If you read last week’s post, you’ll recall the oodles of benefits of including games in your sessions with children. This week’s post features another game from my book Teach Your Child Yoga. Check out the benefits this one game garners, and learn how to weave it into your movement, play, or therapy sessions with children.
Happy playing!
Lisa Roberts xoxo
Downward-Dog Tunnel
Benefits: Teamwork, communication, coordination, gross-motor planning, proprioceptive and tactile input, upper body and core strengthening.
Simple Steps:
· Line up, side by side, on all fours, facing the same direction and close enough to almost touch your neighbor on each side.
· On the count of three, create Downward Facing Dog together, making a Downward Facing Dog tunnel.
· The child at the end steps out of the pose and crawls through the tunnel on his belly. When he reaches the end of the tunnel, he rejoins it by assuming Downward Facing Dog pose.
· Take turns moving down the tunnel, one child at a time, until everybody has had a turn.
· If somebody gets tired, she must say, Doggy rest”! Everybody takes a rest in Table or Child’s Pose. Obviously, this cannot occur while a friend is crawling through the tunnel; wait until she has passed under your section of the tunnel. Or, if you notice you are beginning to feel tired, give her the heads-up and call “Doggy rest” before she begins to crawl through the tunnel.
TIP: This game can be altered to suit the theme of your class, for example, make a dinosaur cave for dinosaur-themed MMM. Encourage children to communicate with each other if they begin to run out of space. They will need to shuffle their bodies along to keep the tunnel in the same place.
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