By Sue Heron – Training Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin and Paediatric Physiotherapist
The pose for this week in Tatty Bumpkin classes is RAIN. Tatty Bumpkin loves the sunshine, but she also loves the rain as she knows it makes the grass and flowers grow.
So this week Tatty Bumpkin goes for a refreshing walk in the rain with Dog. She feels the raindrops land on her nose, ears, hair in fact all over her body, and has a great time splashing in puddles and leaping round the pond with her friend Frog!
But then a thunderstorm breaks and, as the rain comes down in torrents, Tatty Bumpkin and Dog have to find somewhere to shelter … Where can they go? Can they build something to shelter in? Tatty Bumpkin needs ideas …
What Rain Pose Looks Like!
The rain comes down harder....
Description of Pose – What to Say to Your Child
Either lie on your back or sit on the floor. Imagine it’s starting to rain & the raindrops are falling on your nose; try to touch your nose with the tip of your finger like the raindrops.
The rain is coming down harder, so now hold both your hands above your head and try touching your nose you’re your fingers of each hand in turn, then speed it up a little! Remember be careful of your eyes.
Now the rain is getting harder still & raindrops are falling on your hair, ears, even your body as well as your nose; see if you can touch all these parts of your body with your fingertips.
Note to Parents: if your child is younger do rain activity with your child so they can copy you e.g. Say to your child “It’s raining on your nose” and do the actions, encouraging them to copy. Then say “Oh no! It’s raining on your hair, ears etc.”, and do the actions again to encourage your child to copy you. This activity is a great way for children to learn the names of their face & body parts. If your child is older let them see if they can put ‘raindrops’ on the correct body part as you say it without being shown.
Want to make it harder?
Do all the actions described above – but with your eyes closed. This is much harder to do as you will be using only your clever body senses and sense of touch rather than your eyes. See if you can do rain activity whilst you are standing up – then you will be using your balance skills as well.
Why it is ‘Good For Me’
Rain activity will give your child the opportunity to:
Increase their brain’s awareness of their body & refine their ‘proprioceptive’ sense. As your child takes their fingertip to their nose, especially if they do this with their eyes closed, they will be using one of their ‘body senses’ called ‘proprioception’. Through our proprioceptive sense we know where our connecting body parts are in relation to each other & the effort we’re using to move them. This in turn tells us where our body is in relation to other people & objects. So proprioception helps us to, amongst other things: move around safely without having to constantly look at our hands and feet, judge whether we can get safely through a narrow space & adjust our grip to pick up heavy or fragile objects without dropping or breaking them.
Improve their co-ordination and concentration. When your child does rain activity, moving their right and left hands in quick succession, they will be building up their awareness of their right and left hand sides and practising moving them smoothly together. Rain activity gives your child the opportunity to be still and focus on a ‘smaller, quieter’ movement in an otherwise busy day – variety is the spice of life!
Make it Multi-Sensory, Educational & Fun
In Tatty Bumpkin classes we use unique storylines to make the activities meaningful and to fire the imagination. All our classes are multi-sensory comprising of:
Adapted yoga poses and activities which both stimulate and calm the body senses
Dedicated songs and rhythms which are relevant to the stories
Bespoke hand-woven props to look at and feel. Tatty Bumpkin has its own range of fairly traded animal props to back up the yoga poses and bring the stories to life. Our teachers are supported to use natural props in the classes which are great to feel as opposed to smooth plastic
We have carefully linked each Tatty Bumpkin to the new 2012 Early Years Foundation Stage framework. Importantly supporting children to learn ‘how to learn’ not just focusing on what on they learn.
So … The Adventure This Week ..
This week Tatty Bumpkin goes for a walk in the rain with her friend Dog; she loves feeling the raindrops on her nose, hair & ears and splashing in the puddles. At the pond she stops to look at her reflection with the raindrops falling all the water all around her, plip, plop, plip, plop!
Tatty Bumpkin finds her nose, her ears, and her mouth as she looks at her reflection in Frog's pond!
Then lightning flashes across the sky and it starts to thunder and Tatty Bumpkin looks around for somewhere to shelter.
Lightning flashes!
The farmer has just finished harvesting his corn and straw bales are left lying in the fields.
Which part of the corn is used to make straw bales?
Tatty Bumpkin and Dog, after asking the farmer’s permission, set about building an amazing house of straw!
What an amazing house of straw!
What shape house would you build? Would you like a: round one, a square one, possibly a star shaped one, or maybe, one with an arch?
This story gives your child an opportunity to:
Develop their body awareness and vocabulary through rain pose.
Refine their balance skills through dog, frog & bridge poses.
Increase their understanding of the natural world by looking at, and talking about, harvest time and straw bales. Older children will have the opportunity to think about where straw bales come from.
Use their imagination and play with others to create a straw house
