Healthy voice

Today my voice was sounding a little strange, and since I ran out of honey (no ginger and honey lemonade for me), I figured it was a good moment to do some research on vocal health. 
The amount of information is a tad overwhelming so I chose only a couple of exercises from this really cool website. I chose them mostly because I think they can be helpful for teachers and for students so for instance they could be used at the beginning of a lesson.
According to the website, we should devote 10-15 minutes before a presentation (could be a lesson) to warm up our voice. The idea is to combine different warm up exercises that target three different areas: body, breath and voice. 

Body: ‘Rag dolls’
Stand with your feet a shoulder width apart, breathe in through the nose and bending from the waist allow yourself to flop like a rag doll while breathing out through your mouth. Shake any tension out of your arms, neck, shoulders and allow yourself to literally hang loose. And then breathing in through your nose very gently and slowly bring yourself upright and breathe out through your mouth.  

It was a little difficult for me to understand the steps but I think this picture fits the description

Breath: Diaphragm breathing
>> Legs shoulder-width apart and knees unlocked (maybe a little bent)
>> Relax shoulders and core muscles
>> Place your hands on your stomach
>> Inhale to the count of five (maybe start with three if students are not used to it). Feel the diaphragm rising.
>> Exhale to the count of five. Feel the diaphragm expanding
>> Do a couple of repetitions making sure shoulders, legs and stomach are relaxed.
I found some information about diaphragmatic breathing in this article. The author presents a comparison (with the pictures below) of chest and diaphragmatic breathing that can be really useful for people who learn better visually.

Voice: ‘Sounding vowels’
‘Use the out breath to sound each of the vowels in turn. Let each go without force, flowing smoothly from your relaxed throat.’ 

Voice: ‘Articulation’
This is an exercise I really liked because, since it looks like a game, it can help students relax and have fun while also warming up their voice. 
These are the tongue twisters suggested in the webpage:

Theophilus Thistler, the thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve of unsifted thistles,
thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.

You know New York,
You need New York,
You know you need unique New York.

And these are some others I found here: 
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

We surely shall see the sun shine soon

Bonus: According to a pinterest.com user,  peppermint tea is great for singers (I’m guessing it does the same for teachers, though) because

>> it helps cure a stuffy nose and improves breathing 
>> it helps to reduce a dry throat 
>> reduces phlegm production
>> it helps reduce the risk of common colds
>> it keeps your breath fresh 

Considering that I have a bunch of peppermint growing in my garden, I will at least give it a try.