Lulu the Lion Cub - A Cosmic Kids Yoga Class Plan

Lulu the Lion Cub Kids Yoga Class Plan We’re off to Africa to visit Lulu the Baby Lion! This story helps kids learn how to MANAGE FRUSTRATION and ANGER and meet some fun friends along the way! I like to ask the kids to share what happens in their body when they feel angry. What sensations do they notice? I also enjoy discussing their ideas for how we can help ourselves feel calm again. This is such a practical and useful story and I hope the kids you share it with find it helpful!

Set in Africa

Story script

We learn to notice our feelings and calm down!

Pose checklist

Best for 4 to 8 year olds

Watch Jaime leading this adventure on YouTube

Character image

Feelings Game

Also includes ‘King of the Jungle’ game instructions!

Things to remember Print out the character image and templates for the Feelings Game.

Bring pens for the Feelings Game

© Cosmic Kids 2018

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Lulu the Lion Cub

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Lulu the Lion Cub - Story Script

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Today we’re off on a journey to a place called Tanzania in Africa! It’s a big dry and hot place and we’ll be meeting a baby lion - a cub - called Lulu.

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Let’s start by getting our bodies ready for our adventure. We get our necks warm, looking over one shoulder then over the other. And again! Now we slowly roll our head, all the way round one way then all the way round the other. We will have to carry our back pack on our shoulders so let’s roll them round and round a few times (sing the roll your shoulders song). We rub our ears we can hear the animals and massage our jaws too so we can call to them! We get our backs feeling good by rocking and rolling backwards and forwards a few times. Whoop woo! Finally we come into a butterfly pose to get our hips feeling open and ready for sitting by the campfire.

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Before we leave we pack a back pack with everything we need for camping. We take our legs out long and open it first by touching our toes and oooop - raising our arms. Now we twist one way for a... tent - let’s come back to the front and pop it in - tent tent tent tent tent! Now we twist the other way for a sleeping bag - we twist back to the front and pop that in too - sleeping bag, sleeping bag, sleeping bag, sleeping bag! Twist again for a pair of binoculars - pop them in - binoculars, binoculars, binoculars, binoculars! And finally twist the other way for some sun cream! In it goes - sun cream, sun cream, sun cream, sun cream! Close the top - reaching all the way up, then folding all the way forward to touch our toes! There! We are all packed and ready to go!

We give everyone at home hugs goodbye, and we get on the train (solo or group pose with the children in a line, hands on the shoulders of the person in front and then moving around the room). Clickety clack, clickety clack! We arrive at the airport and catch an aeroplane. Neeeoooow round one side of the world and neeeoooow round the other! We arrive in Tanzania! It’s super hot so we put on some sun cream. Squirt it on our hands (blowing raspberries or blob blob blob, blob blob blob) and rub it on our arms, legs, tummies, backs, head, face, ears...bottoms!

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Now we say hello to the sun. Hello sun! Fold forward to say Hello earth! Stepping one foot back we start the engine on our safari jeep - beep beep! We step our other leg back and lower to the ground. We wiggle up like hot sizzly snakes sssss! Then we tuck our toes, press our hips up to the sky and woof like dogs! Woof, woof! We step forward and start our engines again - beep beep. Then step our other foot forward, saying Hello Earth! We reach back up to the sun to say Hello Sun! Well done everyone!

Let’s cool ourselves down now by making our tongue into a straw (sithali straws) and sucking air through it! (Alternatively suck in through the teeth if curling the the sides of the tongue isn’t possible.)

We get in our jeep and bump (bumpy truck) along the roads until we reach our campsite. We put up our tent and check the zip works Zzzzzzzzip! (Slowly lowering arms down to the ground and back up again - pretending that the zip gets stuck halfway so you have to repeat the movement a few times). Phew!

Finally we got the tent up! But we are all dirty now, so we wash our clothes in the river Wisha wash wisha washa woo! (washing machine pose) and we dry them by the fire (tumble dryer pose)

© Cosmic Kids 2018

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We’re looking forward to meeting Lulu in the morning, but right now we’re feeling really tired (cross legged yawn and stretch). So we crawl into our tent (all fours, extending arms and then legs one by one) and we fall asleep (relaxation pose - on tummy or back).

In the morning we are woken by the birds tweeting in the trees. Wow! They make a lot of noise! Tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet!

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We crawl out of our tent into the fresh air and sunshine. Wow! Sitting in front of us is a baby lion - a cub. She hasn’t learnt how to roar yet, so gives us a happy, tongue sticking out hello (lion pose - no roar). “Hello. My names Lulu. I’m feeling a bit annoyed as my brothers and sisters keep making fun of me because I haven’t learnt how to roar yet. First I felt really mad, then I was feeling sad, so I came for a walk to cool off and relax a little and now I’ve found you!” We are glad to be a friend for Lulu to talk to, and maybe we can help her find her roar.

We notice our feelings and the sensations in our body that come from them.

Lulu felt hot and bothered by her anger, so went for a walk to calm down.

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We have an idea! We climb up a tree up we go up we go, up we go up we up we up we go! Lulu stays at the bottom. We tell her that when we get to the top we need her to roar up to us, so we can hear her.

We get to the top and stand very still in our tree pose, trying not to wobble. Down at the bottom, Lulu in lion pose gets herself ready and after 3 does her best roar, 1,2,3 Blaaah! But… oh dear no sound comes out...only her tongue! We climb down the tree a little - maybe we were too high! Down we go, down we go, down we down we down we go! Swap sides on our tree pose - maybe this time we’ll hear her!

Once again Lulu in lion pose tries her best roar. Ready, after 3. 1,2,3 Blaaah! But...Oh dear. Once again, not a sound she makes. We jump down to crouch and Lulu is feeling angry at herself. But do you think this is going to help her? No! So we take some deep breaths together and relax a little so we can think clearly again.

We have another idea. At the watering hole we find the elephants and Ernie the baby elephant who loves to trumpet from his trunk (elephant pose). Awwwooooga! Awwwooooga!

In lion pose - Lulu asks “Please, Ernie… can you help me learn how to make a big sound like yours?”. Ernie the elephant does his biggest trumpet sound again! (elephant pose) Awwwooooga!

Awwwooooga! He looks very pleased with himself. Lulu in her lion pose tries to copy. After 3! 1,2,3 Blaaah! But yet again only manages a funny little sound and her tongue sticking out!

Lulu is so frustrated that Ernie can make a bigger sound than her that she ties his trunk in a knot (eagle arms). Ernie’s a bit upset and confused with his trunk all tied up! We tie our trunk on the other side (eagle arms other way) Ernie asks “What did dou do dat dor?”

We help Lulu calm down by counting down from the angry feeling from 10 to 1. (Gradually reducing the angry-ness of the count as we get down to one) At the end we take a big deep breath. Lulu unties Ernie and says “sorry Ernie” for taking her anger out on him.

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Is it fair to take our anger out on others?

How should we deal with it instead?

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All of a sudden, Mindy the baby chimp jumps down (stand, jump to squat position) from a tree and has an idea for Lulu. “Try jumping up and down like me and every time you jump make your sound. I’ll show you!” Mindy does three big monkey jumps to demonstrate her amazing Monkey calls. Oo oo ah ah! Oo oo ah ah! Oo oo ah ah! So impressive for a baby chimp!

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Lulu has a try (repeat monkey jumps but with baby lion face and hands) and has lots of fun with each of her jumps - but doesn’t quite manage the ROAR she was hoping for. Oh well… at least she is feeling a bit happier. Sometimes doing something physical helps us feel better if we’re feeling frustrated. Yoga and breathing can be especially helpful in moments like this!

Look! Trotting round the corner comes a baby giraffe (giraffe pose). It’s George! He’s very tall, and a little bit wobbly on his long skinny legs. George, being a giraffe calf is mostly silent… they don’t make any noise usually...apart from munching on leaves! Swapping sides now for giraffe pose on the other side - George has something urgent he needs to say. He folds forward, leaning all the way down, using our fingertips on the ground for balance and whispers to Lulu. “The volcano is about to erupt and all the animals need to be warned to take shelter and hide.”

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How will Lulu manage to tell everyone all at once? There’s only one thing she can do… and that is ROAR as loudly as she can. She takes big giant lion steps up the nearest hill and summons all her strength. She takes a big deep breath, and from her strongest lion pose lets out the most almighty ROARRRRRRRRR!!!!!

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The earth shakes with the sound of her roar and the message is clear. The flamingos hear her - “did you hear that? Yes! Sounds like a lion roaring about the volcano erupting - come on flamingos! Let’s hop on!”

The snakes hear her - “ssssounds like sssssomethingssss happening - the volcano erupting! Come on ssssnakes! Let’s ssssslither away!”

The crocodiles hear her - “er...did you ‘ear that? Yeah?! Baby lion roaring very loudly about the old volcano - we’d better scarper! Come on crocs!”

The camels hear her too, and stick out their tongues, blowing raspberries as they go!

In fact, all of the animals hear Lulu’s warning roar. Lulu’s whole pride – her Mummy, Daddy and brothers and sisters. They are so proud of their little lion cub! Lulu is proud too - she learnt how to deal with her frustration and angry feelings and found the true power of her voice.

We can learn how to deal with our feelings.

Noticing how we feel is the first step.

It’s time for us to go home. Oh look! Floating down is a wonderful hot air balloon! What a great way for us to travel home! We get in and then blow it up with a big long hot air balloon breath. Hot air balloon pose. As we lift off into the warm air we lie back and take a moment to be still and calm after our exciting African adventure. © Cosmic Kids 2018

Relaxation

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We think about Lulu’s journey and feel proud of her too - for learning about her feelings and finding ways to help herself. Feeling anger and frustration is completely normal and ok - feelings are a part of who we are - it’s a part of being alive. But it’s good to know we have ways of helping ourselves in these moments so we don’t get swept up in the feelings and do something mean - like tying poor Ernie’s trunk in a knot! It’s ok to feel angry, but it’s not ok to hurt or take our anger out on someone else. This happens when feelings like anger take over - so we practice doing things that help manage our anger and get us back to a place of feeling calm and clear again. Let’s focus now on finding the calm feeling. If we breathe slowly, deeply and steadily we should start to notice a calm and clear feeling. When we feel anger and frustration, if we can be mindful enough to notice those feelings, we can help ourselves - we can breath ourselves into this calm place - it’s one of the amazing tools we learn in yoga. Let’s say some words now that help our mind feel stronger - we call them affirmations. I’ll say the words first then you repeat them - I am calm (the children repeat). All feelings pass (the children repeat). I can help myself with breathing (the children repeat).

If I keep practicing I will achieve my goals (the children repeat). Slowly we come back to sit, wiggling fingers and toes, rolling over and crossing our legs, bringing our palms together at our hearts.

Game

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King of the Jungle This game requires concentration and will help everyone learn and remember the animal yoga postures. It works best with older children aged 6+, and a group of 6-12 children.

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The children sit in a semi-circle. At one end is the ‘King of the Jungle’ - the Lion.

This person does ‘Lion Pose’.

Next in line is the Elephant (they do Elephant pose), The following is Gorilla (Gorilla pose) Then Crocodile (Crocodile pose), then Zebra (Horse pose), then Giraffe (Giraffe pose), then Parrot (Parrot pose), then Butterfly (Butterfly pose), then Snake (Snake pose) then Frog (Frog pose), then Fish (Fish pose), and finally Monkey (Monkey pose).

Feel free to swap in any others or take some out if you have less than 12 in your group, but each place in the line has a set animal.

Starting with the Lion (the King), they must do two poses - their pose then the pose of another animal in the line. That animal then does their own pose and also performs another pose to pass it on. And so it repeats. For example (Lion) ‘LION POSE’ - ‘ZEBRA POSE’ (Zebra) ‘ZEBRA POSE’ - ‘MONKEY POSE’ (Monkey) ‘MONKEY POSE’ - ‘PARROT POSE’ etc If someone makes a mistake, or doesn’t notice that their pose has been indicated, they have to swap places with the person next to them, moving down towards the monkey. They then take on the pose of the seat they now occupy, and the person who moves up a place takes their pose. The aim is to move all the way up to take up position as King of the Jungle.

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Follow-on Activity - How does Lulu feel?

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In this exercise we look at the different faces Lulu has and try to identify which feeling goes with each picture.

Give out a copy of the page to each child and they can either cut out the labels to place them beneath the images or they can use a pencil to draw a line between the feeling word and the matching picture.

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By learning to recognise feelings in ourselves and others we develop emotional intelligence. Understanding and noticing our feelings helps us stay present so we are less likely to get swept up in the wave of feeling we are experiencing.

Š Cosmic Kids 2018

We will have to carry our back pack on our shoulders so let’s roll them round and round a few times!

We get our backs feeling good by rocking and rolling a few times. Whoop woo!

Finally we come into a butterfly pose to get our hips feeling open and ready for sitting by the campfire.

EV

...and massage our jaws too so we can call to them!

Now we slowly roll our head, round one way then round the other.

IE

Let’s get our bodies ready for our adventure. We get our necks warm, looking over one shoulder then over the other.

W

Lulu the Lion Cub - Pose Summary

We rub our ears we can hear the animals...

We pack a back pack! Take our legs out long and open it touching our toes and oooop - raising our arms.

Now we twist the other way for a sleeping bag - we twist back to the front and pop that in too - sleeping bag!

Twist again for a pair of binoculars - pop them in - binoculars, binoculars, binoculars, binoculars!

And finally twist the other way for some sun cream! In it goes - sun cream, sun cream, sun cream, sun cream!

Close the top - reaching all the way up, then folding all the way forward to touch our toes! There! All packed and ready to go!

We give everyone at home hugs goodbye...

...and we get on the train (solo or group pose).

Clickety clack, clickety clack!

We arrive at the airport and catch an aeroplane.

Neeeoooow round one side of the world...

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Now we twist one way for a... tent - let’s come back to the front and pop it in tent tent tent tent tent!

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Stepping one foot back we start the engine on our safari jeep - beep beep!

We step our other leg back and lower to the ground. We wiggle up like hot sizzly snakes sssss!

W

We put on some sun cream. Squirt it (blob blob blob, blob blob blob) and rub it on our arms, legs, tummies, backs, face, ears... bottoms!

Now we say hello to the sun. Hello sun!

IE

....and neeeoooow round the other!

We arrive in Tanzania!

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Then we tuck our toes, press our hips up to the sky and woof like dogs! Woof, woof!

We reach back up to the sun to say Hello Sun! Well done everyone!

PR

Then step our other foot forward, saying Hello Earth!

We put up our tent...

...and check the zip works Zzzzzzzzip! (pretending that the zip gets stuck halfway). Phew!

Let’s cool ourselves down now by making our tongue into a straw (sithali straws) and sucking air through it!

we are all dirty now, so we wash our clothes in the river Wisha wash wisha washa woo! (washing machine pose)

Š Cosmic Kids 2018

Fold forward to say Hello earth!

We step forward and start our engines again beep beep.

We get in our jeep and bump (bumpy truck) along the roads until we reach our campsite.

...and we dry them by the fire (tumble dryer pose)

W

So we crawl into our tent...

...and we fall asleep (relaxation pose on tummy or back).

IE

We’re looking forward to meeting Lulu, but right now we’re feeling really tired (cross legged yawn and stretch).

We crawl out of our tent into the fresh air and sunshine. Wow! Sitting in front of us is a baby lion - a cub.

“My names Lulu. My brothers and sisters keep making fun of me because I haven’t learnt how to roar yet.” (Lion pose - no roar).

Down at the bottom, Lulu in lion pose gets herself ready and after 3 does her best roar, 1,2,3 Blaaah! Oh dear!

At the watering hole we find Ernie the baby elephant who loves to trumpet Awwwooooga!

In the morning we are woken by the birds tweeting in the trees.Tweet tweet tweet tweet tweet!

We tell her that when we get to the top in tree pose, we need her to roar up to us, so we can hear her.

Maybe we were too high! Down we go!

Swap sides on our tree pose - maybe this time we’ll hear her!

Once again Lulu in lion pose tries her best roar. Ready, after 3. 1,2,3 Blaaah!

Oh dear!

Lulu is feeling angry at herself. So we take some deep breaths together and relax a little so we can think clearly again.

In lion pose - Lulu asks “Please, Ernie… can you help me learn how to make a big sound like yours?”.

Ernie does his biggest trumpet sound again! (elephant pose) Awwwooooga! He looks very pleased with himself.

Lulu in her lion pose tries to copy.

After 3! 1,2,3 Blaaah!

But only manages a funny little sound!

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Maybe we can help her find her roar?

We have an idea! We climb up a tree up we go. Up we go!

© Cosmic Kids 2018

W

We help Lulu calm down by counting down from the angry feeling from 10 to 1.

Mindy does three big monkey jumps to demonstrate her amazing Monkey calls. Oo oo ah ah!

Lulu has a try (but with baby lion face and hands) - but doesn’t quite manage the ROAR.

EV

All of a sudden, Mindy the baby chimp jumps down (stand, jump to squat position) from a tree and has an idea for Lulu.

We tie our trunk on the other side (Eagle arms other way) Ernie asks “What did dou do dat dor?”

IE

Lulu is so frustrated that Ernie can make a bigger sound than her that she ties his trunk in a knot (Eagle arms).

He folds forward, and whispers,“The volcano is about to erupt. All the animals need to be warned!”

Lulu takes big giant lion steps up the nearest hill and summons all her strength.

The flamingos hear her - “did you hear that? Yes! Sounds like a lion roaring about the volcano erupting - come on flamingos!

Let’s hop on!”

The snakes hear her - “ssssounds like sssssomethingssss happening! Come on ssssnakes! Let’s ssssslither away!”

PR

Swapping sides now for giraffe pose on the other side - George has something urgent he needs to say.

...and from her strongest lion pose lets out the most almighty ROOOAAARRR! ROARRRRRRRRR!!!!!

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Lulu feels better and unties Ernie and says “sorry Ernie” for taking her anger out on him.

(Back into Eagle arms and untie them)

Trotting round the corner comes a baby giraffe (giraffe pose).

It’s George!

She takes a big deep breath ROARRRRRRRRR!!!!!

The crocodiles hear her - “er...did you ‘ear that?

Yeah?! Baby lion roaring very loudly about the old volcano - we’d better scarper!”

As we lift off into the warm air we lie back and take a moment to be still and calm after our exciting African adventure.

W

Oh look! Floating down is a wonderful hot air balloon! What a great way for us to travel home!

PR

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IE

The camels hear her too, and stick out their tongues, blowing raspberries as they go!

For more detailed guidance on how to instruct the poses, download our 253 page The Big Book of Kids Yoga Postures • 220 kids yoga poses, including partner poses and breathing exercises • 400 high quality pose images • Clear, child friendly instructions into each posture • Anatomical focus, benefits and contra-indications for each pose • Teaching tips to make the poses work for kids • A linking index to each pose

© Cosmic Kids 2018

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How does Lulu feel?

© Cosmic Kids 2018