2013 - 14 Term 2 Week 1: Tatty Bumpkin's Pose for the Week is Owl!

The posture of this week in Tatty Bumpkin classes is OWL – just right for this spooky time of year!

Tatty Bumpkin wriggles through the Giggle Tree and finds herself under another big tree. Listening carefully she hears a 'hooting' sound coming from the branches and, filled with curiosity, she looks closely between the branches and spies a little hole in the sturdy tree trunk. Peeking through the hole Tatty Bumpkin catches site of a little nest with a family of owls snuggling inside...

How to do Owl Pose

Start by kneeling on the floor - sitting back on your heels with your arms by your sides. Then kneel up, taking your bottom off your heels, & spreading your arms out wide to either side & above your head. Hoot “Twit Twooo!”

Make it easier

It is important that your child feels they can succeed so if they find coming up onto their knees too hard, guide them to move their arms out to the side & over their heads whilst they are sitting on the floor, either cross-legged or with their legs straight out in front. In this seated position your child will find it easier to balance & hence they can concentrate on moving their arms in a better pattern. Remember there is no right or wrong way with Tatty Bumpkin, the important thing is your child feels they have enjoyed themselves!

Want to make it harder?

Okay, start squatting down, balancing on your toes with your arms by your sides. Then rise up into standing waving your arms over your head as before. Hoot “Twit Twooo!” Bring your arms back down to your sides whilst you squat back down on the floor. Repeat a few times to become a truly wise owl!

Owl Pose with Younger Toddlers

Encourage your toddler to copy your 'owl' arm movements whilst they are either sitting or standing

Find a comfortable place to either sit or kneel on the floor and encourage your toddler to either sit or stand opposite you. Start by doing owl pose yourself so your toddler can copy you i.e. Stretch both your arms out to either side and bring them slowly together in a wide arc over your head so you palms are touching. Then take your arms back down to your sides stretching out once more to each side. Encourage your toddler to stretch their arms out to each side as they flap their owl wings. Make it into a game by saying “1, 2, 3, twit twoo” as you do the actions. Repeat owl pose several times so your toddler has a chance to learn the actions.

Owl Pose with Older Toddlers/ Young Children

Encourage your young child to copy owl pose - this time kneeling up!

Once again do owl pose with your young child so they can copy you. This time, start sitting back on your heels and curl forwards, tucking your head in towards your knees, to be a ‘sleeping owl’. Then pretend to ‘wake up’ and say “1, 2, 3, twit two!” as you sit up and stretch your ‘owl wings’ out to each side and above your head. Flap your wings a few times before curling up again to be sleeping owls. Repeat the pose several times, so your toddler has a chance to learn the actions. Often young children find it hard to curl up completely, tending to lie on their tummies, if this is the case, encourage your toddler to curl up by saying ‘kiss your knees!’

Other Games with Owl Pose

Doing Owl Pose with Feathers

If your child is younger they will find it easier, and more motivating, to copy your arm movements if you’re holding something in your hands - like a feather. Picking up and holding the feather will also improve their eye-hand co-ordination and hand skills. Either:

Find some feathers of different shapes and sizes (http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/hobbycraft-small-ostrich-feathers-in-black-x-2/569819-1000) N.B. safety first, it is great for your toddler to have a chance to explore a feather – seeing how it feels and moves in the air – but remember feathers can have sharp ends and are tempting to suck - so do not let your young child play with them on their own Or:
Make your own feathers from spare fabrics or paper – just cut out the fabric or paper into various feather shapes.

First let your child explore the feather then do owl pose together- both of you holding a feather in each hand. You can then play a game of putting the feathers in and out of pots – this is great fun and also develops your toddler’s ‘pincer grasp’ (see benefits).

Blowing Feathers

In Tatty Bumpkin classes we always try to stimulate a variety of senses, to add to the fun, give choice & to help the learning process. In actually doing owl pose your child will be stimulating their movement senses (proprioceptive & vestibular senses), but why not give them the opportunity to touch & blow a feather as well?
When blowing the feathers give your child a goal i.e. can they blow the feathers into a bowl? This will help them concentrate and works on eye-hand coordination. The blowing action as well as being calming also engages your child’s tummy muscles.

Exploring Feathers

Investigate feathers of different sizes with your child, then using gestures or talk, highlight to your child which one is BIG & which is SMALL. Older children can sort their feathers according to size or colour.

'Simon The Owl Says' Game

Guide your child to stroke their arms, elbows, feet, hands and chest with the feather to reinforce learning the names of body part. Then play Simon the Owl says game i.e. “Simon the Owl says touch your knee", "Simon the owl says touch your ear!"

"Simon the owl hoots touch your knee!"

"Simon the Owl hoots touch your ear!"

Picking up Feathers Between you Toes or Feeling Feathers with Both Feet

Encourage your child to try and pick up the feathers with their feet or toes and put them into a bowl. Alternativley they could try and balance on their bottom to stroke their feet with the feather - great for progressing balance skills and strengthening foot and tummy muscles.

Be careful!

Listening to Tatty Bumpkin Feather song or Blowing an Owl Hooter!

Owl hooters are greast fun and encourage your child to take deeper breaths see http://www.percussionplus.co.uk
Or maybe download Tatty Bumpkin Feather song from iTunes and blow your feather to its relaxing melody.

Blow your feather to the gentle beat of Tatty Bumpkin Feather song

Why Owl Pose is ‘Good For Me’

As you do Owl pose with your child they will be:
1. Developing their postural control skills
When your child does owl pose with you in sitting, kneeling or standing they will be using their ‘postural control system’ to keep their body still and upright whilst they move their arms up and down.

Between the ages of 0 -7 years your baby, toddler and young child will slowly be refining their ‘postural control system’. 'Postural control' is a complex process which allows us to keep and move our bodies up against gravity - whether we are: pushing up on our hands whilst we are lying down, sitting up straight or indeed standing up and moving. Postural control ensures that we keep control of our bodies and protect them whilst we are moving and doing things i.e. we might put our feet wider apart and stiffen our bodies to keep our balance on a rocking boat or to kick a ball, we might automatically put out our hand to ‘save’ ourselves if we trip over.

Postural control results from the maturation of our nervous system, our muscles and our skeleton, it develops from the head down and from the middle of our body out to our limbs. You will have noticed your child was able to control their head and body long before they were able to stand up and that they were able to control their ‘middle’ long before they could completely control their hands and fingers.
If your child develops their postural control system well, in their early years, this will mean they:

Have a good base for developing their hand skills
Will be able to sit at a desk to concentrate without becoming too uncomfortable or tired.

Without good postural control, a child may have difficulty with dressing, writing or sporting skills and may tire more easily when sitting at a desk in school.

When you do owl pose with your child notice how you:

Contract and ‘work’ your back muscles slightly when you put your arms out to the side and move your hands up above your head
Contract and ‘work’ your tummy muscles slightly when you move your hands back down.

This is your postural control system working.

Postural control is automatic, this means that unless we choose to think about it we are unaware of it happening - but none the less it is so important. All through our lives our postural control system means we are able to: do things smoothly and efficiently, keep ourselves safe and focus our attention on more complex academic work.

2. Stretching their shoulder, chest and back muscles
Because owl pose stretches these muscles it is a great pose for your child to do after they have been sitting for a while – remember muscles need movement to grow!

3. Develop eye-hand co-ordination and fine motor skills
As your child plays with a feather or feather shaped piece of cloth whilst you do owl pose together, they will be refining both their visual and hand skills. Spend a bit of time to see how your child picks up the feather – do they pick it up with their whole hand or do they use just their finger and thumb? Young children can start to use their finger and thumbs to pick up things from about 10 months old – this is called the ‘pincer’ grasp.

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 ..

In this week's adventure Tatty Bumpkin, and her friends the spiders, give a nervous, little baby owl a boost of confidence.

In the owl family there is a confident baby owl and one who is a little anxious about flying. Will Tatty Bumpkin and the spiders be able to help the nervous baby owl get over his fears? I am sure they will - but come and find out for yourself at your nearest Tatty Bumpkin class....

Will baby owl learn to fly?

This story will give your child an opportunity to:

Develop their balance and 'postural control' skills as they do the owl and tree poses and practice walking along a narrow mat (branch)
Stretch and strengthen their shoulder and arm muscles as they do the owl and spider poses
Use gestures or words to express their feelings – imagining they are feeling ‘confident' like one of the baby owls and then a little 'anxious' like the other
Develop their sense of rhythm as they creep and crawl to Tatty Bumpkin Spider song
Calm themselves as they blow their feathers
Think about 'not giving up' and ho wit is a good idea to keep going and persist with things
Have fun with their friends: balancing on narrow mats as if they are branches, flying and hooting as owls, blowing and investigating feathers and pretnding to eat worms!!

Find your local Tatty Bumpkin class at http://www.tattybumpkin.com/classes/find-class.html