Life Cycles in Yoga
Yesterday, while teaching a yoga class out in the boonies, the kids gave me a brilliant idea of how to teach animal or plant life cycles through yoga. It was a lot of fun and we had some great discussions while doing the poses, such as "what is the difference between a cocoon and a chrysalis?" Anyway, rather than just doing butterfly pose, we decided to make up a pose for each part of the life cycle of a butterfly. We did the same thing for frog pose. Here's what we came up with for the two, and of course, if you have any other ideas, please add them.
Butterfly Life Cyle: We started out in mouse pose (egg) and then hatched into a caterpillar, which we decided should be like a snake pose. The caterpillar ate leaves and wiggled around. Then, it turned into a pupa or chrysalis. This pose could be lightning bolt pose or a headstand. Finally, the pupa opened up and a butterfly appeared...butterfly pose.
Frog Life Cycle: Again, we started with mouse pose (egg). When the egg hatched, the little tadpoles swam in the water. Superman/Supergirl pose could be used for the tadpoles or a variation of snake pose. The legs of the froglet start to grow and before you know it, there are a bunch of froggies jumping around. The kids loved this so much!
Some other ideas could be to have a tree grow from a seed or an island grow from an active volcano at the bottom of the sea. Yoga is a great way to explain science and history in a fun fashion! Enjoy.