in this book about creativity and the power of self-expression.

Zen, un jeu d'enfant 

ÉlodieGaramond & Lise Billien (tome 1 & 2)

illustrations: Soledad Bravi

https://www.amazon.fr/

Elodie Garamond et Lise Bilien partagent leurs connaissances du Yoga, du Qi- Gong, du Shiatsu et de la méditation dans ces deux excellents livres disponibles au format poche : Zen, un jeu d’enfant, illustrations Soledad Bravi.

L'envie de partager le yoga comme un art de vivre, Élodie Garamond et Lise Bilien interprètent avec humour, créativité et pédagogie les plus belles postures et techniques de relaxation de cette pratique ancestrale, aujourd'hui reconnue pour ses innombrables vertus sur les enfants, tant sur le plan physique et physiologique que mental.

Zen, un jeu d'enfant ÉlodieGaramond & Lise Billien (tome 1), 2018

illustrations: Soledad Bravi

J'ai lu (éditions livre de poche

https://livre.fnac.com/

Ce livre d'éveil au yoga et à la relaxation propose plusieurs séances, calmes ou toniques, adaptées à chaque âge et toujours ludiques! 

Chacune est accompagnée des postures illustrées par la talentueuse Soledad Bravi et de nombreux trucs et astuces. 

Le yoga, un jeu d'enfant

Élodie Garamond & Lise Billien

illustrations: Soledad Bravi

https://editions.flammarion.com/

Avec une approche très ludique axée sur l'imitation des animaux, les auteurs Elodie Garamond et Lise Billien proposent aux parents de partager des séances de yoga avec leurs enfants en fonction du moment de la journée, quand ils ont besoin de se calmer, ou au contraire de se défouler, pour qu'ils « s'enracinent » ou s'ouvrent aux autres.

Le yoga, un jeu d'enfant (6 à 11 ans)

Élodie Garamond & Lise Billien

illustration: Soledad Bravi

https://livre.fnac.com/

Ces moments de communication, verbale ou pas, permettront d'avoir un vrai temps d'échange, d'écoute et de complicité pour un développement harmonieux de l'enfant.

Etl les calmer du stress du confinement à cause de la pandemie du coronavirus. Ces livres peuvent être une bonne solution pour calmer les petits enfants un peu électriques sans aller à l'école ou collège à cause de la pandémie.

Et même, après la réouverture de écoles, en plein air, faire do yoga avec vos élèves.

Zen, un jeu d'enfant

ÉlodieGaramond & Lise Billien

illustrations: Soledad Bravi

https://editions.flammarion.com/

Cela joue aussi pour les garçons un peu chahuteurs et bondissants. Mais les bienfaits sont encore bien plus larges et intéressants. 

Des livres également riches de la multitude de «trucs & astuces» de mamans actives et super healthy, curieuses et dynamiques, que vous aimerez partager en famille de la première à la dernière page... pour le bonheur de tous.

Le volume 2 contient un CD & une affiche.

On peut aussi le feuilleter en ligne

via KidsStopPress

Resources UNICEF : Yoga Stretches & Pose Kids

A list of ten yoga poses that are safe and easy to get your children started. These poses are not in a particular sequence, but we’ve indicated the stretches you should do together, at the beginning and end of the practice. You can choose a few of these poses to master or cycle through them all, spending a minute or two on each. In any case, your child should never push themselves or do anything that hurts. It may even be advisable to consult a specialist before having a child take on a new exercise routine.

Namaste !

G-Souto

21.06.2020

update:21.06.2021

Copyright © 2020G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Education : Intl Yoga Day : Children's books : Yoga for well-being !  by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Schools : April in Review & Hold Still Photo Contest Coronavirus

Hold Still contest

https://www.npg.org.uk/hold-still/

The National Portrait Gallery are asking you to help capture the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the UK as we continue to deal with Coronavirus outbreak.

Completely free and open to all ages and abilities, Hold Still will capture a snapshot of the UK at this time,creating a collective portrait of Lockdown which will reflect resilience and bravery, humour and sadness, creativity and kindness and human tragedy and hope.

Hold Still contest

https://www.npg.org.uk/hold-still/

One hundred shortlisted portraits will feature in a virtual exhibition on the Gallery’s website as a gallery without walls, open to all this August. And a selection of images will also be shown across the UK later in the year.

The images can be captured on phones or cameras and each image will be assessed on the emotion and experience it conveys rather than its photographic quality or technical expertise.

 The closing date for submissions is the 18 June 2020.

credits: Stacey Leanne Connell

https://www.npg.org.uk/hold-still/

This is our six year old. Here he is outdoors, showing the Union Jack he created with finger paints and a pillowcase. This has a rainbow handprint rainbow to show the support to the NHS on VE Day.

Cyprus school reopen 

credits:  Iakovos Hatzistavrou/ Getty Images

https://www.gettyimages.com/

Education:

If you teach in the UK, invite your students to participate at this contest by capture a snapshot from a person of their family, someone they know or see.

To inspire, tell students to explore all the entries so far here

Of course, if you live and teach in another country suffering COVID-19, you can propose to a National Museum the same activity. Or even create a vlog with the participation of your students on the same theme.

And now, time to the review of the most popular posts of April...

Here are the most popular posts of the month:

Children's book : My Hero is You : how kids can fight COVID-19

International Dance Day goes online ! #DanceAtHome !

Ensino : 3º Perídodo : O que há de novo & o EAD

Intl Children's Book Day in a special year ! #StayHome !

#CultureAtHome : World Art Day : resources & activities

Intl Day of Sport for Development & Peace : #BeActiveAtHome !

Hoping you're doing well on the reopening schools. Your students need you! They missed school, classmates and you as a teacher!

If you're already back to school, stay safe!

Hope and resilience! Be kind to those who need you. And patient with your students! It's a difficult time to you and to them.

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” 

Helen Keller

G-Souto

28.05.2020

Copyright © 2020G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Schools : April in Review & Hold Still Photo Contest Coronavirus by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Intl Children's Book Day in a special year ! #StayHome !

International Children's Book Day

Poster illustrated by Damijan Stepančič

https://www.ibby.org/

"And I know a girl who grew up to be a teacher. She has told me: Children who hadn’t been read to by their parents are impoverished."

 Peter Svetina, translated by Jernej Županič

I agree. This International Children's Book Day, is the year of children been read to by their parents.  

The world suffers a pandemic time. Covid-19 is everywhere. Schools are closed in most countries, kids are at home schooling by Internet, WhatsApp, tutoring by their teachers. Parents read to the little ones. 

For much of the countries sheltering in place over the past three weeks has been a wearisome but essential civic duty. Families don’t want to get sick themselves and they don’t want to bring any sickness to others. So we stay home. All over the world. It’s the right thing to do.

And it's the time to read books, specially on this day, kids. It's their book day!

And why this special day on 2 April? Because Hans Christian Andersen, the loved Danish novelist was born on or around April 2.

Hans Christian Andersen
credits: Getty Images
https://www.gettyimages.pt/

As we know, he loved children's and wrote the best children's stories. Considered the father of the modern fairy tale, International Children's Book Day (ICBD) is celebrated to inspire the love of reading and to call attention to children's books.

Each year a different National Section of IBBY has the opportunity to be the international sponsor of ICBD. 

https://www.ibby.org/

It decides upon a theme and invites a prominent author from the host country to write a message to the children of the world and a well-known illustrator to design a poster.

IBBY Slovenia is the sponsor for International Children's Book Day 2020.

"Where I live, bushes turn green in late April or early May, and are soon populated by butterfly cocoons. These look like wads of cotton or candy floss, and the pupae devour leaf after leaf until the bushes are stripped bare. When developed, the butterflies fly away, however, the bushes have not been destroyed. As summer comes around, they turn green again, each and every time.

This is a picture of a writer, a picture of a poet. They’re eaten away, bled dry by their stories and poetry, which, when they’re finished, fly away, retire into books and find their audience. This happens again and again."

Peter Svetina, translated by Jernej Županič

https://www.ibby.org/

• Theme 2020? "A Hunger For Words."

IBBY Slovenia is the sponsor for International Children's Book Day 2020. Peter Svetina  is the author  of the message and Damijan Stepančič the illustrator od the poster. 

"The hunger for words manifests itself differently: as gloominess, obliviousness, arrogance. People suffering from this sort of hunger don’t realize their souls are shivering cold, that they’re walking past themselves without noticing. A part of their world is running away from them without them being aware of it.

This type of hunger is sated by poetry and stories.

But is there hope for those who have never indulged in words to ever satisfy this hunger

"There is. The boy reads, almost every day. The girl who had grown up to be a teacher reads stories to her pupils. Every Friday. Every week. If she ever forgets, the children are sure to remind her." 

Peter Svetina, translated by Jernej Županič

Read the message here. It's a lovely message talking about the hunger for words.

Now, let's read to our children or let them read by themselves.

Now

by Antoinette Portis

https://www.amazon.com/

This is my favorite cloud. . .because it's the one I am watching.

This is my favorite tree. . .because it's the one where I'm swinging.

This is my favorite tooth. . .because it's the one that is missing.

Follow a little girl as she takes you on a tour through all of her favorite things, from the holes she digs to the hugs she gives in Now, a clever and poignant picture book by award-winning artist Antoinette Portis.

Perfectly captures a child's lighthearted affection for the here and now.

• Ages 2-6

by Martin Jenkins 

 Stephen Biesty (Illustrator)

https://www.amazon.com/

Find out what life is like on the International Space Station, what the chances are that we will ever settle on Mars, where in the solar system we might find alien life, and why visiting other stars will almost certainly remain a dream. Budding astronomers, junior astronauts, and anyone who has ever gazed up at the stars in fascination will pore over this beautifully intricate yet accessible glimpse of the infinite wonders of space.

For kids fascinated by the expansive universe, the book offers an excellent guide to what's beyond the Earth's atmosphere and how we have gathered this information.

• Ages 8 to 12

Small things

Mel Tregonning

Allen & Unwin

https://www.goodreads.com/

On the cusp of having everything slip from his grasp, a young boy has to find a way to rebuild his sense of self. An ordinary boy in an ordinary world. With no words, only illustrations, Small Things tells the story of a boy who feels alone with worries but who learns that help is always close by. An extraordinary story, told simply and with breath taking beauty.

Be True With Me

Adele Griffen

https://www.amazon.com/

Jean, a privileged, sometimes cruel, often insecure, and always envious girl, is accustomed to living in her glamorous older sister’s shadow. So when Gil Burke, a handsome newcomer with uncertain ties to one of the most powerful families in the exclusive enclave of Sunken Haven, notices Jean, she is smitten. Then Fritz, a girl from outside the gilded gates who humiliated Jean in the island’s tennis championship last year, falls for Gil herself. Soon the girls are competing for much more than a tennis trophy, with higher stakes than either of them can imagine.

A riveting tale of romantic suspense with a shocking twist ending set within the gates of a Fire Island colony of the super rich.

•  Ages 14 and up

@jk_rowling

Parents, teachers and carers working to keep children amused and interested while we’re on lockdown might need a bit of magic, so I’m delighted to launch...

https://harrypotterathome.com

J.K. Rowling has launched an online Harry Potter hub for kids, families and fans to tap into during the coronavirus lockdown.

Pottermore Publishing and Scholastic are delighted to introduce Harry Potter At Home to help children, parents, carers and teachers add a touch of Harry Potter magic to our new daily lives.

Harry Potter and the Philospher Stone

https://www.pottermore.com/news/

"And what happens with these poems and stories?

Words in poetry and in stories are food. Not food for the body, not food that can fill up your stomach. But food for the spirit and food for the soul."

Peter Svetina, translated by Jernej Županič

I am a huge fan of reading in the classroom. This year online schooling home. This is also a chance to encourage children to try new things, broaden their tastes, venture out of their comfort zones.  And of course, reading aloud means that you can introduce them to books than they would be able to handle independently, which is both a pleasure in itself and a useful way of planting seeds of interest for the future. Teachers have an ubiquitous responsibility to encourage the love of reading in students by exploring so many magical books! this time on informal learning. My usual readers know how love to write about reading. I often write about books, specially children books. You will find different posts along the years presenting different books.  International Children's Book Day is a fantastic motivation to tell and experiment with our students how reading can be a gift by stimulating the imagination and "offering creative solutions to obstacles that we will find along the way." As this year of staying home. In the midst of chaos, reading to a child can create a small oasis of calm, for both of you. If the one thing this awful crisis has given us, it’s time. Books and children respond well to that. "And what about the writer and the poet? As summer comes, they’ll turn green again. And again, they’ll be eaten away by their stories and their poems that will then fly away in all directions. Again and again." Peter Svetina, translated by Jernej Županič  G-Souto 02.04.2020 Copyright © 2020G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Intl Children's Book Day in a special year !#StayHome ! by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.