Yoga is a great way to encourage children to exercise, and this creative story from instructor Charlene Lim is sure to inspire kids and adults alike. Read it aloud to your little ones and play along with each character you meet – throw yourself into the sound effects and you’ll get just as much enjoyment out of it as the kids!

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Into the yoga jungle

We’re going on an adventure today into the yoga jungle, to see how many animals we can spot. As we enter the treeline of the jungle, we find a pond. A small little pond that is a home for many little frogs!

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Let's join them! Crouch down low, hands on the floor. Can you jump with them? How fast can you leapfrog to the other side of the room? We could have a race and see where they take us, deeper into the jungle… boingboing…Shh… what’s that sound you hear? It sounds like rustling from the trees. Can you hear any noises from the trees? Is it the wind? Wait… it’s getting louder. Look up! Look at all the monkeys coming to say hello to us!

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Can you move and walk like a monkey? Let’s try! Hands low and long in front of you, feet wide apart – let’s sit low like them, knees wide. Let’s walk, one foot in front of the other, and follow the monkeys as they take us down the path to see their friends! Some of the monkeys are so excited they are making sounds to say hello! What sound do you make when you are excited?Deeper into the jungle we go. The sun is high in the sky now and it is a warm day! SSSSSsssssss- SsssssssSssssss… What is the sound we can hear? Let’s get lower to the ground to see what might be making this sound. SsssSsssss-SsSSsssss… Oh look! A little snake!

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Let’s say hello to the snake. Stay on your bellies, lift your chest up with your arms and waggle your hips around. Can we make a roll with our tongues? Can you make a sound like the little snake?Oh look! We seem to have made our way back to the pond, where we found the frogs. But there is something different in the pond this time. What is it? It’s pink, it stands on one leg… it looks like a very tall bird… can you guess? It’s a flamingo!

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What a beautiful animal. Let’s go quietly towards the flamingo and try not to disturb it. What if we tried to copy how it is standing in the water so it thinks we are flamingos too? This one can be a little tricky, but let’s give it a go! Bring one knee up to your chest, hug around it with your arms, and slowly crouch your body down. Stay balanced! Those flamingos are very good at balancing, aren’t they? Can you balance like the flamingo?Flutter flutter… A butterfly has just flown around us in the pond. What colour is the butterfly? Can you see how it moves its wings to fly? Let’s follow it.

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Come to sit down. Let’s hold our feet together and flap our legs like the butterfly’s wings. How fast is your butterfly flying? I think the one we are following is slowing down. Oh look, we are near the end of our jungle adventure! The butterfly is slowing down more and more… and now it has stopped on a rock to say goodbye to us.

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Let’s say goodbye. Bring your thumbs together and make a butterfly with both hands. Flutter, flutter, go our fingers. Let it fly around a little longer, before our butterfly also lands, to say goodbye. Land the butterfly on your chest, with the thumbs resting in the middle. Flutter, flutter. Flutter, flutter.

Goodbye, jungle animals! See you again soon!

Top tips

  • Why not make some simple paper plate masks to go along with your yoga jungle story?
  • Did we miss your favourite jungle animal? Get creative and add your own animal pose into the story.
  • Need to calm everyone down? Try our 10 mindfulness activities for kids and choose a simple breathing exercise for the end of your kids' yoga story.
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