Teaching Pre-Schoolers

Hopping for Joy

Someone asked me in an e-mail about tips to teach young kids in daycare. I’ve been teaching in daycare for a number of years and it is a great place to have classes. The kids are already there – so you don’t have to do any registration. Also you have the support of the teachers who can help with classroom management. And it is a way to teach more daytime classes instead of weekends and evening.

Plus, I love the idea of bringing the powerful concepts of the Ancients to children. Children are subtly getting messages all the time in the stories and songs they sing. Here is an example of a pre-school song used in a lot of daycares. Then you will see the adustments I have made to make it yoga style.

Sleeping bunnies
In this song the kids pretend they are sleeping bunnies then wake up and hop around. It has a build in resting period (the “still” part) and then action, the hopping. The big finish – “stop” sets the limits in the song and gets everyone to freeze.

Here is the original version I learned at daycare:

See the sleeping bunnies, sleep till nearly noon.
How shall we wake them? With a merry tune.
Oh so still
are they ill?
Wake up little bunnies hop, hop, hop
Wake up little bunnies hop, hop, hop
Wake up little bunnies hop and stop!

Question: Why is stillness connected to being ill? This song must be from the old days when disease was rampant and people lived in fear of it.

Just Change It

I like to change this to “Oh so still, what a thrill.” or sometimes, “oh so still, are they meditating?” Even though it doesn’t rhyme – it is fun to surprise the kids and teachers with it.

Then I do a whole bunch of animals with this song – like:

– see the sleeping snakes – hiss, hiss, hiss.
– see the sleeping elephants – swing your trunk…swing and stop.
– see the sleeping dinosaurs (this is often a request from kids) – roar, roar, roar.

Taking Poetic Yogic Liscence
We are taking Yogic liscence to go ahead with the song even though it doesn’t rhyme. The possibilities are endless for the animals you can do. I have done a whole lesson plan with kids from ages 1 1/2 – 5 with this song. Even older kids like it when there is the variety. Try one animal each class as part of a warm-up routine.

The kids give lots of animal ideas and I like to challenge myself to make them work.

Some times when the “stop” comes and everyone is frozen I walk around the room observing the poses everyone has frozen in and commenting on each one. This gives a little more time for them to hold the pose and keep themselves under control. It is also a great time to connect with each child, look them in the eye, and give them a compliment.

Or why not ask everyone to “stop” in a yoga pose at the end. Anything is possible.

“We live in a world we have imagined.”
Tulshi Sen, author, Ancient Secrets of Success for Todays World, p. 146

Imagination is the most powerful tool you can use for teaching pre-schoolers.

When we activate our imaginations and feel the freedom to change things and make things up we can really have a lot of fun doing it.

Aruna Kathy Humphrys
www.YoungYogaMasters.com

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Comments

Teach Children's Yoga says

March 23, 2008 at 11:27 am

Thanks Ganga – well said.
Ganga Fondan says

March 20, 2008 at 5:35 pm

Hello there!!!
How wonderful to know how much attention you pay to the imagination of the kids you work with. It is the one faculty that mainstream schooling is often forgetting to nurture. As an adult I’ve had to catch up. “Ancient Secrets of Success” has helped me to work with and stengthen my imagination as a building tool to live a more powerful life. I wish you continued success with your young yoga masters.

Teaching Pre-Schoolers

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