Popcorn the Dolphin - A Cosmic Kids Yoga Lesson Plan PREVIEW

Popcorn the Dolphin Kids Yoga Class Plan On this epic adventure we go in search of the yoga treasure with Popcorn the Dolphin. We learn to STAY CALM when faced with challenging situations. Using our BREATHING to steady ourselves and how THINKING POSITIVE is such a powerful way of making something which seems impossible, possible! This is a hugely empowering yoga adventure but it’s quite long - so stay calm, keep breathing and think positive! Enjoy!

Set under the ocean

Story script

Staying calm when we meet challenges

Pose checklist

Best for 4 to 8 year olds

Watch Jaime leading this adventure on YouTube

Character image

Mantra Acivity

Things to remember Print out the character image and some copies of the Mantra Activity.

Bring colouring pens for the Mantra Activity

Š Cosmic Kids 2019

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Popcorn the Dolphin

© Cosmic Kids 2019

Popcorn the Dolphin - Story Script

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We’re off to meet Popcorn the dolphin, who lives in the sea - so we’re going to the seaside. Let’s make a picnic for our trip to the seaside! We open it up (legs long, knees bent, touching toes and reach up to open)…then we twist one way to get some sandwiches, wrrraaap them up (rolling hands round each other in a wrapping motion) and reach forward to pop them in. We twist the other way to get some fruit - what fruit would you like to pack? Bananas, apples, grapes - ooo fantastic! Now we plop them all into the basket. Plop plop plop plop plop! We close (reach up and fold forward touching our toes) our picnic basket! And we come up onto our knees to give hugs goodbye to everyone at home. Off we go!

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We ride on our bikes to the bus station (sing the roly poly bike song!) Then it’s all aboard the bus (solo sit with legs wide and do the actions or do bus as a group pose - seated with wide legs one behind the other in a line). The bus driver sings a song called the wheels on the bus and we all join in! Ready?

The wheels (arms to the sides and fold forward and back as we sing) on the bus go round and round etc. Now the wipers (arms reach up and we move side to side as we sing) on the bus go swish swish swish etc. Now the horn (one finger on your nose to beep your horn, the other arm stretches to the side. Beep your nose with alternate fingers as we sing). Ready? The horn on the bus goes beep beep beep….! Yay!! We’re here.

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The sun is shining and it’s a glorious day! So we reach up and wave hello sun. We fold forward and say hello sand. Long step back into a long lunge start your sand buggy – beep beep! Now we wriggle like a sea snake. Lifting up to woof like a dog, and wagging our tails happy to be by the seaside. Step forward to long lunge on the other side - beep beep, and step both feet together say hello sand. Reaching up to say Hello sun.

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Look! The beach is super busy with crabs. They’re playing football... with a bottle?! We join in too! Digga digga digga ooo! The bottle gets passed to us and we take a closer look with our legs crossed. Inside we see there is a message inside… and a map! A treasure map maybe? Taking it out carefully, we unfold it like a book (sit with knees up and lower them down to the sides to butterfly pose). The message reads “The yoga treasure is yours to win, make sure you listen to Popcorn the dolphin”…Wow! Yoga treasure.

That sounds cool! Let’s go find Popcorn the dolphin!

There she is! Playing in the waves. Let’s go and join her. We grab a surfboard and run run run (run on spot) into the sea. We lay our surfboard down onto the waves and hop on, lying on our tummy. We paddle out swimming strongly with our arms. We lift ourselves up (snake pose) over one little wave.

Now we swim a bit more! Lift over another wave (snake pose). And swim a bit more! Now a third wave wooo (snake pose). Shall we surf on the next one? Yes! Coming to all fours, we put our foot forward between our hands and cartwheel our arms up to start surfing! Woohoo! Look who’s come to join us!

Diving in and out of the waves next to us is Popcorn the dolphin! She’s the happiest dolphin we’ve ever met and we know we’re going to be best friends forever!

© Cosmic Kids 2019

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Popcorn sits up on her tail (high kneeling pose). She claps her fins together (clap hands) and says “You found the map! Now we can find the yoga treasure! We may meet some challenges along the way - as long as we stay calm, keep breathing and think positive – happy thoughts - all will be well. Can you do that?” What do you think everyone? YES WE CAN Popcorn!

Time to dive in (reach arms up and drop down going through a half push up onto belly), swimming on our tummies behind Popcorn deep into the ocean.

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Up ahead we spot some sharks. Uh oh! They’ve spotted us and they’re swimming this way. Der de der de der de! Suddenly we don’t feel calm, our breathing gets short and shallow and we think about the worst possible thing. Popcorn the dolphin knows exactly what to do - Dolphin pose - coming onto our knees, criss cross your fingers and come down onto your forearms. “Remember, stay calm, keep breathing and think positive!” She starts swimming in circles around and around us, faster and faster to protect us. (Move forward and back in dolphin pose). There are so many bubbles whizzing around it makes the sharks dizzy. They swim off in every direction! Phew that was a close one!

We swim up to the surface (high on knees, breathing in lifting up, breathing out, lowering down).

Back up on top of the waves, we take a moment to look at our map – opening it like a book (butterfly pose). Under the picture of a mermaid is big cross an X shape – X marks the spot - that must be...where the treasure is!

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Oh no! Up ahead we see a big boat. It has a huge mast (boat pose reach one arm up)... and a black flag with a skull and crossbones on it (boat pose cross arms in front of chest). That only means one thing, doesn’t it?! Yes - PIRATES!! Look! There they are on the boat (pirate pose) and they’re coming at full speed towards us. One of them has a big net (star pose). He’s about to throw it out to catch Popcorn!

Popcorn says “Remember – stay calm, keep breathing and think positive!”

When we breathe deeply we become calm.

If we think positive...good things happen!

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All of a sudden, from beneath us comes a ginormous whale (coming into whale pose), rising out of the ocean, a blast of water spraying from her blow hole, going bubble, bubble, bubble pop (lifting the hips high on the pop). Using her super powerful body, she lifts the pirate ship up high off the water, carrying it away! Hooray!

We hop onto Popcorn’s back and in our dolphin pose dive away through the waves, leaving the pirates wagging their fists at us as we disappear. Aarrrrrgggh!!

Once we’re safely away, we take another peek at the map, opening it again like a book (knees up and into butterfly pose). “We need some help for the next part – Tommy the bedtime turtle is wise and will know where the mermaid lives.”

On our tummies we swim to a beautiful coral bed. There’s lots of seaweed floating and wafting around.

We part the seaweed (legs scissor) and holding onto our legs or ankles we rock up to sit. Here’s Tommy the Bedtime Turtle (Turtle pose)! © Cosmic Kids 2019

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He pops his head out of his shell and says “Hey there! Good to see you? Can I help you?” We open the map like a book (knees up and into butterfly pose) and show Tommy. Back into our turtle pose…“Ahh!” He says. “To see the mermaids – head through the tunnel of dog fish – but wait until they’re sleeping.

If Norris the baby seahorse is there ask him to guide you.” We say Namaste to Tommy and head to the tunnel.

We arrive at the tunnel of dogfish (dog pose with snoring sounds). Great! They’re asleep! Popcorn realises she won’t fit through without disturbing them. Only we can get through and not disturb the dog fish if we wiggle like little snakes on our tummies. We give Popcorn a big hug. We can do this can’t we?

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Can we remember the three special things Popcorn tells us to do – that will always help us…? Yes! “Stay calm, keep breathing and think positive.” You’ve got it! Up bobs Norris the baby seahorse (horse pose) ”Neeeiiigghh! Follow me, staying low on your tummies” We wiggle through the tunnel carefully and quietly on our tummies (snake pose) all the while saying in our heads the wise words of Popcorn the dolphin “Stay calm, keep breathing and think positive”. We’ve made it through to the other side! Norris the baby seahorse (horse pose other side) gives us a little well done neigh!

If we keep breathing - and believe WE CAN DO IT - we are more likely to succeed!

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And there’s the mermaid. As we come close, she swishes her tail around to one side, looks at us and says Oo-la-la. Then she swishes her tail the other way, looks over her other shoulder and says Oo-la-la again!

We open the map like a book (knees up and into butterfly pose) to show the mermaid. She smiles, looks at us, and flicks her tail forward (legs straight turn toes out to the sides, heels together) to face us. Then with hands to support behind, she lifts her tail three times (lift legs a few inches off the ground, with bent legs lifting into half boat pose), counting in French with each lift - ready?“Un, deux, trois!” She sits up tall (legs long), spreads her arms wide and says “et voila!”

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Coming up to stand, suddenly we are showered with a billion stars (standing spin with legs wide) – sparkling gold light everywhere. We whirl around in the magic and feel huge love for everything – ourselves, those around us and our entire Universe. From this love everyone can find true happiness. We have found the yoga treasure and released it to the world!.

Feeling hugely happy with our discovery of the yoga treasure, we swim up (from kneeling) towards the sunlight. Popcorn the dolphin (dolphin pose) is waiting for us and lifts us onto her back. She speeds up, leaping high out of the water and through the waves (moving forward and back in dolphin pose).

We lower all the way down, lying on our tummy, resting on Popcorn’s back and plant a big kiss on her head (making a pillow with one hand on top of the other). Together we did it – we found the yoga treasure! We must get home now – but Oh NO! We realise we’ve missed the last bus! What are we going to do! Oh no! It’s a disaster!

Then Popcorn reminds us... “Remember – stay calm, keep breathing and think positive.” Good advice Popcorn! Of course. We sit up with our legs crossed and close our eyes to focus. We breathe slowly, so we are calm and we think about the best possible thing that can happen. Sure enough when we open our eyes, we find we are flying on a magic carpet – whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! Yay! We wave down to Popcorn, then lie back on our magic carpet as it flies us all the way home. © Cosmic Kids 2019

Relaxation

Game idea! Pass the Pulse

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What an amazing adventure! We found the yoga treasure and have shared it with the world. We also learnt how we can make our lives a whole lot easier with the wise words from Popcorn – we stay calm, we keep breathing and we think positively – so instead of thinking about the worst things happening we can think about the best things. Whenever things get tough or we think everything is going wrong we don’t have to get stuck in that worry – we can stay calm, keep breathing and think positively. All feelings will pass and we can make our experience of the harder feelings much easier when we have ways to help ourselves. Our breathing is a like a secret super power that we can focus on whenever we need.

Try repeating these phrases after me and they will help you find a new strength from the inside out. We call them Affirmations. I am calm (the children repeat). I am breathing (the children repeat). I am thinking positive (the children repeat) Slowly now we start to come back. We wiggle our fingers and toes, we stretch up long like spaghetti. We hug our knees into our chest and roll over onto our sides. We rest for a moment before pressing our hand into the ground and lifting ourselves up to sit. We cross our legs, bring our palms together at our hearts and finish with our magic secret yoga code word - Namaste.

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This game encourages everyone to be aware of giving and receiving as we pass a pulse and receive pulses in our hands.

Everyone stands in a circle and holds hands. Start by sending one or a series of pulses round the circle by discreetly squeezing the hand of the person next to you. You can choose to do both sides at the same time if you like! The children then pass this pulse or series of pulses to the next person until it returns back to you. They have to focus exactly on what they are feeling in one hand and transfer it to the other to pass it on. For the person opposite you, if you passed to both sides at the start - they may receive pulses in both hands at the same time. They have to remember what they received in one hand and pass that on and vice versa for the other hand! Easier said than done!

This is great with kids aged 6 years +.

Mantra Activity - Colouring and fill in the missing words)

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Print out the following page and hand out to each child along with pencils and colouring.

Ask the children to colour the characters - the mermaid, Norris the Baby Seahorse and our hero - Popcorn the Dolphin.

If possible, have the children write in the words that finish each part of Popcorn’s special advice. If they are not able to write yet, see if they can remeber and call out what the words are.

© Cosmic Kids 2019

…then we twist one way to get some sandwiches and the other to get some fruit and pop them in.

We ride on our bikes to the bus station (sing the roly poly bike song!)

Then it’s all aboard the bus (group pose if poss). The wheels on the bus go round and round!

We close our picnic basket!

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Time to make a picnic for our trip to the seaside! We open it up...

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Popcorn the Dolphin - Pose Summary

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The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish!

The beach is super busy with crabs. They’re playing football... with a bottle?!

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Sun salutation (both sides) Reach up ‘hello sun’, fold forward ‘hello sand’, step back start your sand buggy, through like a seasnake, lift up like a dog, wag your tail!

We grab a surfboard and run run run (run on spot) into the sea to see Popcorn!

The bottle gets passed to us and we take a closer look with our legs crossed.

We lay our surfboard We lift ourselves up down onto the waves (snake pose) over and hop on. We paddle one little wave. out swimming strongly with our arms. © Cosmic Kids 2019

And we come up onto our knees to give hugs goodbye to everyone at home. Off we go!

The horn on the bus goes beep beep beep….! Yay!!

We’re here.

Inside is a message and a map! We read about the yoga treasure like a book.

Now we swim a bit more! (Repeat)

Up ahead we spot some sharks. They’re coming towards us!

Suddenly we don’t feel calm!

Popcorn the Dolphin knows what to do. “Stay calm, keep breathing, think positive!” She swims in circles.

There are PIRATES on the boat! (pirate pose)

There are so many bubbles whizzing around it makes the sharks dizzy and they swim off!

We look at our map – opening it like a book.

Next to a mermaid, there is a big cross where the treasure is buried!

Oh no! Up ahead we see a big boat.

It has a huge mast and a skull and crossbones flag (cross arms in front of chest).

One of them has a big net (star pose). He’s about to throw it! Stay calm, keep breathing and think positive!”

All of a sudden, from beneath us comes a ginormous whale! She lifts the pirate ship up!

We hop onto Popcorn’s back and in our dolphin pose dive away through the waves...

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We swim up to the surface

Stay calm, keep breathing and think positive! Time to dive in!

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Popcorn sits up on her tail (high kneeling pose). She claps her fins together (clap hands) and says “You found the map!

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Now we’re swimming on our tummies behind Popcorn deep into the ocean.

Diving in and out of the waves next to us is Popcorn the dolphin!

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We put our foot forward between our hands and cartwheel our arms up to start surfing!

© Cosmic Kids 2019

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We take another peek at the map, opening it again like a book. “Tommy the bedtime Turtle...”

On our tummies we swim to a beautiful coral bed.

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...leaving the pirates wagging their fists at us as we disappear.

Aarrrrrgggh!!

...and holding onto our legs or ankles we rock up to sit.

Here’s Tommy the Bedtime Turtle (Turtle pose)!

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We part the seaweed (legs scissor)...

We say Namaste to Tommy and head to the tunnel.

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Back into our turtle pose…“Aah!” He says.

“To see the mermaids head through the tunnel of dog fish...”...

Up bobs Norris the baby seahorse (horse pose) ”Neeeiiigghh! Follow me”!

We wiggle through the tunnel carefully and quietly on our tummies (snake pose)

We arrive at the tunnel of dogfish (dog pose with snoring sounds).

Great! They’re asleep!

We’ve made it through to the other side!

Norris (horse pose other side) gives us a little well done neigh!

© Cosmic Kids 2019

There’s lots of seaweed floating and wafting around.

We open the map like a book (knees up and into butterfly pose) and show Tommy.

We give Popcorn a big hug. We can do this can’t we? “Stay calm, keep breathing...”

And there’s the mermaid. She swishes her tail around and says Oola-la. Both sides!

Happy with our discovery of the yoga treasure, we swim up (from kneeling) towards the sunlight.

...and close our eyes to focus. We breathe slowly, and think about the best possible things that could happen.

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Oh NO! We missed the last bus! “Remember – stay calm, keep breathing and think positive.” We sit up with our legs crossed...

She sits up tall (legs long), spreads her arms wide and says “et voila!”

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She lifts and drops her tail three times (boat pose), counting in French with each lift. “Un, deux, trois!”

Popcorn the dolphin is waiting for us and we ride on her back through the waves.

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We are showered with love (standing spin with legs wide)!

We whirl around in the magic! The yoga treasure!

She smiles, looks at us, and flicks her tail forward

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We open the map like a book to show the Mermaid.

Sure enough when we open our eyes, we find we are flying on a magic carpet! We wave to Popcorn on our way home!

We lower down, lying on our tummy, resting on Popcorn’s back (making a pillow).

Relaxation. What an amazing adventure!

We found the yoga treasure and have shared it with the world. .

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 2019

© Cosmic Kids 2019

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