Lizards are cousins of dinosaurs and belong to the reptile family. There are thousands of different types of lizards living in all kinds of environments, from rainforests to deserts. The only places lizards don’t like are very, very cold places. Lizards are amazing! Geckos have special toes that allow them to grip and climb surfaces that are too smooth for most other creatures – like glass. Chameleons have built-in camouflage and change color to match their surroundings. Some lizards can swim, some can drop their tails when attacked and grow new ones, and horny toads are covered in spines and shoot blood from their eyes! The smallest lizards are chameleons from Madagascar that are only a few tens-of-millimeters in length, and the biggest ones are the poisonous Komodo dragons of Indonesia, which can reach 10 feet and 150 pounds.

Instructions

Lie down on your belly. Place your hands under your shoulders. Spread your fingers out like lizard claws. Bend your lizard toes forward. Push up until your arms and legs are straight. Draw your shoulders back and away from your ears. Walk like a lizard, slowly and carefully. Flick your tongue in and out as you check for danger and maybe catch a bug for a snack. Your scales protect you and will keep you strong and fearless.

Note to Parents and Teachers

Lizard can be practiced in a stationary position, although children like to have lizard races too. If you need them to do something, like a chore or a task, send them off in lizard pose to complete their mission.

If grinding the teeth or suffering from TMJ affects you or your child, practicing lizard tongue will help. Flick and loosen the tongue to unlock and relax the jaw.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Laughing Language

Make a lizard tongue twister with the letter L, such as “Long lizards lie lollygagging. . .”

We All Win

Take a lizard walk with a partner while you trade tongue-twisters.

Math Medley

How far can you walk as a lizard? Count the steps or measure the distance in feet and inches.

Awesome Anatomy

Clenching the jaw, sends signals of tightness to the brain via the sensory nerves. The motor nerves then communicate that sense back to the body. Practicing lizard tongue, relaxes the jaw, and alleviates tension.

Have you heard the expression, ‘as sharp as an eagle’s eye’? An eagle can see fish moving in the water from hundreds of feet in the air, as well as rabbits running almost a mile away. Their aerodynamically perfect wings contain about 7,000 feathers. They can gracefully glide great distances without flapping them.

Instructions

1. Stand in mountain.
2. Stretch your arms out to the side.
3. Exhale. Make an X crossing the arms above the elbows and give yourself a hug. Entwine them around each other.
4. Press the palms together in Namaste or interlace your fingers. Lift the arms.
5. Bend your knees. Cross one leg over the thigh and wrap it behind the calf.
6. Ground and perch with your lower body. Ascend and fly with your upper body.

Doesn’t this standing twist feel eagle-riffic!? Unwind. Wrap it up on the other side.

Notes for Parents and Teachers

The wrapping of the arms is a great stretch for the upper back and shoulders, as well as the fingers and wrist joints. If you or your child spend a considerable amount of time at the computer, take regular 1/2 eagle breaks sitting at your desk. Stand up now and then and do the full eagle too. It will energize your legs and invigorate your lower back, too.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Ecological Echoes

The use of DDT, a deadly pesticide, which is still being used today in many parts of the world, almost wiped out the eagle, our symbol of freedom. As Chief Seattle said, “We are part of the earth and the earth is part of us.” When we use chemicals on our grass or in our soil, they eventually come full circle. Teach your YogaKids to respect the earth and all of the flora and fauna that we share this planet with.

Laughing Language

Can you find words within the word eagle? Here are a few to get you started; leg, eel, age. Keep looking with your eagle eyes.

Brain Balance

The combination of the twisting and entwining in this pose invigorates the brain. It increases the flow of oxygen to make you alert and smart.

A camel has two humps, and a dromedary, a type of camel, has only one. Both store fat (not water) in their humps.

Instructions

1. Kneel on the floor with your legs and knees hip width apart.
2. Press the tops of your feet into the floor, push the thighs forward, bring the hands to the lower back with fingers pointing upward and lift the chest.
3. Breathe evenly in and out, as you extend the ribcage and broaden your chest.
4. Continue to lift your chest with each breath as you curl your toes forward and bring your hands to the heels to imitate the camel’s hump. The head can come back (as shown) or tuck into the chest.
5. Delight in the dromedary for ten seconds.
6. Rest in the child’s pose after each of these backbends.
7. Repeat.

Increase the times and repetitions as your spine and chest continue to become more flexible.

Note to Parents and Teachers

This pose strengthens the back and kidneys. Because of its chest opening ability, it can increase lung capacity and can be especially beneficial for children with asthma. It also helps the posture of those with drooping shoulders and rounded backs.

Activity Ideas for Home and Classroom

Ecological Echoes

Camels and dromedaries avoid trotting and galloping whenever possible in order to save water and energy. They can survive for months without water and can drink up to 35 gallons of water at a time.

Awesome Anatomy

Lift your chest, by letting the arch of your spine and your back ribs support you. Imagine your back ribs as lounge chairs for your lungs. Let your lungs expand and rest on these slatted chairs. Feel how much your lungs can expand when you breathe fully.

The lungs are light and spongy and are filled with millions of air channels which provide an enormous surface to absorb oxygen. If your lungs were flattened out, they’d make a slippery surface the size of a tennis court!*

* The Children’s Atlas of the Human Body by Richard Walker, The Millbrook Press Inc., 1994, Pg. 24

Dogs have been our best friends for over 12,000 years. They frequently roam in packs, just like many kids and teens like to do. This is a tough pose but it will make you feel “down-diggety-doggy” good!

Instructions

1. Begin on your hands and knees in all fours.
2. Bend your toes forward.
3. Spread your fingers wide.
4. Press your doggy paws and heels downward, as you lift your hips and tail to the sky.
5. Lengthen your spine. Stretch your arms and legs as long as possible.
6. Release your neck and head down. Growl, yawn, bark and make other doggy sounds.

To Make the Dog go Pee-Pee

Bend your knee and rotate your belly and chest upward. Raise one leg up and ‘mark your territory’ just like dogs do. Keep your hands pressing downward and your arms straight. Dogs leave their scent so other animals know they´ve been there. Lift your opposite leg too.

Note to Parents and Teachers

Take turns walking the dog. Children love to “walk their parents” and give them instructions too. This role reversal is very empowering and fun for the kids. Grab a hold of the back of their shirt like you´re holding a leash. Lead them around. Give them directions; slower, faster, turn around, sit, stay, roll over. Let your doggy rest after the walk. Have her lie on her back with her arms and legs in the air. Scratch her behind her ears. Scratch her belly too. Give her a bone and a kiss on her nose before she rolls over and stretches back into Down Diggety Doggy Down.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Body Benefits
This pose strengthens the legs and arms as well as relieves stiffness in the shoulders. With regular practice, Down Dog can also help correct curvature of the spine such as scoliosis.

Math Medley/Musical Musings/We All Win
Play the Canine Calling game. One child creates a pattern of growls, barks and other doglike sounds. The other child repeats it, and adds more sounds. Go back and forth. Have fun with your whole family.

Awesome Anatomy
This pose works the muscles of the legs; ankles, calves and hamstrings. When you first do this pose, your leg muscles might feel really tight, but with time and practice they will grow stronger and more elastic.

Character Education
Dogs that are treated well have great loyalty to their owners. What does it mean to be loyal? What are some of the ways children can take care of their dogs? Grooming, feeding, loving…..what else can you do to keep your pet safe and happy?

When the butterfly first emerges from her cocoon, she will rest on a twig and spread open her wings to dry. Then she will gently flap her wings to warm them up before she takes off on her first flight. Where would you fly on your first flight?

Instructions

1. Begin in the “L” pose.
2. Bring the bottoms of your feet together with your heels close to your body.
3. Open your knees out to each side.
4. Extend your neck and the top of your head towards the sky. Stretch your spine long and strong.
5. Place your hands at the sides of your head and stick out your fingers for antennae.
6. Pull your arms back—now they’re your wings. Breathe in and out as you flap your wings forward and back. Flap your leg wings up and down, too.

Notes for Parents and Teachers

Did you know you have antenna? Remember the times that you’ve sensed something before it occurred, or had a hunch and were right. This is called intuition. Intuition is having knowledge of something you haven’t seen. Our antenna help us achieve this. Try to honor your children’s instincts. It empowers them, and teaches them to trust their inner knowing. It’s an important survival skill to acquire at a young age. Balanced with a sense of love and trust in one’s self, this inner knowing will build confidence and trust that will serve them for life.

Activity Ideas for Home or Classroom

Ecological Echoes

Insects, like the butterfly, use their antennae like reptiles use their tongues. They are like a “sixth sense” to help detect danger, smell, and get a ‘reading’ on things in the air.

Quiet Quests/Visual Vignettes

Close your eyes. Get quiet and listen. Wiggle your antennae around. What do you sense? What do you see, smell or feel? Draw a picture of what you experience with your antenna.

Laughing Language

Take a butterfly journey from A to Z. Think of a place to go that begins with the letter A. Fly there right away. Then think of a place that begins with B and fly there, too. Fly through the alphabet, all the way to Zanzibar.

Brain Balance

Flapping your leg wings up and down and your arm wings back and forth, is kind of like rubbing your tummy and patting your head. It takes coordination and communication between the brain and the body. Practicing your butterflying will stimulate the dendrites (the branches of the brain cells) to grow and make new neural pathways.