Park City yoga instructor revitalises after-school mindfulness programme with new techniques and community focus

Randi Jo Greenberg reintroduces her evolving yoga and mindfulness classes to local elementary schools, combining movement, breathwork, and themed sessions to support children’s emotional regulation and confidence.

Randi Jo Greenberg has spent more than 15 years bringing yoga and mindfulness to children in Park City, and she is set to resume her after-school programme at the district’s elementary schools and at the Weilenmann School of Discovery in mid-September. For Greenberg, the appeal is simple: children are busier, their routines are more crowded and, she believes, they need more help with grounding and emotional regulation.

What began as a largely movement-based yoga offering has evolved into something broader. Greenberg now structures many of her sessions around breathwork, journalling, sensory awareness and present-moment focus, often building classes around a book or theme. She teaches children from pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, though she says the younger pupils are usually the ones most drawn to the classes, while older students often help out.

Her programme has become a familiar part of the local school calendar. Parents can enrol for the full year or choose individual sessions through her website, and the classes will again run at Parley’s Park, McPolin, Trailside, Jeremy Ranch and Weilenmann. Greenberg also credits Heather Poplawski, who has taught the Weilenmann sessions for several years, with bringing her own experience and personality to the programme while working from the curriculum Greenberg develops.

Greenberg’s teaching philosophy has grown alongside her own practice. She said she first came to yoga in the 1990s during a difficult period in her life, trained in upstate New York and began teaching soon afterwards. After moving to Park City more than two decades ago, she expanded her work to include prenatal and parent-child classes, then later school programmes as her daughter grew older. She now works across the community, including at Summit Community Gardens, the libraries, Basin Recreation and the senior centre.

The classes also include a long-running reward system that gives children coloured keys as they progress through the programme year after year, with the final black key marking completion. At that stage, students receive a certificate and T-shirt and may be invited back as assistants at summer camps. Greenberg said the idea is to show children that steady practice builds confidence over time.

Beyond schools, Greenberg co-founded Mindful Summit County with Rebecca Brenner to help make mindfulness more accessible locally. The group offers public meditation sessions, including at the Park City Senior Center and the Park City Library, and Greenberg continues to teach adults, families and older residents as well as children. Her message, she said, is that mindfulness can start at any age.