Instructor: Jamie Sheppard
Community: K – 5 ages, Classroom Setting?
Plan Creation Date: May 1, 2013
Yoga Calm Principle/Lesson Goal: Community
Lesson Plan:
African Savvanah
Academic/Therapeutic Goal: Self-Expression, Share and Respect Differences
Props/Music: Lion King Song, Rain Stick, Rain Sounds CD
Intro: Yoga Mat Tag
Calm
- Breathing – Lie on backs, eyes closed, belly breathing. One hand heart and one hand belly. Listening to the rain…use rain stick or audio sounds of it raining.
Tell story:
- One day, the animals of the African Savannah were enjoying a lovely afternoon of playing Tag with one another when suddenly the Rain came and started pouring from the skies, forcing all the animals to hide under the large Umbrella Thorn tree. The animals had a day off from school and they were very unhappy that the Rain had come and began to complain about the Rain and how it ruined all their fun. They said very hurtful things and even said that they wished it would go away and never come back. The Rain was very sad because it thought the animals were his friends. He thought of all the fun times they had had and wondered if they had been making fun of him all along. He was so broken-hearted they didn’t want him he went away to the Rain Forest where his cousins lived.
- At first the animals were happy and ran about playing in the sunshine day after day. Eventually, though, the animals realized that life without the Rain wasn’t really that fun after all. The Anaconda was unhappy because without the Rain the Earth was too hot and never cooled off. She could never get comfortable to sleep. The Butterflies grew hungry because all of the beautiful flowers and plants shriveled up with no Rain to water them. And for the same reason the Giraffe’s had sore necks because the leaves on the trees were dry and crackling off and they had to search lower for food to eat. The Zebras grew bored and restless with only dry clay to roll around in—they missed rolling around in the mud puddles a great deal. The Gorillas were grumpy because they bananas grew very small and not very tasty and they fought amongst themselves over the few bananas they could find. The rivers dried up more and more until the Hippopotamus couldn’t find water that went past her knees. She was scared because the Nile Crocodile was getting hungrier and hungrier as the fish in the river disappeared without water. The Earth was so hard and so dry the Hyena couldn’t dig a den for her and her pups. The Elephant grew very smelly without water in the rivers too because he didn’t have anything to stick his trunk in and bath in. And the poor Lions and Cheetahs were so very thirsty they could barely hunt for their dinner without any water to drink from the river that the Rain normally filled for them.
- The animals gathered back under the Umbrella Thorn and decided they needed to get the Rain to return. Every animal had their own unique idea about how to get the Rain to come back to their Savannah and they argued and argued for hours about who had the right idea.
Activate
- Cheetah (Cat w/ alt legs/arms) – Thinks they should run to Rainforest to tell her to return.
- Hippo (Cow) – Thinks they should hide and make the Rain think they went away.
- Elephant (Mountain w/ backbend) – Thinks they should do a dance like they saw on TV.
- Nile Crocodile (Plank) – Thinks they should make rain sounds to get the Rain to come see.
- Anaconda (Cobra) – Thinks they should beat on the drums.
- Hyena (Dog) – Thinks they should laugh and make the Rain jealous of the fun they’re having.
- Gorilla – Thinks that they should jump around and thump their chest and call for the Rain.
- Giraffe (Pyramid) – Thinks they should climb to highest peak and look for the Rain on the horizon.
- Lion – Thinks they should roar their loudest roar.
- Butterfly – Thinks that they should fly very high to the clouds.
- Zebra – (Dead Bugs)-Thinks they should make the Rain laugh and forget he is mad.
- They argued and argued (do sequence twice) saying that THEIR idea was the right one until suddenly the wise Martial Eagle suddenly appeared. He asked the animals if they had actually thought about why the Rain had left in the first place? When the animals brainstormed ideas and realized he had left when they had said mean things. The Martial Eagle asked them how THEY would have felt if that were them the animals realized that they needed to apologize to their dear friend, the Rain. But still they didn’t know how to get the Rain to return in order to say how sorry and appreciate they are. The Martial Eagle suggested that perhaps ALL the animals had something valuable to contribute. So they each tried each others’ ideas (do sequence on more time).
Calm
- Breathing/Relaxation – In the end the animals were so tired they lay down until the Umbrella Thorn for an afternoon siesta. When they awoke they were greeted by their old friend, the Rain. He still looked very sad but quickly the animals ran around him to tell them how very sorry they were. They told the Rain that they had taken him for granted and appreciated how very important he was to all of them. The Rain accepted their apology. He told them he only came back because he had heard that all the animals of the Savannah were acting really peculiar and he wanted to see for himself what was going on. The animals were very glad they had decided to work together and knew that was how they got the Rain to return. Their dear friend agreed to shower them with wonderful drops of Rain if they promised, in return, to continue to listen to each others’ ideas and respect everyone’s unique talents.
- Mindfulness – What are your unique talents? When was a time you had to apologize to a friend and admit when you were wrong? It is hard to do sometimes but worth it in the end.