Class Plan
Title: / Age:Handa’s Surprise / MegaBugs 5 – 7 years
Additional Resources:
Activity: A Globe or map to show the children where Africa is compared to home.
Paper and colouring pencils for children to draw.
Music: High energy song for the sun salutation warm up. Some Egyptian music.
Warm up: 5 mins
Okay MegaBugs let’s get warmed up before we start our adventure.
As you play the music you should do: Hello Sun, Hello Earth, Roadrunner (beep beep), snake (hiss) Dog (woof) Hello Earth, Hello Sun.
Repeat this three times for a high energy warm up.
Adventure: 22mins
We are going on a long walk with Handa, through the African Savannah with a gift of fruit on our heads to give to her friend Akeyo who lives in another village. We don’t know what Akeyo’s favourite fruit is so we’re going to put a selection in our baskets. Along the way we may pass some fruit eating animals and at the end of our journey we may find that Akeyo’s favourite fruit was not what we originally put in our baskets.
Let’s stretch our arms up (like Volcano) and bring the basket down onto our head (with hands in prayer position). The basket has a banana, avocado, guava, pineapple, orange and a mango. I wonder if we can name the colours of the fruits that Handa is taking with her).
Now we’re going to balance it on our heads because that’s how many people carry things in Africa. It’s a wonderful way to carry things and makes us stand up tall but it’ll take a bit of practice. We’re quite wobbly today(Tree) (basket wobbling back and forward on head – remember to do both legs). Let’s stand straight and tall like a Mountain. Ready MegaBugs? Great! Off we go!
Here comes Mischievous Morris the Monkey. He’s been dreaming about bananas for days and he’s just spotted our fruit baskets.Well, there goes the banana. Oh goodness, here’s a mud slide. Let’s (Boat) slide our way through the slippery mud so we don’t fall down and lose all the fruit - phew, that’s better, back to the dry path.
Olga the Ostrich has a bit of a bad neck. She’s doing her usual stretches (Stork) in preparation for tonight’s circle dance. She loves guavas and she’s spotted some in our baskets. Yum – off goes the guava and on goes Handa.
Hot sand, hot sand (fast hop on alternate feet) gosh it’s hot in the Savannah. Well that’s alright now, back to cool earth.Here comes Zanzibar the Zebra (Horse). The flies must be getting to him (arms in line with shoulders like ears and twist from side to side whilst doing horse/zebra stretch). He knows Handa won’t mind because she’s a friend so he swipes an orange from her basket.
Mind out; mind out, coming through for our morning wash – here come the Elephants (elephant line). Oh my, is that a mango I see?Elephants love mangos. Yum yum, let’s see whose trunk can stretch the farthest to reach that juicy mango! (Warrior 3). It must be you at the front of the line there as I see you doing a little jig with your feet and making big circles in each direction with your trunk and now try figures of eight both ways.
Giraffes have a soft spot for pineapples and Gertrude is no exception. She’s got her head in the clouds as usual and she’s nibbling all the little leaves off the trees (Giraffe). She’s spotted our pineapples and gulp, they’re gone.
Arthur the Gazelle (big jumps forward like a giant monkey) is doing his usual leaps as we pass by. He’s rather rude and can’t be bothered to say hello. Once he’s stolen our avocados he turns the other way to eat
Here’s a big wooden Gate. We’d better hurry up and open it or we’ll not get to Akeyo’s on time. Remember to close the gate behind us. Right, now who’s that? Oh hello Percy. Wow, can you show me how you do that with your wings, it looks beautiful (Magic bird). Percy takes the passion fruit in return for his time.
I remember that when I went to the seaside I saw Penguins and they walked like this (Penguin walk). Oh that’s too funny isn’t it! Right, almost there now. What on earth is Dorothy doing (Donkey kicks); she must have seen Handa’s fruit basket and want something off it. Donkeys eat anything! Oh dear, she’s just gone and bumped into the tangerine Tree.
Here we are, we’ve finally arrived and there’s Akeyo. (Dancer) Let’s hand over the basket in style and stretch our legs while we’re at it like this… What’s this?Tangerines!
“Tangerines! They are my favourite fruit!! How did you know?” smiled Akeyo!
I wonder where all the other fruit went?
Relaxation and Visualisation:
Now we’re so tired we need a little rest.
Let’s all lie down and think about our journey.Can you see the beautiful white lotus flower floating just above your tummy button?
As you breathe in its petals unfold to show you a golden star and as you breathe out they close up gently.
It’s magical because it makes our bodies feel warm and very, very peaceful. Slowly let’s wiggle our fingers and toes and quietly sit up.
Games and Activities:
Ask the children to name the animals from the story and demonstrate the postures and also discuss other animals that might live in the African Savannah.
Activity: Ask the children to draw their favourite animals from the story.
Handa’s Surprise Copyright YogaBugs Ltd 2012. All rights reserved