Jungle animal adventure

Explain to your child that you are going to go on a little adventure!  First, you can jog through the jungle. Stand up and begin jogging. Lift your knees high and breathe deeply. Explain that we are jogging through the thick green jungle. Stop! What is that animal up high in the tree?

Explain that you’ve seen a cobra snake. Come into cobra pose by lying on your stomach, put your hands on the floor under your shoulders. Breathe in and lift up your chest from the ground with your stomach resting on the ground. Try to keep your arms straight. Then breathe out and lower yourself to the ground and push back on your heels. Repeat this transition to and fro a few times.

Next in the jungle, you can see an elephant! Stand up, then slowly bend forwards from the hips with your arms hanging down. Interlock your fingers in front of you. Now walk around the room, bent over and gently swing your trunk from side to side. After a minute, stretch your trunk high up in the air, lean back and trumpet like an elephant!

In this part of the jungle, there are playful monkeys. Begin doing monkey jumps: bend over with your hands touching the floor and your feet spread about hip-width apart. Try to keep legs straight. You can bend them a little to jump. Breathe in and jump so that hands and feet leave the ground at the same time. When you breathe out, try to have your hands and feet landing at the same time as well. How many jumps can you do?

What animal do we see next? A big furry lion! Come onto your knees then slowly sit back on to your heels. Put your hands underneath your shoulders. Pull your shoulders up to your ears and lean forward. Look straight ahead and stick out your tongue as far as you can. Purr like a lion.

From here, come into child’s pose. Sit back onto your heels and stretch your arms forward, with your face looking down to the floor. Relax. You may like to now spend some time sitting with your child and talking about the jungle adventure. Ask them, which was their favourite animal?