Twilight the Unicorn Kids Yoga Class Plan PREVIEW! by cosmickids1

Twilight the Unicorn of Dreams Kids Yoga Class Plan Our friend Twilight the Unicorn has a magic way of helping us set up for the best dreams by finding a calm happy place in our hearts and minds as we drift off to sleep. This story helps kids MAKE SENSE OF DREAMS and understand that even when we wake up from a dream we can CALM OURSELVES, CLEAR OUR MIND and fall back to sleep again.

Set in a magical forest

Story script

Sleeping well Having lovely dreams

Pose checklist

Best for 4 to 8 year olds

Character image

Watch Jaime leading this adventure on YouTube

Dream Catcher

Things to remember Bring print outs of the dream catcher templates and the image of Twilight.

Crafting kit - pens, glue, scissors - if you want to do the dream catcher..

ÂŠ Cosmic Kids 2018

Twilight the Unicorn of Dreams

Â© Cosmic Kids 2018

Twilight the Unicorn of Dreams - Story Script

Our story today is about a wonderful unicorn called Twilight! Who can tell us anything about unicorns? (Enjoy listening to the children enthuse about unicorns/share facts) We’re going to be doing lots of unicorn pose in our adventure today so let’s practice it now before we start. Come onto our knees and step one foot forward. Bring hands to our heart and raise our arms like our unicorn horn is pointing to the sky - let’s say neiighhh! And clip clop clip clop! Like a unicorn! Well done everyone! Coming back to sit with legs crossed. Twilight is the unicorn of dreams so her job is to help everyone have good dreams. It’s a good story to remember when we’re getting ready for bed!

Let’s imagine it’s nighttime and say hello to the moon and stars. We stand up, reach to the sky and say hello night. We do a crescent moon pose one way then the other way, getting a lovely stretch all the way down our sides. Standing up straight again, we blow up our moon (blowing into hands then raising arms up and out) into a full moon like a hot air balloon, and lower with our legs wide into a squat (goddess pose) - blowing it all the way up! Gosh it’s big and bright! Now the moon is full let’s stretch ourselves into 5 points, straightening our legs, making a star, twinkling and wiggling our fingertips to add a bit of sparkle. Can you feel them tingling? That’s the magic dream starshine working!

Like a teapot (triangle pose) we tilt over and sprinkle out some starshine one way, wiggling our fingers up towards the sky and down to our toes then we go the other way (triangle other side). Now we stand tall and begin to (standing) spin, swishing the lovely starshine all around us. Starshine is what dreams are made of. We sprinkle (pitter patter raining) it onto ourselves. We rub our ears and jaws with it too. Now we feel our bodies go all wibbly wobbly like we’re drifting off to sleep (slowly lowering into ragdoll pose...and then all the way down to all fours.)

Here come the woozy sleep sheep! On all fours we woozily wiggle our sheep tails up and down (cat/ cow pose) and lift up our bottom to baa, baa bounce (dog pose) over the fence. Let’s count 3 sheep as they baa baa baa bounce up and over the fence…1,2,3 (all fours to down dog x 3 times). (Use the ‘baa baa baa’ to count 1,2,3 before saying ‘bounce’ on the lift to dog pose.) Wow! Suddenly we’re transported and find ourselves in a magical forest. Twilight the Unicorn should be around here somewhere. We come to a very wonky, crooked tree (standing side twist - helicopter pose). We climb up the tree to have a look from up high. Let’s stand very still in our tree pose at the top, trying not to wobble (tree test!). We climb (repeat cross climbing motion) a bit higher to get a better view, standing on the other side again in our tree pose! Let’s have a look through our night goggles (binoculars) and see what’s going on in this magical dream world! (Ask the children what they like to imagine in their ‘dream world’ when they close their eyes to go to sleep at night.)

“When we close our eyes at night, we can imagine a dream world

“

All of a sudden a huge beautiful owl lands in front of us, coming to your knees, and using your arms to swoop your owl wings saying ‘too-wit’ on the way up and ‘too-woo’ on the way down. “Twilight is waiting for you. Too-wit too-woo! By the lake. Too-wit too-woo! Hop on my back and we’ll fly. Toowit too-woo! ” On we get! Standing up we lean forward, and hold on to the owl’s feathers (standing forward bend, arms reach forward). The owl spreads his wings (parrot pose) and we fly through the treetops to a beautiful lake. We arrive at the lake, coming down to our knees to land like a little mouse.

We sit up and say Namaste to the owl and he toodle-oos off into the night. The lake is sparkling in the moonlight. Sitting with our legs wide, we fold forward to look down into the water. It’s like a mirror! We can see our reflection. Then we see someone else in the reflection… it’s Twilight the unicorn. Coming into our unicorn pose! See if we can remember it from our practice at the start! Twilight says “Howdy, dream friend! Will you help me bring starshine to everyone tonight? Everyone needs their starshine to have lovely dreams.” We stand tall, hands on our hips and tell Twilight ‘We’re in!’ Now we try our unicorn pose on the other side, and off we go, clip clopping into the woods. It’s amazing being here with Twilight. She makes sure we all sleep peacefully and delivers starshine to us all every night so we have good dreams.

We come to a tiny little house. Out of the house comes a mouse. It’s Matilda the mouse. Inside are all her little babies, waiting for their starshine. Matilda is holding a little bowl, ready to recieve the starshine. Twilight gets straight to work and points her horn down into the bowl (unicorn pose – bowing forward). Out comes a whoosh of starshine, filling the bowl! Twilight lifts back up and says “Goodnight, Matilda Mouse… Sweet dreams to you and your babies.” Matilda mouse squeaks her thanks and scurries back into her little house to make sure everyone gets their starshine before bed.

Next we come to a hole (treasure chest) in the ground. We look down the hole and out pops a hare with very long hare ears. She’s holding a carrot. Let’s all try our very best carrot pose! Now can you do a happy carrot face? How about a sad carrot face? What about a cross carrot face? Now let’s go full disco carrot and do some carrot dancing (wiggling and dancing in carrot pose!) Wonderful carrot acting everyone! Now we come Into our unicorn pose. Twilight, bows forward covering the carrot in magical starshine with a big whhhooooosh! She lifts up and says “Goodnight, Hilary Hare… A special bedtime snack to give everyone in the warren sweet dreams.” Hilary Hare bows her big ears forward to thank Twilight and bunny hops back down the hole...with her starshine covered carrot! We head back to the lake where we meet a beautiful mermaid. She sits up tall, her tail swished around to one side and looks at us over her shoulder and says “bonne nuit” which means ‘goodnight’ in French. She gives Twilight a big hug and lifts a little pouch (reach and hold your hands in a cup shape) ready to be filled with starshine. Twilight the unicorn gets in position, then bows forward swooooshing sparkly starshine into the pouch. The mermaid will take this starshine and make sure all the creatures who live in water will have sweet dreams. The mermaid swishes her tail around the other way and once again says “bonne nuit” before coming up onto her tail (high on knees) and diving (reach up and drop forward into a half pushup/knees down) gracefully into the shimmering water, swimming away.

Twilight has nearly finished her dream making for tonight and it makes us feel like having a dream. She blows us a kiss and we feel the starshine tingles begin (raining - pitter patter). We give her a cuddle and say goodbye. Twilight tells us she will always bring us starshine and we never need to worry when it’s time for bed. All you have to do is close your eyes, relax your mind and let go of your worries.

“We can use our breathing to help relax our mind and body”

As we sit back, crossing our legs, Twilight gives us a clever way to rest our eyes - we rub our hands together really fast to make them warm, then we place our hands, like cups, over our eyes, allowing our eyes to rest in the warm darkness. After a moment we lower our hands and our eyes feel all lovely and relaxed - it’s like we’ve bathed them in magic that helps us feel calm.

We can’t wait to try it again later before bedtime! Wow! Look - We see that we are sitting on a magic carpet. Taking our legs out wide, and stretching out our arms to the sides. We swirl around (from the waist) as we lift off and then cross our legs, rocking side to side saying our mindfulness rhyme - tick tock like a clock until I find my centre. Lying back we sleep walk lifting up one leg long - foot to the sky then lowering it and lifting the other, one leg, then the other. We get to our beds and light a candle, lifting both legs up to the sky, and watch the flickering flames (toes wiggling). Lowering our legs, bending our knees, we join the soles of our feet together and let our knees melt to the sides (reclined butterfly pose).

Relaxation

Our eyes feel heavy, so we let them close and begin our dreams. We place one hand on our chest and the other on our tummy and feel our tummies fill and rise as we slowly breathe in and then empty and lower as we slowly breathe out (Repeat). What a wonderful time we had with Twilight. We remember the bits we enjoyed the most. Being a carrot, meeting a mermaid, helping Twilight, who is always there for us when we dream. We can let our dreams take us wherever we wish to go. Let’s think where that might be now. When we sleep and dream we know that no matter what, we are always safe, and after a good sleep we wake up wiser and stronger. Thankyou Twilight. Let’s say some words that help us feel things from the inside out. We call them affirmations - I’ll say it first, then you say it after - I am peace (the children say it back). I am calm (the children say it back). I am still (the children say it back). Now start to wake up by wiggling our fingers and toes, taking a big long stretch and hugging our knees into our chest. Roll over to the side and come to sit with our legs crossed and hands together at our heart.

Game idea! Yoga Whispers

Ask one of the children to think of one of the poses from the story. They have to whisper the name of the pose into their neighbour’s ear. They pass it on to the next child and the next and so on. Keep going until it reaches the last child (the one on the other side of the starting child). They have to show the pose (if they can remember it!). Hopefully it matches the pose that was initiated at the start!

Follow-on Activity - Make a Dream Catcher

Please find the dream catcher template. You will need enough printed copies for everyone, pots of colouring pencils, glue, craft scissors, card and craft feathers. Hand out copies of the Dream Catcher template along with pots of colouring pencils. Ask the children to decorate their dream catcher with lots of colours. If time allows, you can continue the craft by having the children stick their dream catchers on card, cut them out (around the dashed line and then decorating them further by sticking on craft feathers. If there isn’t enough time at the end, they can be taken home to do later if they wish.

As everyone quietly gets on with their decorating and colouring, it’s nice to have a discussion about dreams, what they mean, and what to do if we have a bad dream. Share ideas about how to calm down feelings that arise - taking deep breaths, counting our breaths and trying to use our thoughts to imagine something that makes us feel happy.

Add in a fun fact about dream catchers...They were invented by the Native Americans. Mothers and Grandmothers would weave these colourful webs for their children to keep the bad dreams away.

Coming back to sit with legs crossed.

We blow up our moon into a full moon like a hot air balloon! (Into squat - goddess pose)

Let’s stretch ourselves into 5 points, straightening our legs, making a star! Add a bit of sparkle!

We say hello to the moon and stars. We stand up, reach to the sky and say hello night!

We’re going to be doing lots of unicorn pose in our adventure today so let’s practice it now

Twilight the Unicorn of Dreams - Pose Summary

Like a teapot (triangle pose) we tilt over and sprinkle out some starshine one way and then the other.

We rub our ears and jaws with it too.

Starshine is what dreams are made of. We sprinkle (pitter patter raining) it onto ourselves.

On all fours we woozily wiggle our sheep tails up and down (cat/cow pose)

...and lift up our bottom to baa, baa bounce (dog pose) over the fence.

Now we feel our bodies go all wibbly wobbly like we’re drifting off to sleep (slowly lowering into ragdoll pose...)

We count sheep as they baa baa baa bounce over the fence (all fours to down dog x 3 times).

We do a crescent moon pose one way then the other way, getting a lovely stretch.

Now we stand tall and begin to (standing) spin, swishing the lovely starshine all around us.

...and then all the way down to all fours. Here come the woozy sleep sheep!

We come to a very wonky, crooked tree.

W We climb (repeat cross climbing motion) a bit higher to get a better view

A huge beautiful owl lands in front of us, (saying ‘too-wit’ on the way up and ‘too-woo’ on the way down.)

The owl offers us a ride! We get on and hold on to the owl’s feathers (standing forward bend, arms reach forward).

Let’s have a look through our night goggles (binoculars) and see what’s going on in this magical dream world! .

Let’s stand very still in our tree pose at the top, trying not to wobble (tree test!)

We climb up the tree to have a look from up high.

We sit up and say Namaste to the owl and he toodle-oos off into the night.

We arrive at the lake, coming down to our knees to land like a little mouse.

We clip clop together to a tiny little house.

Out of the house comes a mouse. It’s Matilda the mouse.

...standing on the other side again in our tree pose!

The owl spreads his wings (parrot pose) and we fly through the treetops to a beautiful lake.

Sitting with our legs wide, we fold forward and look into the lake. We can see ourselves in it - it’s like a mirror!

We can also see Twilight the unicorn in the reflection!.

Matilda is holding a little bowl, ready to recieve the starshine.

Twilight points her horn down into the bowl (unicorn pose – bowing forward) spraying the starshine.

Next we come to a hole (treasure chest) in the ground.

We look down the hole and out pops a hare with very long hare ears.

Matilda mouse says thanks and scurries back to make sure everyone gets their starshine before bed.

Hilary Hare bows her big ears forward to thank Twilight

She gives Twilight a big hug and lifts up her little pouch (hands out in a cup shape) to be filled with starshine.

Twilight the unicorn bows forward swooooshing sparkly starshine into the pouch.

...and bunny hops back down the hole... with her starshinecovered carrot!

Twilight, bows forward covering the carrot in starshine. A special bedtime snack for sweet dreams!

and diving (reach up and drop forward into a half pushup/ knees down) gracefully...

...into the shimmering water and swimming away.

She’s holding a carrot. Let’s all do our a happy / sad cross / disco carrot pose!

We head back to the lake where we meet a beautiful mermaid. She says ‘bonne nuit!’

The mermaid swishes her tail around the other way and once again says “bonne nuit.”

before coming up onto her tail (high on knees)

Twilight blows us a kiss

...and we feel the starshine tingles begin (raining pitter patter).

Lying back we sleep walk to bed (lifting up one leg)

We get to our beds and light a candle, lifting both legs up to the sky, and watch the flickering flames (toes wiggling).

Crossing our legs, Twilight shows us how to rest our eyes (rub hands to make them warm, place like cups, over our eyes)

We open our eyes and see that we are sitting on a magic carpet.

We give her a cuddle and say goodbye. Twilight tells us she will always bring us starshine.

We cross our legs, and rock side to side saying our mindfulness rhyme tick tock like a clock until I find my centre.

Lowering our legs, bending our knees, we join the soles of our feet together and let our knees melt to the sides (reclined butterfly pose).

ÂŠ Cosmic Kids 2018