How to Play a Yoga Pose Memory Game

Learn yoga poses with this fun Memory Yoga game!

From your responses to our Kids Yoga Stories reader survey a couple of months ago, I know that you also have or work with children who are “outside the box” – children who don’t fit the typical behaviors of children described in parenting and teaching books. Many respondents shared concerns about how to help their children calm their bodies, focus their minds, manage their anger, and help their stress levels.

My colleague, Dayna Abraham, writes a blog for exactly these “Super Kids” at LemonLimeAdventures.com. She recently published our article titled “5 Simple Ways to help Children Calm Angry Feelings with Yoga (with a free printable).” She’s always on the lookout for practical strategies to help children manage their big emotions and help parents understand why children do what they do.

My daughter and I earmarked a dozen activities that we loved during our first look through the book. The first idea we put into action is the “Magnetic Morning Routines Chart.” I’m happy to report that my daughter went off to first grade (on the bus for the first time) with no tears or tantrums, thanks to her new morning routines chart. What an amazing start to the year – thanks to such a simple tool!

Magnetic Morning Routine Chart — Magnetic Morning Routines Chart

The next activity we did was the “Movement Memory” (p.71 of the SuperKids book) game. The purpose of the movement game is to activate your brain and body while you’re stuck waiting in a long line or indoors on a rainy day. Each player creates a movement, and the following player does that movement and then adds another movement. The movement game continues, building on each movement to the sequence. My daughter and I quickly adapted it to a Yoga Pose game.

How to Play a Yoga Pose Memory Game

Here’s how we played the Yoga Pose Memory Game:

The first person does a yoga pose (or you can pick a yoga pose from a Yoga Pose Card Deck).
The second person does that first pose and then adds another yoga pose to the sequence.
The first person then does the first two poses and adds a another pose.
Play continues as long as you like!

Here’s an example of how our memory yoga game looked:

Anamika: Chair Pose.

Me: Chair Pose. Dancer’s Pose.

Anamika: Chair Pose. Dancer’s Pose. Warrior 3 Pose.

Me: Chair Pose. Dancer’s Pose. Warrior 3 Pose. Warrior 2 Pose.

Anamika: Chair Pose. Dancer’s Pose. Warrior 3 Pose. Warrior 2 Pose. Triangle Pose.

Me: Chair Pose. Dancer’s Pose. Warrior 3 Pose. Warrior 2 Pose. Triangle Pose. Eagle Pose.

We had a blast trying to remember the yoga sequence, and we got some much-needed exercise on a rainy day!

Whether you choose to try out this Yoga Pose Memory game or purchase Dayna’s new SuperKids book, it’s all in the spirit of helping our children to embrace their unique traits and for us (as teachers and parents) to understand our complicated children just a little more.