Norris the Baby Seahorse Kids Yoga Class Plan - by Cosmic Kids Yoga

Norris the Baby Seahorse Kids Yoga Class Plan Norris is a baby seahorse and is super excited about joining the new Best Fish in the Sea club! The new friends, the fun, the adventures they will have! But when he arrives for his first meet up he isn’t treated very nicely by some of the other members - they call him names and make fun of his slow swimming. Norris is being BULLIED. In this story we LEARN THE STEPS WE CAN TAKE when we are bullied and HOW TO DEAL WITH IT effectively.

Set under the sea

Story script

Dealing with bullies

Pose checklist

Best for 4 to 8 year olds

Watch Jaime leading this adventure on YouTube

Character image

Friends activity

Things to remember Print out the A Good Friend activity once for each child and the Norris character image once for you to show the kids.

Bring pens or pencils so the kids can fill in the A Good Friend activity.

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Norris the Baby Seahorse

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Today we are off to visit our friend Norris the Baby Seahorse.

Let’s get going and give everyone at home a great big hug goodbye! Bye everybody!

Look who’s on the window sill! It’s Bez the Blue Footed Booby Bird! With huge webbed blue feet!

He does a funny dance, lifting his feet up as high as he can!

He sings as he lifts his feet “Ello, ello, I’m Bez the Booby Bird. Yes I am! I love to do me dancin’!”

Bez is going to give us a ride to the beach where we can meet up with Norris. We get on his back, he folds forward, points his wings (hands) down, then swoops up into the sky. We’re off!

As we fly, we look down and wave at everyone below.

Bez comes into land on the beach so we tuck up small in a tiny landing ball. We sit up and say Namaste to Bez then see our friend Popcorn the Dolphin!

Popcorn gives us a ride (dolphin pose) through the waves to go find Norris in the sea. She drops us off at the Kelp garden.

The Kelp garden is full of long strands of tall seaweed that waft gently side to side, forwards and backwards and all the way around.

We swim on our tummies – parting the seaweed and find our way to Norris the Baby Seahorse’s house!

Here he is! It’s Norris (seahorse pose). He swaps sides and gives us a little baby sea horse neigh and because we are good friends we twirl up (standing spin) together in a flurry of bubbles.

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He tells us how excited he is because today he got an invitation to join the “Best Fish in the Sea club”. Norris has never heard of it before, but because of its name he thinks it must be the best club in the ocean for little fry (fry means ‘kids’ in fish language!) He’s due to go to his first meet-up today at the Coral reef café.

We’d better get moving. It’s nearly time for the first meet-up at the Best Fish in the Sea Club! Norris is so excited.

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Together we swim (slowly as we know Norris can only swim slowly) on our knees breathing in as we lift up, and out as we lower down. On our approach to the Coral Reef Café we pass one of Norris’ best friends – Mimi the mermaid – with her tail swished round one way she says “Bon Chance Petit Norris” which means Good Luck little Norris in French. Then she swishes her tail around the other way to blow him a special mermaid kiss. Oo la la!

Once we arrive we notice that some members of the club are not happy about Norris joining.

A tough looking little crab walks over (digga digga) and tells Norris “you can’t be in the Best fish in the sea club because your nose is too big.” Then he digga digga’s back the other way and says “I’ll pinch you on the nose if you’re not careful!”

“If someone says something mean about your appearance and tells you they are going to hurt you, they are being a bully.“

Coming into our seahorse pose. Norris can’t believe it! He loves his nose. He chooses not to say anything nasty back as this will probably turn into a fight. He turns around (seahorse pose other side) to bob away.

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“Walking away and ignoring a bully is usually a better idea.

Getting into a fight will cause more problems.”

Along come a pair of rather unfriendly wolf fish. They try and make Norris look foolish – “Alright boney!

You can join if you can make yourself look like a tree” Norris perks up and shows them his best tree pose – on one side, then the other. But the wolf fish start to laugh loudly at him “hahaha! Only joking – you can’t join the best fish in the sea club! Certainly not with a big silly round tummy! HAHAHA”

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Norris is starting to feel sad – we sit with our legs crossed. We tell him that he shouldn’t listen to those bullies. That his nose is beautiful and, so is his body with all its bones and his lovely tummy. But he hangs his head looking down (hugging our knees in and dropping our chin to chest).

Coming over now is a shark. She’s smiling. She is wearing her “best fish in the sea” badge. She comes right up to Norris and says “Hi I’m Shona - the shark! Err.. wolfish and crab said that apparently you are a really bad swimmer. And if that’s true – you definitely can’t belong in the best fish in the sea club! See ya.”

And with that Shona swims off back to the wolfish and the tough little crab.

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This is awful. These bullies are making poor Norris feel bad about himself. And they are making others gang up on him too. The ‘Best fish in the sea club’ is not the best – it’s the worst! We need to get help – we need a wise grownup friend who can speak to Norris and understand what’s going on here.

“If you feel like you are being bullied and it’s getting hard to ignore it. Tell a grown-up and ask for help.”

Hey – here come just the friends we need! It’s Tommy the Bedtime turtle and Squish the Fish. He’s using his tail as a surfboard as usual, so looks a bit like a penguin!

“Dude? Why the longboard face?”

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Norris explains in his seahorse pose “I really want to be in the best fish in the sea club. But they said that I can’t because my nose is too long, I’ve got a big round tummy and there’s a rumour that I’m a bit slow at my swimming.”

Tommy the Bedtime turtle shakes his head slowly: “Well Norris. You know that all of those things are not for you to feel bad about. They are not good reasons why you can’t be in the club. What do you think?”

Norris sits up. He unravels his tail - taking our legs out long and sits tall. “Well I quite like my long nose, and my tummy and I’m happy being slow when I swim. I don’t like rushing about. I get all tired and stressed.”

Squish reclining in his fish pose says “Dude – you know it! You don’t need to listen to them. They are bullying you. You don’t need to change anything –and you certainly don’t need to join their club. Dude!

Why don’t you start your own club? I’d much prefer to join yours than be in the mean club!”

Sitting up legs crossed. At this Norris gets excited! “Yes! Starting my own club! What a good idea. We can call it the I Love Being Me club!” At this Norris returns to seahorse pose to announce that “Anyone can be in the I Love Being Me club – no matter what they look like or how fast they swim!”

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This was more like it. Norris has a smile back on his face. But coming over is Shona the shark again! Uh oh. She says to Norris “Err? ‘Scuse me… I wonder if I can join the I Love Being Me club? I really don’t like those other guys telling me what to do and saying horrible things about me.”

Norris in his seahorse pose is delighted “Yes Shona! Everyone is welcome in the I Love Being Me club” After that, many of the others from the ‘best fish in the sea club’ started to drift over – clearly they had all had enough of the few bullies who were being mean.Norris felt happy again and knew now that he could rise above bullies.

Relaxation

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We say our goodbyes and leave our friends in the I Love Being Me club to return home.

Swimming up we find our friend Bez the Blue Footed Booby bird again. We climb on board his back and lie down nestling in his soft feathers to take a lovely few moments to relax.

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As we fly home we think about what Norris went through – and how we might deal with bullying if it happens to us. Bullying is never ok, and it’s always a good idea to tell someone – a grownup if it’s happening to us. Being nasty back to bullies is never going to end well either – it will probably end in a fight which is bad. So we walk away, we ignore, we don’t allow their words to worry us. And if it continues we talk to someone who can help. We slowly begin to wake up again now. Wiggling fingers and toes. Hugging our knees into our chest and rolling onto our side. We sit up with legs crossed and bring our hands together at our hearts.

Follow-on Activity - Colour, draw and fill in the blanks In this activity we recognise the qualities of being a good friend as well as completing the drawing of Norris and colouring him in.

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Handout copies of the activity sheet along with pencils and colouring pencils. Ask the children to draw the missing part of Norris’ tail and colour him in. Then add in the missing letters to complete the words that are all phrases defining what a good friend is.

This is a lovely follow up activity to help kids appreciate friendship in an objective way. Plus it’s a creative exercise in drawing Norris’ tail.

Look who’s on the window sill! It’s Bez the Blue Footed Booby Bird!

As we fly, we look down and wave at everyone below.

Bez comes into land on the beach so we tuck up small in a tiny landing ball.

He does a funny dance with his feet lifting them up as high as he can!

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Let’s get going and give everyone at home a great big hug goodbye!

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Norris the Baby Seahorse - Pose Summary

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We sit up and say a Namaste to Bez.

We swim on our tummies through the seaweed...

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She drops us off at the Kelp garden.

...and because we are good friends we twirl up (standing spin) together in a flurry of bubbles.

We swim slowly (breathing in and out) to the Best Fish in the Sea Club.

We get on his back, he points his wings down then swoops up into the sky. We’re off!

Popcorn the Dolphin will take us next! Hello Popcorn!

We dive in dolphin pose to find Norris.

...and find our way to Norris the Baby Seahorse’s house!

Here he is! It’s Norris (seahorse pose)!

He swaps sides and gives us a little baby sea horse neigh.

We pass Mimi the mermaid. “Bon chance petit Norris”. Then she swishes her tail and blows him a kiss.

A crab comes over digga digga digga and says “you can’t be in the club, your nose is too big.” And digga diggas back.

We tell him his nose is beautiful and his body with all its bones and his lovely tummy. But Norris hangs his head.

Coming over now is a shark, Shona. “If you’re a bad swimmer, you can’t be in the club!” They’re ganging up on Norris!

Norris shows them his best tree pose – on one side, then the other. The wolf fish laugh at him!

Hey – here come just the friends we need! It’s Tommy the Bedtime Turtle...

EV Norris explains in seahorse pose “They said that I can’t be in the club because of my nose, tummy and swimming.”

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...who’s using his tail as a surfboard as usual, so looks a bit like a penguin!

Squish reclining in his fish pose says “You don’t need to listen to them. Why don’t you start your own club?”

Norris sits up legs crossed. “Yes! Start my own club! I could call it the I Love Being Me Club!”

Norris is starting to feel sad – we sit with our legs crossed.

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Along come a pair of wolf fish. “Alright boney! You can only join if you can make yourself look like a tree!”

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Norris (seahorse pose) chooses not to say anything back. He turns (seahorse other side) to bob away...

Tommy the Bedtime turtle: “All of those things are not good reasons. What do you think?”

Norris in seahorse pose announces: “Anyone can be in the I Love Being Me club – no matter what they look like or how fast they swim!”

Squish the Fish...

Norris sits tall. “I quite like my long nose, and my tummy and I’m happy being slow when I swim. I don’t like rushing about!”

I get all tired and stressed.”

Shona the shark says to Norris “Can I join the I Love Being Me club?

Those others keep saying horrible things about me.”

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We say our goodbyes to return home.

Swimming up we find our friend Bez the Blue Footed Booby bird again.

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We climb on board his back and lie down nestling in his soft feathers to take a lovely few moments to relax.

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Norris in his seahorse pose is delighted “Yes Shona!

Everyone is welcome in the I Love Being Me Club!”

After that, many of the others from the ‘best fish in the sea club’ wanted to join!

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

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Norris - Colour, draw and fill in the blanks

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A good friend...