A fundamental skill for a Kids Yoga teacher is the ability to come up with creative lesson plans that keep children interested. A simple method from Young Yoga Master’s Kids Yoga Teacher Training is using stories that children already love and adding yoga to them.
One such story was created by Claire Matthews, a recent Kids Yoga Teacher Graduate. Claire is already teaching in schools during a lunchtime yoga program that is so full it has to turn kids away. Claire is also holding a Summer Yoga Camp for Kids in Grimbsby Ontario that I highly recommend. She’s an RYT-500 (Registered Yoga Teacher with 500 hours of training) and completing the 95 hour kids yoga training sets her up for the Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher designation (RCYT) with Yoga Alliance too.
Here are 3 creative ideas Clarie recommends for the classic story first published in 1942: The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown.
3 Creative Yoga Ideas for The Runaway Bunny
The great thing about this story is it gives you a way to get kids to open up about what might be bothering them. At the beginning the bunny wants to run away, but never says why. If you ask the children “Why might the bunny run away?” It can give you all kinds of insights into the world of your kids.
- The wonderful pictures and stories make it a natural fit for yoga. When the bunny says he will not be found because he will turn into a fish, a rock, a crocus etc these all can be paired with yoga poses like fish pose, rock pose, make a flower with arms stretched out and so on. There are at least 12 different poses that go with each turn of the page.
- Three: It’s also a wonderful way to get kids to recognize their support system. When the bunny feels like running away he talks to his mother. You can ask kids, “When you feel like running away who could you talk to?”
The Runaway Bunny as a Yoga story could easily fill 30 minutes or longer if you use the discussion questions. The beautiful pictures are a great asset when it comes to classroom management too. Wait till all the children are sitting down and focused before you turn the next page and find out what the bunny will say to his mom next.
Thank you to Claire from Yoga Truly for these wonderful and creative ideas to take a classic story and give it a yoga twist.
Leave a comment with your favorite classic storybooks and how you use them for yoga.
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