Tommy the Bedtime Turtle - A Kids Yoga Class Plan by Cosmic Kids Yoga

Tommy the Bedtime Turtle Kids Yoga Class Plan In this story we take a trip to beautiful Hawaii to learn how to SLOW DOWN and embrace our bedtime. Tommy the Turtle has lots of great ideas that we can try too - to help set us up for a great night’s sleep. This story helps kids feel PRO-ACTIVE AND POSITIVE about their BEDTIME ROUTINE and understand how we gain so much by getting a good night’s rest.

Set in Hawaii

Story script

Embracing bedtime Slowing down for bed

Pose checklist

Best for 2 to 5 year olds

Watch Jaime leading this adventure on YouTube

Character image

Peace Pebbles

Things to remember Print out the character image.

Bring a uke and sing a song if you can

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Bring pebbles and pens/ paints if you want to do the Peace Pebble activity

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Tommy the Bedtime Turtle

Š Cosmic Kids 2018

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Tommy the Bedtime Turtle - Story Script

Today we’re off to meet Tommy the bedtime turtle who lives in a beautiful place called Hawaii! As his name suggests, Tommy is great at making bedtime super fun - he has helped lots of friends become really good at relaxing to set themselves up for a great night’s sleep - something we all need if we want to grow up strong and healthy.

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Let’s get started by packing a suitcase with all the things we need in sunny Hawaii on the beach! We open the lid of our suitcase by stretching our legs out long, touching our toes, then lifting our arms up to the sky going Oooop! Now let’s twist one-way to get our swimming costume, and twist the other way to get some sun cream. What else do you think we’ll need? (Add more twists side to side to get any other bits and bobs the children suggest.) We close our suitcase by stretching our arms up high and lowering them down again to touch our toes - maybe bending our knees a little bit as we do.

Time to hug everyone goodbye. Bye everybody! Wow! We can hear the Hawaiian birds tweeting, calling us to the magical Hawaiian Islands. Aloha, Aloha (in a little birdy/tweety voice!)

We have a long flight on a plane ahead so we cross our legs and roll our shoulders round and round, we reach up tall now and touch the ground. We stretch one arm up and over to the side and using the fingers of our other hand, play a piano on our ribs. Tinky winky plink plonk! Now we stretch to the other side and play piano on the other ribs. Tinky winky plink plonk we love you! Fantastic everyone!

We rub our ears to feel all calm and ready then we jump on the aeroplane! Up onto our knees, pop one hand down beside you, put your foot in front of your knee and stretch your underneath leg out to the side. We wave at the sky, saying ‘hi sky!’ and go neoww round one way then we swap sides.

Coming back to 2 knees, place your other hand down, put your foot in front of your knee and stretch your underneath leg out to the side, wave at the sky and say neoooww the other way until we land in beautiful tropical Hawaii. We stand up and say Aloha, bowing our heads (standing namaste forward fold) to receive a beautiful lei – which is a necklace of flowers.

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When we look up we see a cockerel, a boy chicken! Crouching down into chicken pose. “Bck-erk bckerk! Cock-a-doodle-doooo! Aloha… welcome to Hawaii. I’ll take you to meet Tommy to learn his clever tricks of making bedtime beautiful” We follow him in our chicken pose, crouching and walking on our tiptoes, clucking as we go! Bck-erk bck-erk! Cock-a-doodle-doooo!

We reach the beautiful Hawaiian beach where we see palm trees. Standing one foot on top of the other, hands together at your heart, grow your branches tall and open them up to sway in the breeze. They are whispering and singing mah-lu-HEE-ah. Let’s try the other side and whisper sing it again, all together mah-lu-HEE-ah.

© Cosmic Kids 2018

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Who’s that scuttling up the beach? It’s a whole kula (which means school) of crabs. Time for crab pose!

Sitting down, knees bent, feet flat and hands behind you. We lift our bottoms up and go to one side saying digga, digga, digga finishing with a hip wiggle round - hula hula hula. Now on the other side too. We love kula hula dancing with the crabs but we want to meet Tommy, don’t we? In the water we see some dolphins! Wow! Let’s get in and swim with them. On all fours come down onto our forearms.

In our dolphin pose, we dive in and out of the waves, moving forward and back as the dolphins make their happy clicky noises (doing your best dolphin impressions!)

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We come to a rock… sitting back on your heels, tuck yourself up. Or is it? No… It is in fact a shell! A turtle’s shell! It’s Tommy the Turtle (turtle pose). Sitting on our bottoms, legs nice and wide, bend your knees and slide your arms underneath your legs, like two little turtle flippers. As we lift our chest, Tommy’s head pops out of his shell with a big sleepy smile!

“Aloha! And welcome to Hawaii! Come on! We need to help a few friends make bedtime beautiful.”

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On our tummies we swim (swimming pose) with Tommy deep down into the ocean. We come to a coral bed (bed/bridge pose). Rolling over, sitting up, beinding our knees and lifting our hips. There’s a family of oysters here ready to close their shells and say goodnight. Sit up tall, bring our feet together and lift our chests (oyster pose). Together with Tommy we help make their bedtime beautiful, saying ‘goodnight’ and giving them all a kiss and a cuddle. Ahhh! That’s nice. Slowly their sleepy shells close (fold forward over legs).

“Saying goodnight and giving everyone a kiss and cuddle locks in the love and makes us feel settled for a good night’s sleep! ” Next Tommy leads us to some sharks! On your tummy, criss cross your fingers behind your back and rock from side to side. The sharks like to listen to lovely relaxing sleepy music to make bedtime beautiful, before nodding off to sleep. Tommy picks up a ukulele which is a very small guitar, and sings an old Hawaiian lullaby which we can all join in with - The only words we have to learn are Aloha-Po which means Good night in Hawaiian! Let’s strum and sing! (Check out the Tommy video on the Cosmic Kids YouTube video at 9.37 for the tune.)

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Aloha Po, Aloha Po Aloha Po, Aloha Po Aloha Po, Aloha Po, Aloha Po

Music can be soothing and can help us feel relaxed before bed.

Shhh! (Whispering) We quietly and calmly swim away with Tommy as the sharks are now sleeping.

Next we meet Wendy who is a mummy whale. We lie on our back, bend our knees and lift our hips saying bubble, bubble, bubble pop. And lower back down. Up we go again...bubble bubble bubble pop.

Wendy has a little baby whale called Wilf (repeat whale pose with a higher voice). Wilf keeps waking up his mummy in the night when he can’t get to sleep. Tommy has been coming to give Wilf a special ‘well done’ sticker for every night that he stays in his own bed the whole night. He’s now managed to do THREE whole nights in a row! Well done Wilf! High fives (with the kids)! And Tommy gives him three stickers! © Cosmic Kids 2018

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Back on the beach there are lots of monk seals lolling around. They do a sun down dance (hello sun with alternative words)… which we join in with. They do it every night to make peace with the day and to bring a happy night. We all reach up and say “Mahalo sun” (thank you sun). Another day on the beautiful earth so we reach down (Ragdoll Pose) and say “Mahalo earth” (thank you earth). Taking one leg back, come down onto our knee and lift up into a lunge (unicorn pose) for a twilight the unicorn of dreams “clip clop, clip clop.” Swapping sides for really good dreams. On our tummies, we all wiggle (snake pose) Wiggle wiggle wiggle into the cave (dog pose). Where the seals curl up like little mice (mouse pose) to sleep. Well done everyone!

We sit up and the rain begins to fall, pitter patter on our faces, heads and body. With the last rays of sunshine a magnificent rainbow appears. Rainbow pose - High up on your knees, stretch your top leg away and place your hand down beside you. Stretch up and over making a beautiful rainbow. We complete the rainbow by doing the other side too.

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The crescent moon is high in the sky, standing tall, leaning one side, like a big banana… and the other side, another banana! We want to know how we can make bedtime really beautiful for us, so we ask Tommy. Sitting with our legs crossed, we follow along with Tommy’s advice...

Have a little drink, rub a hand on our tummy and pat our head at the same time….mmm water or milk.

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Choose a book, (knee hugging with hands on knees) and open your book (lower knees down to the sides coming into butterfly pose) Enjoy reading a fun or interesting story with someone at home.

Light a candle, lifting our legs up tall and flicker our toes and feet gently. Or you can put on a nightlight.

We lower our legs down and make our arms and legs all floppy like noodles.

“We can help ourselves feel relaxed by letting our body feel all floppy...and breathing slowly.”

Now we place a hand on our heart and our other hand on our tummy, so we feel all restful.

We close our eyes and relax our mind.

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Breathe in and out slowly, listening to the breath making a sound like the ocean waves.

Relaxation

Now we rest right here in this peace. This is our practice for bedtime - Remember that if you wake up, you don’t need to worry. You can help yourself return to that relaxed and sleepy place whenever you need.

Just close your eyes, and breath in and out slowly like the ocean waves. Maybe you’ll hear the words of Tommy’s lullaby Aloha Po on your breath - wishing you a good night, lulling you to sleep. Let’s say some words together now to help us be with the feelings even more. I’ll say it first, then you say it back. I am relaxed (the children repeat). I am safe the children repeat). I am peace the children repeat). Now we gently begin to move again - moving our fingers. Now we wiggle our toes. We draw our knees up to our chest and roll over to our side. Coming up slowly to sit. Our legs crossed our hands at our hearts and we finish , in peace with a Namaste.

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Game idea! Pamper Train

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Set up a pamper train - all the children sit in a line, one behind the other. Call out massage instructions for the children to do on their friend in front of them. Pitter patters, gentle shoulder squeezes, drawing arced rainbows with flat palms across the back, softly running knuckles down the spine, heating up hands by rubbing them together and then placing warm hands on shoulders.

Follow-on Activity (Make a peace pebble)

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Each person needs a plain pebble or stones (you can usually get them in garden centres) and some felt-tip pens or if you have space and an area you can lay out, paint pots and brushes.

Hand out scrap paper too, so everyone can practice their designs.

Ask the children to decorate their pebble with a word, a pattern or a picture that makes them feel peaceful when they look at it and hold it.

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These peace pebbles can be a special treasure for use at bedtime as an anchoring tool or something to enjoy holding, mindfully noticing the weight, texture, temperature and shape of the pebble.

Š Cosmic Kids 2018

Let’s twist one-way to get our swimming costume, and twist the other way to get some sun cream.

We can hear the Hawaiian birds tweeting, calling us to the magical Hawaiian Islands. Aloha, Aloha!

We cross our legs and roll our shoulders round and round.

We stretch one arm up and over to the side and play a piano on our ribs

We rub our ears to feel all calm and ready.

We close our suitcase

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Let’s get started by packing a suitcase with all the things we need for a trip to Hawaii.

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Tommy the Bedtime Turtle - Pose Summary

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We reach up tall now

When we look up we see a cockerel, a boy chicken!

We follow him in our chicken pose, crouching and walking on our tiptoes, clucking as we go!

Then we jump on the aeroplane!

Neoowww! (Both sides)

We reach the beach where we see palm trees (open up branches and sway in the breeze)

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Time to hug everyone goodbye.

Bye everybody!

...and touch the ground.

We say Aloha, bowing our heads (namaste forward fold) to receive a beautiful lei.

We see a kula of crabs! Digga, digga, digga finishing with a hip wiggle round - hula hula hula!

We come to a coral bed (bed/bridge pose).

There’s a family of oysters here ready to close their shells and say goodnight.

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We come to a rock...or is it?

It is in fact a shell! A turtle’s shell!

It’s Tommy the Turtle (turtle pose).”Aloha and welcome to Hawaii!”

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In the water we see some dolphins!

Wow!

We help make their bedtime beautiful, saying ‘goodnight’ and giving them all a kiss and a cuddle.

Slowly their sleepy shells close (fold forward over legs).

We quietly and calmly swim away with Tommy as the sharks are now sleeping.

Next we meet Wendy who is a mummy whale (bubble bubble pop!) and baby Wilf (higher voice)

EV Tommy picks up a ukulele and sings an old Hawaiian lullaby. Aloha po!

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Next Tommy leads us to some sharks!

Wilf’s spent THREE nights in his bed! Well done Wilf! High fives!

Back on the beach there are lots of monk seals lolling around.

We swim (swimming pose) with Tommy deep down into the ocean.

They do a sun down dance.

Reaching up ‘Mahalo, Sun!

© Cosmic Kids 2018

Reaching down (ragdoll pose) and say “Mahalo, Earth”

With the last rays of sunshine a magnificent rainbow appears. Both sides.

The crescent moon is high in the sky

Choose a book, (knee hugging with hands on knees)

and open your book and enjoy reading it.

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Have a little drink, rub a hand on our tummy and pat our head at the same time….mmm water or milk

We lower our legs down and make our arms and legs all floppy like noodles.

Where the seals curl up like little mice (mouse pose) to sleep. Well done everyone!

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...into the cave (dog pose).

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We sit up and the rain begins to fall, pitter patter on our faces, heads and body.

On our tummies, we all wiggle (snake pose) Wiggle wiggle wiggle!

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Into a lunge (unicorn pose) for a Twilight the Unicorn of Dreams “clip clop, clip clop.”

Swapping sides for really good dreams.

We place a hand on our heart and one on our tummy.

We close our eyes and relax our minds. © Cosmic Kids 2018

Sitting with our legs crossed, we ask Tommy’s advice.about a beautiful bedtime.

Light a candle, lifting our legs up tall and flicker our toes and feet gently.

For more detailed guidance on how to instruct the poses, download our 253 page The Big Book of Kids Yoga Postures

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Peace Pebble activity - inspiration

© Cosmic Kids 2018