The other night, Zephyr picked the book “The Very Busy Spider” by Eric Carle as one of the books for me to read him before bed. I have used many of the Eric Carle books for yoga, but this one I hadn’t used in a really long time. Zephyr and I thought it would make the perfect kids yoga class for his preschool class where I was teaching the next day. It also fits in perfectly with all the gardening and beautiful almost summer weather around here. It also gave me an excuse to teach the kids how beneficial spiders are for our yards and to just leave them and let them do their thing- eating all the pests like flies and mosquitoes! It was a great lesson, but not without a few moans and groans from the Kindergartners I taught later that day- there is LOTS of web spinning happening and they were getting tired! The preschoolers loved it though.
The Very Busy Spider Yoga
(20-30 min for pre-k – K)
1) We started by talking about spiders and what they eat and why they are so beneficial for our gardens and yards. They eat the pests!!
2) spider pose:
We pretend to be a spider (as in table pose), and we pretend to walk over to the fence by walking forward and back and then use one leg to shoot out the thread to attach to the fence.
3) horse pose:
We do some pony kicks and let out a loud “neigh! neigh!” If you have more time, you can let them gallop around the circle.
4) spider pose:
We spin our spider webs (either in table or we flip it like downward dog and spin in circles on our mats)
5) cow pose:
We drop our bellies and and look up to the sky with a loud “moo!!” do this 3x
spin your spider webs!
6) sheep pose:
like cow pose, but wag your sheep tail side to side and say “baa!!
spin your spider webs!
7) goat pose:
We jump on rocks like the goats do in the story. We jump our hands and feet up at the same time and try to land on all fours.
spin your spider webs!
8) downward dog pose:
We wag our doggie tails and lift each leg with a loud “woof!”
spin your spider webs!
9) pig pose:
We roll side to side in the mud saying “oink oink!”
spin your spider webs!
10) cat pose:
We lift our backs to the sky in our cat pose with a loud “meow!”
spin your spider webs!
11) duck pose:
We squat down and swim like ducks with a loud “quack quack!”
spin your spider webs!
12) rooster pose:
We squat down and lift both arms to the sky with a loud “cock a doodle doo!!!”
finish your spider web…
13) spider pose:
We catch our fly in our web, wrap it up in our silk and then eat it!
14) owl pose:
squat down with arms behind you, open your eyes wide and move your head from side to side with a loud “whoooooo! whooooo!”
15) sleeping spider pose:
sleep like you are a spider on your web
We then transitioned into my normal relaxation routine with roly poly & birthday candle. We then did our relaxation while imagining how a spider may sleep on its web.
What other stories do you like to use in your kids yoga classes? Please share!
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