It is a lovely story about a selfish crocodile who understands the value of friendship at the very end. It contains eighteen kids’ yoga poses and takes almost 25 – 30 minutes with the relaxation. Have Fun!
Deep in the forest, in the river, lived a large crocodile (Forest: (group tree) Standing tall, place the heel of your foot on top of the other. Bring your hands together at your heart and grow your branches up tall. / River: Sitting up tall, legs out long in front of you. Point your toes and place your hands behind your bottom with your finger pointing towards your bottom. Lift up your hips). He was a very selfish crocodile (Crocodile: Lie on your side with your arms long over your head. You can open your crocodile jaws by opening your arms or feet, then clapping your hands or feet back down together). He didn’t want any other creature to drink or bathe in the river. He thought it was his river. He shouted to the creatures of the river “if you come in my river, I’ll eat you all!” So there were no fish, no frogs, no crabs living in this river (Fish: Lying on your back, prop yourself up on your elbows and point your toes down. Then pop your chest up to the sky and look all the way back behind you. / Frog: Crouch down up on your toes, with your knees out wide and use your hands for balance. / Crab: Sitting on your bottom, with your knees bent, feet flat and hands behind you. Lift your hips up and walk over to one side then the other). All were afraid of the selfish crocodile. Whenever the forest creatures were thirsty, they went for miles to drink in other rivers. Among them were giraffes, elephants, and tigers (Giraffe: Standing tall, we reach our hands up tall, making a long giraffe neck and start walking with your long giraffe legs. / Elephant: Standing with your legs out wide, stick one arm out in front of your nose to be your trunk. Lift your trunk all the way up to the sky; then swing it down between your legs as you make a huge elephant trumpet sound. / Tiger: Coming on all fours, claw out with one arm forwards and the opposite back paw/leg at the same time).
But early one morning, the forest was awakened by a loud groaning sound. Something was in terrible pain. As the sun came out brightly, they saw that it was the crocodile in pain. He was crying real tears. Some of the creatures felt sorry for the crocodile. “What’s the matter with him?” asked a monkey (Monkey: Crouching down, we count 1,2,3 before leaping up like a monkey). “I don’t know!” said a turtle (Turtle: Sitting up with your legs out wide, bend your knees a little and slip your hands underneath your legs, flattening your body down towards the floor). The flying bird wondered if he was going to die (Flying bird: Standing up, bend forward from your middle, keeping your back long and straight. Your arms become wide wings floating up and down at your sides as you fly like a bird). Suddenly a little mouse a appeared (Mouse: We kneel down and tuck ourselves into a little tiny ball, like a mouse). The mouse crept along the crocodile’s big neck, and into his open mouth. Even the king of the forest, lion, was shocked (Lion Breath: Kneeling up, hands wide, stick out your tongue and roar). There was a hush in the forest (Easy Pose: Sit with your legs easily crossed, your hands resting on your knees with palms up or down. Close your eyes to enjoy this easy moment). The mouse got hold of something, and pulled and pulled and pulled (Eye of the Needle: On your hands and knees in table pose, slide the right hand between the left hand and left knee. Slide the arm all the way out to the left so that the right shoulder and side of the head rest comfortably on the floor. Reach the left hand up towards the ceiling). Then he put the enormous crocodile tooth on his shoulder, walking down crocodile’s tummy. There was a loud cheer from the astonished creatures. They congratulated the brave mouse (Brave Warrior 1: With the right knee bent, engage the legs to ground down through the feet, and inhale the hands up to the bent knee. Use the arms to draw the torso back slightly. Make sure the right knee is directly over the right ankle. Inhale the arms over the head in a H position with the palms facing each other. Keep the shoulders relaxed and the chest lifted). The crocodile’s pain was all gone. He thanked the mouse and gave him a nut as a gift. Soon the crocodile and the creatures of the forest were friends. They swam in the river happily ever after (Swimmer: Lying on our tummies, we lift our feet and arms up off the ground to swim).
Relaxation:
When all the creatures of the forest are tired of swimming all day, they sit in a circle by turning their backs to one another. They massage to each other’s neck, shoulder, arms, back with their fingertips. (butterfly fingertip massage, relaxing technique)
For other relaxation techniques that I often benefit from, please take a look at Relaxation Techniques and Calm Down Activities.