Calling All Teachers! Here Are 3 Reasons to Teach Yoga in Schools

Updated: March 28, 2022

By Sarah Scribner, Pretzel Kids content writer

​If you’re a school teacher, you know how stressful your job is.

But did you know that, while there are many ways to relieve stress, yoga can help teachers reduce anxiety levels. Not only that, but yoga can help your students as well!

Let’s take a look at three ways daily yoga practice can help you and your students. This will for sure inspire you to teach yoga in schools!

1. yoga relieves stress

School days are long and too often, students of all ages feel tired and restless. Yoga can prove to be a great antidote to daytime fatigue as it can can help relieve tension quickly and offer an energy infusion. Also, as students don’t always have the tools to manage stress during the school day, yoga can be particularly beneficial when it comes to elevating moods and calming nerves.

And, the younger students are when they incorporate yoga into their lives (yes, as toddler can benefit from yoga too!), the better off they’ll be. In fact, when teachers introduce yoga to young students, they have the opportunity to provide them with useful, effective coping methods that can lead to improved classroom interaction and performance.

According to Teens Health, yoga targets the three areas most often affected by stress: our body, mind, and breath. Many yoga poses for kids relieve tension throughout the body, including the neck, shoulders, and back. Physically loosening these muscles creates a greater sense of calm throughout the body – and this is heightened by an emphasis on slow, deep breathing. Luckily, there are plenty of poses and even seated stretches that can be done anywhere – even in a classroom.

2. yoga improves concentration

Researchers have concluded that yoga sharpens the mind and just 20 minutes of practice per day can boost brain power. Neha Gothe, professor of kinesiology, health and sports studies at Wayne State University, found that people who participated in experimental 20-minute yoga sessions “were better able to focus their mental resources, process information quickly, more accurately and also learn, hold and update pieces of information more effectively than after performing an aerobic exercise bout.”

If students are able to retain information more quickly and easily, then it makes sense that they’ll have a heightened ability to expand upon their knowledge in subjects ranging from literature to history, science to math.

3. yoga is fun!

When introducing yoga into a classroom setting, we encourage you to get creative as this will help you engage students. Here at Pretzel Kids we often mix traditional yoga poses with themed postures that kids can relate to. For example, chair and warrior poses can be transformed into summer themed poses like lifeguard and surfer. This gives children – particularly those ages three to 12 – the opportunity to use their imaginations while reaping the physical and mental benefits of yoga. Of course, they are having fun while learning.

Teach Yoga in schools!

The next time you’re trying to engage your students and create a fun classroom setting, consider introducing yoga at school! For some more inspiration, take a look at the Pretzel Kids blog. You might even want to consider becoming a yoga teacher for kids. Your students will thank you!