Tinysaurus wants to be bigger. He wants to be able to do all the things that his big sister can. It is one of my favorite dinosaur stories that mentions about kids’ taking responsibilities. Enjoy the story with twenty eight kids’ yoga poses!
There was a little dinosaur called Tinysaurus. He had tiny teeth, tiny claws, and a very tiny roar (Lion Breath: Kneeling up, hands wide, stick out your tongue and roar). He wanted to grow up and be big like his father. In fact he was willing to be even like his sister. He was jumping up and down to grow up (Jumping up and down). He was hanging on a branch of a tree and stretching out his arms (Tree: Standing tall, place the heel of your foot on top of the other). He even tried to tie down tree stumps under his feet (Windmill: Standing legs wide, arms outstretched. Windmill one arm down to the opposite foot, looking up towards your lifted hand, then windmill the other way), but he always fell down.
Her mother did not let him swim in the river because he was little (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). But his sister could swim (Swimmer: Lying on our tummies, we lift our feet and arms up off the ground to swim). He was not allowed to play in the swamp. But his sister could jump in the mud (Jumping up and down). He was also forbidden to walk in the meadows. But his sister was picking flowers there (Flower: Sit on your bottom. Bend your knees and bring the soles of your feet together. Balance on your sitting bones and weave your arms under your legs. Hold your arms steady under your legs with your arms facing up). Especially he was not allowed to go near the terrible volcano (Volcano: Squatting on the balls of your feet as a sleeping volcano, quickly come up into standing to erupt). The only thing his mother allowed was to sit and look after the unborn dino eggs (Mouse/Egg: We kneel down and tuck ourselves into a little tiny ball). He was watching the dino eggs in the nest for hours (Malasana: Squat with your feet as close together as possible. Press your elbows against your inner knees, bringing your palms together. / Bowl/Nest: Lying on our tummies, flick our feet up towards our bottoms. We reach around with our arms and take hold of our ankles. Kicking our legs into our hands, we lift our chests up).
One day her parents went to collect some woods (Woodchopper: Standing tall, legs wide, we criss cross our fingers behind our back and fold forward letting our arms drop over the top, saying “chop”). Then a shadow fell on Tinysaurus. It was a Tyrannosaurus-Rex (Chair: Standing with your feet together, or a little apart, bend your knees and sit down into your chair. Stretch your arms in front of you like a t-rex). Tinysaurus was so scared that he started running with the dino egg nest on his head (Roadrunner: Standing up, fold forwards and place your hands down either side of your feet. Step one of your legs back and bend your front knee down into a lunge. Lift your chest). First, he crossed the river (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). Then through the swamp and the meadows he arrived nearby the mountain (Mountain: Standing tall and perfectly still, breathing steady). In the meantime, T-Rex was following him (Dinosaur: Standing up, legs wide, bend forwards and take hold of your ankles. Lift up one foot after the other going clump clump). Tinysaurus found a narrow cave at the top of the mountain and went in (Cave/House: Standing with your legs wide, hands together above your head, making a pointy roof for your house or cave). But luckily T-Rex was stuck at the entrance of the cave. Tinysaurus got out of the other entrance of the cave with the dino eggs (Door: Come to two knees, stick one leg out to the side, reach up with one arm and tilt over towards your stretched leg to open up your door). His parents who heard the sounds came to the entrance of the cave and hugged their son. “We are proud of you, our brave son!” they said (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 next morning the dino eggs cracked and baby dinosaurs came out (Happy Baby: Lying on our backs, we bend our knees and take hold of our feet, keeping the soles of our feet facing up to the sky). Tinysaurus was BigBrosaurus now! That evening they had a party to celebrate the baby dinos and they invited their favorite dinosaur friends to the party. These were Triceratops (Cat: On all fours, round your back up, then down), Pterodactyl (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)), Apatosaurus (Giraffe: Standing tall, we reach our hands up tall, making a long giraffe neck and start walking with your long giraffe legs), Stegosaurus (Hedgehog: Coming to our knees we lean forward, putting our forehead on the ground. We place our hands on our back like hedgehog quills). They had fun together until late hours. When they were tired, they laid under a tree and watched the stars (Relaxation: We lie back, our arms and legs heavy and long, enjoying this rest).
Relaxation:
Sometimes we can’t wait to grow up. We want to be able to do just about anything. In fact, each age has its own beauty. And we can always take responsibility for our age. We can always help our family. You, tiny dinosaurs think about yourselves, how can you help your parents at home? Or what kind of responsibilities can you take? You may prepare the dining table, collect your toys, or perhaps you can fold up your pajamas.
When you feel ready, you can slowly start to move your fingers and toes. Pulling your knees to your chest, give them a big hug. Rolling over to one side, lift up to a comfortable sitting position. Bring your hands together in front of your chest. Thank you for doing yoga with me today. Namaste!
Kids love dinosaurs! If you would like to continue with a dinosaur themed yoga, please take a look at the Dinosaur Theme.