2013 Week 8: Tatty Bumpkin's POSE for the Week is RABBIT!

By Sue Heron – Training Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin and Paediatric Physiotherapist
 
The activity of this week in Tatty Bumpkin classes is RABBIT POSE; in the sessions your child will go on an adventure with Tatty Bumpkin to the play with the rabbits at their ‘Rabbit Spring Olympics’

What RABBIT POSE Looks Like

How To Do It (What to tell your child)

Squat down on the floor. Keeping your feet still reach forwards placing both your hands in front of you. Tip forwards so your nose moves over your hands and you are taking your weight more through your arms. Then hop both your feet forwards towards your hands. Squat again to keep lolloping forwards like a rabbit!

Note to parents: Younger children will find rabbit pose hard. So encourage your younger child to start by just bouncing up and down in the squat position. Place a scarf, streamer or piece of ribbon on the floor in front of your child and guide them to do rabbit hops over it. Your child will find the pose easier if they have something to look at and jump over.

Want to Make it Harder?

See if you can do rabbit pose backwards! Squat down on the floor as before, this time place your hands close to your feet between your legs. Once again tip forwards so your nose is in front of your knees and you are balancing more on your arms but now hop both your feet backwards. Move your whole body backwards onto your feet, so you’re squatting again and repeat the action to keep lolloping backwards.

Why it is ‘Good For Me’

When your child does rabbit pose, they activate their shoulder and tummy muscles. This means rabbit pose is an excellent prewriting activity, as strong, activated shoulder and tummy muscles are essential for writing i.e.

• To sit with correctly your child needs to have active tummy muscles, otherwise they may tend to slump forwards.

• If your child’s shoulder muscles are active and strong, they will use these muscles to support the weight of their arm, freeing their delicate hand muscles for writing. If their shoulder muscles are inactive or weak your child may try to support their whole arm with their hand muscles and this can lead to a very tight pencil grip and hand ache.

Rabbit pose is also a great activity to promote co-ordination, your child learning to move their hands before their feet.


 

Make it Multi-Sensory, Educational & Fun

Through the magic of a Tatty Bumpkin class Rabbit pose can become both a multi-sensory and an educational activity.  In Tatty Bumpkin classes we always try to stimulate a variety of senses, to add to the fun, give choice & to help the learning process.

If your child is attending a Tatty Bumpkin class this week they will have the opportunity to hop like rabbits over green streamers and cycle in the rabbit bike race to a Tatty Bumpkin cycling song! These multi-sensory activities will promote your child’s engagement, concentration skills and creativity, all vital aspects of the learning process.

All our classes are linked to the new 2012 EYFS framework meaning that your child will have the opportunity to progress in all areas of their development, giving them a truly holistic experience. 

Children love doing things together, by watching others they also learn a great deal – often finding out a better way of doing things.

Wrapping Rabbit pose inside a story, means your child will get involved in the story and find rabbit pose and the other activities more meaningful and hence more fun to do. In the Rabbit Olympics story your child and Tatty Bumpkin find the rabbits at their Rabbit Olympics! There are cycling, hopping and dancing competitions.The giraffes might win the cycling but then they do have very long legs!
 
Find your local Tatty Bumpkin class at  http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.htmlhttp://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html