Don’t Forget Elephant Pose - Tatty Bumpkin’s Kid’s Yoga Activity for the Week!

By Sue Heron – Training Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin and Paediatric Physiotherapist 

In this blog I:

• Describe how to do a Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity with your child or toddler 
• Give you reasons why the Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity is beneficial for your child or toddler 
• Give you some ideas on progressions for the activity and games you can play around the activity. 

This week’s Tatty Bumpkin Yoga Activity is Elephant

Imagine you are a huge, stomping elephant!

This week Tatty Bumpkin goes deep into the jungle to visit her elephant friends. 

Remember when you encourage your child to have a go at elephant pose – try to do the pose with them or encourage brothers and sisters to join in. This is because: 

1.Children, and definitely those under 3 years, learn new movements best by copying others.

2. Research is showing that toddlers and young children bond with their parents and ‘key people’ not only through touch but also by moving with them.

3. Elephant pose gives you the chance to gently stretch out your own back and hamstrings (the muscles at the back of your legs) whilst strengthening your tummy and back muscles. Remember to check with a health professional before doing the pose if you have health concerns.

• Find a clear space on the carpet or a mat, make sure you and your child have space around you so you are not likely to bump into anything! Take off your shoes and socks off. This is because we receive more accurate sensory information through your feet if we are barefoot.

• Why not start by doing an  ‘Elephant Ears’ warm up stretch. This activity allows you both to stretch out and relax your shoulders, arms and hands. 

Wave your 'elephant ears!'

• Sit or stand up tall and place your hands on your waist. Then, keeping your hands on your waist, slowly roll your shoulders backwards and outwards, to stretch out your lower neck and upper chest muscles. Do 2 - 3 shoulder rolls in a backward direction then roll your shoulders forwards before shaking out your arms and fingers.

• Now it’s time for Elephant pose!

To make elephant pose fun for your child, follow the actions of the Elephant rhyme below - See the ‘why it is good for me’ section for why this is important.

The Elephant Rhyme	The Pose
“An elephant goes like this and that … Lower your voice  and speak in a slow rhythm to encourage your toddler or child to play with you!	Stand with your feet hip width apart on the mat. Start taking slow steps on the spot as if you are elephants going through the undergrowth.
He’s really tall and everso fat Use lots of expression in your voice	Really tall - Reach both arms up high above your head. Everso fat - Stretch your ams out to either side.
He has no fingers Do a sorrowful expression and voice.	Bring your hands together in front of you - look at them and wiggle your fingers. Encourage your child to copy you. You can wriggle your fingers together!
And he has no toes .. Keep looking and sounding sad but reassure your baby by smiling a little!	Look down at your feet and wriggle your toes.
But my! He has a very long nose!”	Stand with your feet hip width apart and stretch one arm up above your head. . Slowly bend forward at your waist (Adults tighten your tummy muscles to control your movements!) and wave your outstretched arm side to side like an elephant’s trunk.  Straighten up – then bend forward again from your waist to wave your outstretched arm or ‘trunk’ up and down!

  

Other Games to Play in Elephant Pose

Elephants spraying water!

• Clear a space in a room or outside. Find a bucket sized empty container and gather one or two blue ribbons or streamers made out fabric for you and your child to play with. The bucket will be your ‘waterhole’ and the streamers will be your ‘elephant water’. Make sure the ribbons/fabrics are not too long and supervise your child closely whilst they are playing with them. Never leave your child alone with the ribbons/fabrics or with another child- as younger children may explore them by putting them round their necks or in their mouths.

• To spray your water - hold the streamer in one hand and stretch out your arm to be an elephant’s trunk.

• Wave your streamer high above your head then ‘dip’ it down into the bucket as if to ‘suck’ up more water. Lift your streamer out of the bucket and wave it over your head again – to spray your water all around! If your child is younger, make your movements big and clear – then it is easier for them to copy you. As you do the actions make swishing ‘water’ sounds. 

• If your child is younger, help their early communication skills by backing up their movements with speech .For example say ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘in’ or ‘out’ as they do the actions.

• Then show your young child all the different ways you can play with your ‘water streamers’!!! For example:

• Pretending to ‘wash the windows’ with your water streamer.
• Pretending to wash each other with your water streamers – saying the body parts as you ‘wash’ them. 
• Sitting down and threading the streamer between your fingers or toes.
• Whilst sitting down - seeing you see if you can wave one foot in the air whilst holding the streamer between your toes. For safety -  and to make the movement easier  - before they start this activity guide your child to put their hands down behind them on the mat or carpet so they can safely support themselves. Also make sure  your child is not sitting close to anything which they could bump their heads on as they tip backwards.  
• Encourage your child to come up with their own play ideas! 

Why Elephant Pose is Good for Both You and your Child

The benefits of elephant pose:

1. Gently stretches and activates shoulder and arm muscles

Elephant pose is another great activity to do with your young child after they have been sitting in a car seat for a while, where they have not been able to fully stretch out. As they do the actions - your child will be stretching and strengthening their shoulder and arm muscles.

The ‘Elephant Ears’ stretch will give you both the chance to stretch out your neck and chest muscles. This stretch is especially good for you - as these muscles often become tight as you lift and carry your child.

2. Gently stretches and activates back and tummy muscles

As you both move in elephant pose - your child and you will be strengthening your tummy muscles, as you bend forward, and strengthening your back muscles as your straighten up.

3. Develops eye-hand co-ordination skills

As your child waves their blue streamer up and down and in and out of the bucket in elephant pose - they will be developing their eye-hand co-ordination. It’s important for young children to work on visual skills early on, as they provide the foundations for activities such as reading, writing and looking up and down at a whiteboard in a classroom situation.  And of course they are useful for ball sport activities.

4. Progresses early ‘movement planning’ skills

As your child follows the actions to the elephant rhyme, and plays with their streamer in different ways, they will be constantly adjusting their body position and their grip on the streamer. This ability to change body and hand position quickly and smoothly to do an activity is crucial for more complex skills such as dressing or eating.  

5. A playful activity – to combat stress and support communication skills

As you play with your child, either doing the ‘Elephant rhyme’ or being ‘Elephants spraying water’, you could be helping them to combat stress and  progress their early communication skills.  Interesting research (1) highlights that:

• When young children have the chance to actively play with others, they produce smaller amounts of a stress hormone called cortisol. This is helpful because consistently high levels of cortisol have been shown to damage nerve cells in the brain. Hence playful activities appear to protect the young brain.  

• When parents play with their young child, rather than just do a series of movements with them, they tend to use far more gestures, sounds and facial expressions – all of these have been found to really help early communication skills.

The Tatty Bumpkin Adventure this Week

Remember, for you and your child to gain the full benefit of all the Tatty Bumpkin Yoga and multi-sensory activities, find out about your local Tatty Bumpkin class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html. Or, ask your child’s nursery if they are doing Tatty Bumpkin Yoga activity sessions as part of their day. 

Our qualified Tatty Bumpkin Teachers are fully trained in aspects of child development and Yoga and are kept fully up-to-date by our professional team of paediatric physiotherapists, Yoga teachers and musicians. All the Tatty Bumpkin stores are aligned to the Early Years Foundation Stage this means the sessions not only enhance your child’s physical skills they also develop their communication, social and thinking skills.

If your child is going to a Tatty Bumpkin class this week they will go on an adventure into the jungle to visit the jungle animals very own circus. As they follow the adventure with Tatty Bumpkin they will have the chance to:

1. Improve their physical skills as they co-ordinate their body in elephant and horse poses and  balance in lion pose.  

2. Develop their imagination and thinking skills as they pretend to be playful clowns and think about how to balance their circus props in different ways.

3. Progress their communication skills as they listen to the elephant rhyme and the Tatty Bumpkin rhythms and talk about the tricks they are going to do.

4. But most of all, your child will have fun with others as they stomp in an elephant train and bounce Tatty Bumpkin on her trampoline!  

Love Tatty Bumpkin x

A New Start with Tatty Bumpkin? 

Maybe, you are thinking of a new career which gives you:

• The opportunity to work with kids
• A great sense of job satisfaction and
• Flexible working to fit around your own family

Find out how you could be trained to deliver Baby and Tatty Bumpkin classes in your area at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/business/index.html. 

1.     National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play (2010). From Playpen to Playground – The Importance of Physical Play for the Motor Development of Young Children. www.headstartbodystart.org.