In this month’s DharmaKids Yoga Lesson, we’re celebrating gratitude through movement, breath, and imagination with The Thankful Book by Todd Parr. This playful, heart-warming story helps children explore what it means to appreciate the little things—our unique gifts, the kindness we share, and the joy we find in everyday moments. Through gentle yoga poses, mindful breathing with our Hoberman Sphere, and plenty of creativity and laughter, we guide kids to notice their inner light and the many things they can be thankful for. Whether we’re stretching like giraffes, flapping like butterflies, or melting like snow people, this lesson invites young yogis to connect with themselves, their friends, and the world around them in a fun, meaningful way.
Download your printable pose guide (PDF) featuring a few highlighted poses from this sequence!
Recommended Tools:
- Hoberman Sphere (a.k.a. Breathing Ball/balancing ball)
- Bird Timer
- Yoga Dust Brush (clear-handled makeup brush with floating glitter)
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Speaker and a fun song to play Freeze Dance (Happy by Pharrell Williams is always a favorite, but any song that your kids like to dance to)
- DharmaKids' Yoga & Nap Mat
- The Thankful Book by Todd Parr
Lesson Plan: The Thankful Book
1. Opening with Namaste
We begin by greeting each other with Namaste, which means:
“The light in me sees the light in you.”
For young children, we explain this as:
We each have something special about us—something we’re really good at, something we enjoy doing, or something we’re learning to do. Examples of this are, jumping high, running fast, drawing, cooking or learning to read. We hold out one hand and say,
“This hand reminds me of something that makes me special.”
Then we talk about how we all do kind things for others—like helping a friend who is sad, putting recycling in the bin, or cleaning up the classroom. We hold out my other hand and say,
“This hand reminds me of all the kind things I do for others.”
When we put our palms together, it shows that we are both special and kind. That is our light. When we begin and end yoga, we honor that light in each other with Namaste.
2. Breathing Practice
We sit criss-cross applesauce and begin to breathe deeply to prepare our minds and bodies for yoga.
- Inhale through the nose like you’re smelling a beautiful flower, hands on our bellies, which get bigger as we breathe in.
- Exhale through the mouth, gently, making our bellies smaller again.
We repeat this three times. To help visualize the breath, we use the Hoberman Sphere, which expands and contracts like our bellies do when we breathe. Children can open the ball slowly or quickly to match their breath. This “breathing ball” is also a useful focusing tool in later poses.
3. Story Yoga Lesson
We read the book one page at a time. After reading each page, we pause to do the corresponding pose together. Once we’ve completed the pose, we return to the book and continue reading. We repeat this pattern—read a page, do the pose—until the story is complete. Then we transition into Savasana.
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Star Pose (Utthita Tadasana), page 1: Stand tall with your arms and legs spread wide like a shining star in the night sky.
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Elephant Pose (Janu Sirsasana), page 3: Sit on the floor with one leg straight and the other bent—this is the elephant’s big ear. Reach your arms over the straight leg like a long trunk. Lift your trunk up high and then gently lower it down.
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Butterfly Pose (Baddha Konasana), page 4: Sit on the floor and put the bottoms of your feet together—these are the butterfly’s wings. Hold your feet with your hands and gently flap your wings up and down. Wiggle and flap like a happy butterfly! What color is your butterfly?
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Tree (Vrikshasana), page 5: Stand tall like a tree. Place one foot on your ankle, calf, or upper thigh—never on your knee—and reach your arms up like branches. Find something to look at and focus on it (such as our Hoberman’s Sphere ball), and try to stay still like a strong, happy tree!.
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Giraffe (Utthita Parsvakonasana), page 6: Step your feet wide and stretch one arm down to your leg and the other arm up over your head. Make a long neck like a tall giraffe reaching for leaves. Keep looking up with your giraffe eyes and stand tall and strong!
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Cat (Marjaryasana) and Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana), page 8: Cat- Come onto your hands and knees and arch your back like a stretching kitty. Make your back round and look at your belly, like a cat that just got scared! Dog- Make a big triangle with your body—hands and feet on the floor and your bottom up high. Pretend to be a happy dog stretching your back and tail toward the sky!
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Choo-Choo train breath, page 9: This is a fun pose to do by yourself, and then with a friend or group. Sit tall and put your hands on your shoulders. Breathe in and lift your shoulders, breathe out and drop them—like a train starting to move. Do this for a few breaths. Next stand up, hold the shoulders of the friend in front, and chug around the room together. Breathe in—shoulders go up, breathe out—shoulders go down. Pull back into the station and sit down!
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Soccer Ball Pose (Garbha Pindasana, rolling version) page 11: Lie down with your head away from walls or furniture. Sit up and hug your knees to your chest like a little ball, then roll back and come back up. Try not to let your head touch the floor as you roll back. You can keep your hands around your legs or use them on the floor to help you roll back up. You are just like a soccer ball rolling across the field!
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Freeze Dance, page 12: We’re going to dance to the music! Move your body, wiggle, spin, jump—whatever feels fun. When the music stops, freeze like a statue and stay very still until the music starts again. Then dance and wiggle again!
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Yoga Book Pose sequence, page 15: Sit tall with your hands behind you and feet on the ground. Straighten your legs and reach up high as if grabbing a book from the top shelf. Bring it down and “open” the book by spreading your knees and touching your toes, then lean forward to “read” it. Push your knees back together to close the book, and place it back on the shelf by raising your legs again. Pick another book and repeat!
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Bunny Pose (Sasangasana), pages 16-17: Come onto your knees and tuck your head down toward the floor. Lift your bottom up like a bunny, and stretch your arms back like long bunny ears. Stay tall like a happy bunny and take a big bunny breath!
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Melting Snowperson, page 19: Let’s make some snow people! Stand with your legs wide and bent, this is the bottom of the snow person. Our middle is the snow person’s middle. Bring your arms up, over your head in a circle with your hands touching at the top to make the head. Take a few icy cold breaths here. Uh- oh! Here comes the sun, our snow people melt slowly, down, down to the ground!
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Skunk Pose (Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana), page 21: Come into Downward-Facing Dog with your hands and feet on the floor and your bottom up high. Lift one leg up behind you like a long skunk’s tail. Can you send a stinky kiss to another skunk friend?
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Table Pose (Ardha Purvottanasana), pages 22-23: Put your hands and feet on the floor, lift your tummy up, and make a strong table with your body! What kinds of food do you have on your table? Who is sitting at the table?
4. Savasana (Final Rest)
After we finish our story and poses, we quiet our minds and calm our bodies with Savasana.
“Savasana helps our brains become calm and clear, making room for new thoughts and ideas.”
Using the Yoga Dust Brush show the kids how the glitter swirls when the brush is moving and settles when the brush lies still. Explain:
“Our thoughts are like that glitter—when we lie still, they settle down and our minds become clear.”
Children lie on their backs, breathing gently.
- Gently “brush” a little yoga dust on each child’s forehead to help them relax.
- Guide them to breathe in through their noses, expanding their bellies to rise, and out through their mouths, letting their bellies fall.
Optional tools: Eye pillows or breathing buddies (stuffed animals) on bellies. You can also use a star machine with calming music or a bird timer.
5. Magic Yoga Hugs & Closing Namaste
After a few quiet minutes, we begin to wake up:
- Stretch arms overhead for a full-body stretch.
- Hug knees to chest, and slowly roll up to a criss-cross seated position.
We bring our hands to our hearts and think of someone or something we love—family, friends, pets, even a favorite toy or blanket. It can be someone alive or someone who’s passed on.
- Breathe in and raise your arms up.
- Breathe out and give yourself a hug.
“As we breathe out, whoever or whatever you were thinking of will receive a magic yoga hug, wherever they are!”
Repeat once more, either with the same person/thing or someone new.
Then, we place our special and kind hands together and bring them;:
- On our hearts: > “We respect each other with loving hearts.” Have the children repeat “loving hearts”
- On our mouths: > “We respect each other with kind words.” Have the children repeat “kind words”.
- On our foreheads: > “We respect each other by trying new things with open minds.” Have the children repeat “open minds”.
Finally, we all say together:
“Namaste.”
Stay Tuned: DharmaKids December Yoga Lesson
Mark your calendars—our December DharmaKids lesson plan is inspired by The Gift of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell, a gentle story that celebrates presence, kindness, and the simple joy of being together. As we move into the holiday season, we’ll use this sweet tale to guide mindful movement, warm breathing practices, and reflections on what truly matters.
If you’d like to follow along at home, now is the perfect time to pick up a copy of the book. You can find it online, at your local bookstore, or through your community library. We look forward to sharing cozy practices, heart-centered conversations, and moments of stillness with you and your little ones as we embrace the beauty of giving “nothing”—and finding everything.