St. Patrick’s Day Yoga

I love St. Patrick’s Day!  Don’t you?

I have fond memories of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day (March 17^th) with family and friends around the world.  The shades of green and joyous attitudes on this special celebration are hard to beat.  It’s also a fun holiday to celebrate with your children at home, in your studio, or in your classroom because it’s richness in color and culture.

Along with dressing up in green and doing St. Patrick’s Day’s crafts, you could practice the following St. Patrick’s Day yoga sequence to learn about animals that live in Ireland.  It’s another place that I would like to visit one day.  Have you been?

St. Patrick’s Day Yoga Sequence

Take a pretend journey to Ireland to learn about the flora and fauna of this magnificent country.  Bring your enthusiasm, imagination, and willingness to have fun with your children.  Practicing barefoot on a non-slip surface and wearing comfortable clothing will make the experience even more enjoyable.  Check out the printable Ireland kids yoga lesson plan for further tips and guidelines.

Ireland Yoga Poses for Kids

1. Mountain Range in County Kerry – Mountain Pose

(Stand tall, with your arms out to your sides.)

2. Oak Tree – Tree Pose

(Stand on one leg and bend the other leg to touch your inner thigh.)

3. Golden Eagle – Eagle Pose

(Stand on one leg and wrap your other leg around your standing leg. Cross your arms out in front.)

4. Squirrel – Pick up acorns with your toes

(Pretend to pick up acorns with your toes or pick up cotton balls with your toes.)

5. Bat – Standing Forward Bend

(Bend at the waist, letting your arms hang down like a bat’s wings.)

6. European Brown Frog – Squat Pose

(Squat like a frog, then hop.)

7. Common Lizard – Plank Pose

(Balance flat over your hands and toes like a plank.)

8. Red Fox – Cat Pose with Gyan Mudra

(Come to your hands and knees. Make an A-Okay sign over your nose.)

9. Dolphin – Dolphin Pose

(Do the downward-facing dog variation with bent arms.)

10. Sea Turtle – Extended Child’s Pose

(Child’s pose with arms extended out front, then breathe.)

11. Shark – Locust Pose

(Rest on your belly, bring your legs back, and clasp your arms behind you.)

12. Seal – Locust Pose

(On your belly, bring your legs back and stretch your arms forward.)

13. Field Mouse – Child’s Pose

(Come to child’s pose,  then breathe.)

14. Irish Hare – Hero Pose with Bunny Breath

(Sit on your heels, take 4-6 short breaths, then a long exhale.)

15. Stoat (Short-tailed Weasel) – Kneeling

(Come up to kneel on your knees, using your hands as paws, and look around like a weasel.)

16. Hedgehog – Hero Pose with Lotus Mudra

(Sit on your heels, with your fingers stretched out. Put your palms together in mudra to represent the spines of a hedgehog.)

17. Badger – Hero Pose with Gyan Mudra

(Sit on your heels. Make an A-Okay sign with each hand over an eye to look like the badger’s eyes.)

18. Red Deer – Seated Twist

(With one leg stretched out front and the other leg held close to your body, twist.)

19. Wildflower – Flower Pose

(Sit on your buttocks, with the soles of your feet together. With your hands on your ankles, lift your bent legs up and balance on your buttocks.)

20. Canal or Lake – Resting Pose

(Lay on your back, with your arms and legs stretched out. Breathe and relax.)

Check out the list of Kids Yoga Poses for images of the poses.

Click here for a printable St. Patrick’s Day Kids Yoga Lesson Plan.

Shorter St. Patrick’s Day Yoga Sequence

If you are working with younger children or if you have only a few minutes, then try these six simple yoga poses for kids.

Mountain Range in County Kerry – Mountain Pose
(Stand tall with your arms out to your sides.)

Oak Tree – Tree Pose
(Standing on one leg, bend the other leg to touch your inner thigh.)

European Brown Frog – Squat Pose
(Squat like a frog, then hop.)

Red Fox – Cat Pose with Gyan Mudra
(Come to your hands and knees. Make an A-Okay sign over your nose.)

Sea Turtle – Extended Child’s Pose
(Child’s pose with arms extended out front, then breathe.)

Canal or Lake – Resting Pose
(Lay on your back, with your arms and legs stretched out. Breathe and relax.)

Other St. Patrick’s Day Activities:

• Take pictures of the children practicing their yoga poses.  Make a class book of “Our Irish Journey.”

• Plan an imaginary trip to Ireland by using maps, guidebooks, travel websites, travel brochures, or magazines.

• Cook Irish food, like Irish soda bread, potato cakes, pancakes, or beef stew.

• Research the origin of St. Patrick’s Day.  Dress in green and host a parade.

• Make a rainbow with painted handprints.  Count how many handprints make rainbow.

• Make a Shamrock or Blarney Stone.

• Download Ireland coloring pages.

• Read and illustrate St. Patrick’s Day poems.

• Create a leprechaun scavenger hunt.

• Dance a jig and teach each other.  Make a video.  Play Celtic music.

• Pick one animal that lives in Ireland and write a mini-book or research report.

• Sort the animals into categories of native, non-native, and extinct.

• Research and draw the Irish flag.  Compare it to the flags of United Kingdom countries.

• Discuss the similarities and differences between the Irish lifestyle and your own.

• Invite a guest speaker who is Irish or has been to Ireland to share their photos and stories.

• Have a fact scavenger hunt, using library books or the Internet. Find facts such as population, size of country, number of animal species, yearly temperature, places of interest, famous Irish people, sports, festival, historical landmarks, or natural wonders (ex. Cliffs of Moher, The Giant’s Causeway, and Aran Islands).

• Paint pictures of the different animals.

• Compare the Irish language and alphabet to English or another language.

• Listen to traditional Irish music.  Research musical instruments such as the fiddle, flute, tin whistle, handheld drum, guitar, and banjo.
• Make a collage with pictures of Ireland.

Click here for a printable St. Patrick’s Day Kids Yoga Lesson Plan.

Other St. Patrick’s Day Yoga Ideas

St. Patrick’s Day Ideas, OMazing Kids

End of the Rainbow Lesson Plan, Imaginations for Kids

You Might Also Like our Popular Season Yoga Books

Our four season kids yoga books celebrate the changing of the seasons through yoga and movement:

• The spring yoga story, Rachel’s Day in the Garden, follows a young girl and her dog in the garden.
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These season yoga books are smaller (8.5×8.5) than the other yoga books (8.5×11) to make them more compact and easier to travel with. Each season is illustrated by a different illustrator, and they are a great way to bring the new season alive through movement and story.

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Sign up for our Kids Yoga Stories Newsletter

Hope you enjoyed this St. Patrick’s Day yoga sequence.  For other holiday-inspired yoga sequences, sign up for our Kids Yoga Stories weekly newsletter by adding your name and email address in the box at the top of the page.  Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Pictures above were generously shared by Crystal from Crystal’s Tiny Treasures , a Canadian mom living in Northern Ireland with her family.  Images of the two children in yoga poses are from Anna and her Rainbow-Colored Yoga Mats storybook.

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