1. CREATE A YOGA STORY SEQUENCE

Pick 3-6 yoga pose cards (with or without their matching keyword card). Then create a yoga pose sequence. You could make up a story or situation to go with the sequence.

For example,  Dancer + Tree + Eagle cards: you could pretend to be a fairy who goes to a ball in the trees and dances with an eagle.

2. PLAY A YOGA POSE CARD FLIP GAME

Place only the pose cards facedown together in a pile. One player flips over the top card, and everyone has to “strike a pose.” You could do this with pose cards, keywords cards, or the whole pack.

3. PLAY A MEMORY GAME

Place all the yoga cards upside down in rows. Take turns flipping up two cards at a time. If the player gets a yoga pose matched with its keyword, then that player keeps the pair. The game continues until all pairs have been matched up.

4. PLAY YOGA POSE CHARADES

Gather together a deck of only the pose cards and place them facedown. Each player takes a turn at selecting the top yoga pose card, without any other players seeing the card. The player demonstrates the pose on their selected card, and the rest of the children have to guess the name of the yoga pose. Repeat the process until each player has had a turn.

5. CREATE A CALMING SEQUENCE

Using the entire Yoga Poses for Kids Cards deck, have each child come up with his or her very own signature yoga pose sequence (maybe three to five poses, depending on the age and needs of the child) that could be used to help calm their bodies and minds. Spend some time going over their sequence, ensuring that it’s easy for them to practice and remember the sequence.

6. PLAY A YOGA CARDS DICE GAME

How to play a dice yoga game with yoga cards for kids:

1. Grab a die from a board game you have at home.

2. Write the numbers 1 through 6 on sticky notes, one note for each number. I wrote both the numeral and the number symbol found on dice.

3. Have your child pick out 6 yoga pose cards from the deck.

4. Stick a number note on each yoga pose card. I put the yoga poses in a logical yoga flow with standing poses first, followed by floor poses, and resting poses.

5. Roll the die and practice the yoga pose associated with that number.

You could use a large die if working with a large group of kids. This simple dice yoga game would be great to bring traveling with you because all you need is a set of dice and yoga cards. Your child can easily change up the game by simply sticking the numbered sticky notes on different cards.

7. PLAY A SKITTLES YOGA GAME

Wondering what to do with your leftover Halloween candy? Play a Skittles Yoga Game!

Here’s how to play:

1. Pour a bunch of Skittles into a cup.

2. Have each child take out a Skittle.

3. Depending on the color of the Skittle, they will practice the matching yoga pose, for example:

• RED – practice Star Pose.

• ORANGE – practice Chair Pose.

• GREEN – practice Warrior 2 Pose.

• YELLOW – practice Warrior 1 Pose.

• BLUE – practice Warrior 3 Pose.

Variations:

• Use Yoga Pose Cards to pick different yoga poses to match the colors.

• Try the game with Partner Yoga Poses, Chair Yoga Poses, or Breathing Techniques.

• Ask children to pick three Skittles and practice three yoga poses together.

• Use colored beads or dice instead of candy.

• Make the list more open-ended for older children. For example: RED: Practice your favorite yoga pose. ORANGE: Do your favorite breathing technique. GREEN: Grab a friend for a partner pose.

  
  

8. PLAY YOGA BINGO

Download thirty Yoga BINGO cards here that have the twenty-five yoga poses the correspond to our Yoga Poses for Kids Cards (Deck One) or customize your own.

9. PLAY A MOVE-IT GAME

Practice counting while learning yoga poses for kids in this move it game yoga-style!

How to play a Move-It Yoga Game: 

1. Grab a deck of yoga pose cards. Take out just the cards that have yoga poses on them.

2. Grab a deck of number flashcards and pull out 1 to 20—or make your own 1 to 20 number cards using notecards.

3. Make a pile of yoga pose cards and another pile of number cards, all face down on the table.

4. The first player flips over a yoga pose card and a number card then practices that yoga pose while counting to the number on the other card.

   
   

10. PLAY A YOGA POSE SPINNER GAME

The other day, my daughter and I were looking for something fun and active to do indoors on a rainy afternoon. We got out her fidget spinner and a deck of yoga cards and played a yoga pose spinner game. It was super fun!

How to Play a Yoga Pose Spinnger Game:

1. Grab a deck of yoga pose cards.

2. Place a Post-it note under one corner of a fidget spinner to act as a pointer.

3. Pick out six yoga pose cards and arrange them in a circle around the spinner.

4. You might want to use Blu Tack or something similar on the bottom of the spinner to make sure it doesn’t spin away.

5. Spin the spinner and then practice the pose that the pointer lands on.

You can change the pose cards after a few rounds and play again!

11. PLAY A YOGA POSES CARD GAME

How to play a yoga poses card game:

1. Sit on the floor, facing each other, and deal five cards to each player.

2. Each player takes a turn flipping over one card from his or her own row of cards.

3. The player who flips over the card showing the child in a pose becomes the “owner” of that card. Once the keyword match for the pose card is flipped over, all the players do the pose and hold it for ten seconds. The player who flipped the matching card hands it over to the “owner” of the pose card, and the game continues until all the cards are “owned.”

4. Each player should always have at least five cards. Each time a pair is found, the player who hands over the matching card draws another card from the deck.

5. If you have both flipped over all of your cards without finding a matching pair, then take turns drawing from the deck. The player with the most pairs wins.

6. Spin the spinner and then practice the pose that the pointer lands on.

12. PLAY A POPSICLE STICK GAME

How to Play a Breathing Exercise Game with Popsicle Sticks:

1. Write the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on large popsicle sticks, one number on each stick.

2. Print out three breathing exercise cards (or yoga pose cards).

3. Write the numbers 1, 2, and 3 on sticky notes, one number on each note, and place one note on each of the breathing exercise cards.

4. Pick out a numbered popsicle stick.

5. Practice that breathing exercise with the corresponding number.

If you’re working with a larger group or if you want to practice more breathing exercises, then you could easily add more numbered popsicle sticks or more breathing exercise cards.

How Others Play with Yoga Cards for Kids

Bonnie shared:

“I am a speech language pathologist in the school system. When I tell you I use them every day, I am not kidding! We move through centers every 12-15 minutes, and before we move to the new center, we gather on our carpet, and a specific student gets a turn at picking a new pose. They LOVE IT! We can have 8-9 different centers in one day!”

Denise shared:

“I used the cards yesterday as I was teaching a summer camp, and they already had the theme of kings/queens/gnomes. After acting out a yoga story about the kingdom, we played a game of memory, and I pulled some of the cards that we acted out in the story.”

Lisa shared:

“I did another Memory game with an 11-year-old yesterday. After studying the 12 cards for a minute, we put all of the animal cards face down (from the Good Night, Animal World book) and then took turns holding the pose names while the other chose a card. We then had to try to remember where the animal matching pair was—if we got a pair, we did the pose.”

Jodi shared:

“I place a yoga card under each yoga dot for the students in my PE class. We play music for them to dance around. Once the music stops, each child finds the yoga card under her yoga dot and practices the yoga pose.”

Claire shared:

“Last week I had a group of year 6’s (age 10-11) and the energy was really high in the room. I decided to hand the lesson over to them and see what they came up with. They each chose a yoga card and got into groups of 4-6. I gave them some time to come up with a story to link the poses. The results were fantastic and really diverse. I certainly wouldn’t have come up with as many ideas as they had. Their breathing and relaxation practice that followed was much calmer than usual because they had used up their creative energy and were ready to be guided. A great learning curve for me … Pass over the control!”