Buggin' Out!

Hi yoga friends! To save paper and to share ideas with others in the kids yoga community I decided to start this blog so little yogis and their grownups and keep the yoga play going at home. Here's what we did at our "Buggin' Out" Yoga Storytime this week at Baby Moon.

After we got settled and found our happy seats, we welcomed each other one at a time with our "Yoga Time" song. It goes like this:

Yoga Time (to the tune of "Hello Thumbkin")

Hello [NAME], Hello [NAME]

It's yoga time! It's yoga time!

We're very glad to see you. We're very glad to see you.

Ring the chime. Ring the chime.

Next we played with breath by finding our bumblebee breath. To do this, first take a breath in, and then as you breath out, make a BUZZZZ sound, nice and loud. Do this a few times. Then, take a breath in and as you breathe out, make a BUZZZZ sound again, but this time allow your lips to seal together. You should feel a nice tingle in your lips. Try this a few times. Then, take a breath in, BUZZZZ on your breath out with your lips sealed, and bring your hands to cover your ears. You will hear the buzz sound much more strongly inside your head. If you don't like it, that's OK! You can stop anytime. When you are done playing with bumblebee breath, come back to regular breathing.

Next we played around with the breath some more and warmed up our bodies by doing a version of this warm-up song from Storytime Yoga®:

Now that we were ready for our first story, we read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle. We did these poses to go with the story:

Horse - Down dog

Cow - Cow tilt

Sheep - Table pose

Goat - Down dog lifting one leg at a time

Pig - Happy baby, rolling from side to side

Dog - Upward Dog

Cat - Cat tilt

Duck - Squat with bent elbows and hands on shoulders

Rooster - Cross-legged seat

Owl - Hero's pose, seated on knees with bottom on heels, looking from side to side

After reading this book, we of course had to do "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." We also crawled around like spiders a little by lifting into reverse table and moving around. Come up and down into the pose a few times before starting the movement. 

Next we played with the ideas of slow and quick with this rhyme that I found from Miss Meg's Storytime.

Slowly, slowly, slowly CLAP your hands.

Quickly, quickly, quickly CLAP your hands.

We followed this with stomp your feet, wiggle your hips, jump up and down, and shake your body.

And we played around with movement and song with "Jump Up, Turn Around" from Moving Rhymes for Modern Times by Jim Gill.

Ready for our next story, we read Butterfly, Butterfly by Petr Horáček. This story introduces lots of insects, lots of colors, can be interpreted as a yoga message about nonstriving, and has a fun surprise at the end.

We followed this story with a butterfly vinyasa, moving from caterpillar (verson of locust pose), to cocoon (child's pose), to butterfly, to flower. Go through the movements as many times as you like.

To cool down, we sang "There's a Wheel a-Turnin' in My Heart" from Buzz Buzz by Laurie Berkner and we read Reading Makes You Feel Good by Todd Parr. Then we laid down for savasana, visualizing a butterfly friend delicately landing on each part of our bodies, bringing love and relaxation with it every time.

I had a great time Buggin' Out with you guys at Baby Moon! I hope we are able to do it again soon! Until the next time, NAMASTE.