We know that for children play is not just a way to spend time and have fun – it’s an important purpose in cognitive development. Research shows that children learn best when they are active and engaged, and it’s been found to improve a number of critical skills like language, creativity, problem-solving, math, social skills, emotional regulation, motivation for learning, as well as fine and gross motor skills. Whoa! But how can you help your little ones play in an engaging way that will aid in all this development?

We got you covered! We took inspiration from our friends The Bumble Nums and created a playset all about their favorite thing – food! With The Bumble Nums Restaurant Play Set, you’ll have all the items (or should we say ingredients?) you’ll need for engaging, interactive, and informative play. 

First things first! Download and print out The Bumble Nums Restaurant Play Set. In this package you’ll find: 

• A decorative restaurant banner
• Open & closed signs
• Welcome & ‘wait to be seated’ signs
• A worksheet to help facilitate your play
• Labels for different roles
• Order forms
• Play money
• Play food cutouts
• Play table setting cutouts
• Menus
• Coupons

If you are able, you might like to laminate some items once they are printed and cut out to improve their wear and tear. 

Once you have all your pieces you can set up your play station! We have a worksheet that will help decide certain parts of your restaurant play space. You can work through the questions on the worksheet and assign roles for each player. 

You can decide together where the different aspects of the restaurant will be and put the play pieces in place. 

You can place the signs at the front door of the pretend restaurant.

Have the table setting on the table, and the food in the back ready to be brought out to eat. 

The menus and order forms are ready to go by the table. 

You can decide how much money each customer gets and if they get any coupons! Remember to leave some of the play money with the restaurant so they can give change, too! 

Now we are ready to play! There is so much that little ones can learn from creative and dramatic play like this. 

• Planning skills in setting up the play restaurant and asking them to predict what might happen.
• Writing skills in making a menu or taking orders.
• Reading skills from reading the signs and menu.
• Math skills from adding up total costs, giving change, and adjusting for coupons.
• Problem solving skills when issues might arise, like food arriving cold or not what was ordered. 
• Social and language skills as they act out their roles.

Some children may need support when engaging in this type of play and that is totally okay!  We can help by verbalizing an appropriate thought process or help them go through the motions of play. The best thing an adult can do to support this is to engage with the kids by jumping in and playing along. You can add more ideas to play or give a child an opportunity to expand the play by making leading suggestions such as “Now we should….”

Afterwards you can further promote academic skills by having children narrate (either verbally or in writing) what happened in their play using sequencing words such as “first, then, next, and last”. Encourage them to answer questions and describe the items in play. 

We hope you give The Bumble Nums Restaurant Play Set a try at home or in your classroom. The opportunities for learning through play are limitless – we just need to give support and guide children in a fun and engaging way – and with a printable play set like this we have a big head start to create a dramatic play space to explore and learn in!

Watch The Bumble Nums and find even more play food inspiration for your play restaurant with our Felt Pizza Craft & Activity.

We have a smaller scale restaurant pretend play for you if creating an entire dramatic play station is out of reach. Our Restaurant Pretend Play Order Forms are super fun and will encourage lots of fun and educational pretend play. They would also make a great addition to this whole printable package!

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How I Got Started

Getting into storytime yoga was a fairly easy transition for me, as I wanted to be able to teach classes that I was also able to bring my toddler to. I am very lucky to teach yoga in a massage therapy clinic whose owner is very supportive of offering activities for kids and families as well. She had been doing some research and mentioned to me that she had found some books that could be used to teach yoga as more of a story time for younger kids. I was intrigued, so I had her email me the link she had found to “Kids Yoga Stories” by Giselle Shardlow.

Giselle Shardlow offers many different yoga stories. They are very easy to create a class around, because each page has a highlighted word and a photo of the pose that represents the highlighted word. Each book also has a glossary of the poses you will be doing during the stories, so you can choose whether or not you want to go over the poses before getting into the story, or if you want to teach and do the poses as you go along.

Repetition is the key to success

It is important to read the same story for at least one month so that the kids have time to familiarize themselves with the story as well as the poses that go along with the story. Depending on the time slot you have for class, you can read either one or two stories per class. In our studio we have a 45-minute class, which allows us to read two stories plus have a quick read-through at the end to see who remembers what pose goes with each highlighted word.

Let their imaginations run wild

In this class, it is so important to encourage kids to use their imagination and also to praise them for a job well done. It makes such a difference when you tell them that they did a great job at a certain pose, because at this age children are very shy, and they are nervous about people watching them do things. If you encourage them and tell them what a great job they’re doing, you can literally watch them come out of their shells. I bring my 2-year-old son with me to each of these classes and he loves the time he gets to spend using his imagination.

One of the stories we read is about a farm, and part of it talks about going on a hayride. We have a lot of yoga bolsters and props in our studio, so we have each child use a rectangular bolster and pretend to be bumping up and down on a hayride. I also don’t follow each story word for word because I try to get as much imagination and fun as I can into the 45 minutes. Instead of reading the book as it is; for example walking to the pig barn from the cow barn, I tell the kids to get back on their hay ride and bump up and down to the cow barn. They get so excited to jump back on their bolsters and ride to the cow barn!

I also add in little gestures that are mentioned in the books, like pretending to “throw” something in the garbage, or waving “hello” to people mentioned in the book. These little gestures keep the children engaged in the story rather than just having one pose for the whole page of the book. Another thing I try to do is to ask the kids questions about what we’re reading. For example, in the farm book I will ask the kids what noise each animal makes, and how they move. The kids love to be asked if they can run fast like a horse, or hop up and down like a frog. Doing these small activities also helps the kids to engage with each other, like chasing after each other or seeing who can jump highest. My son has made lots of friends in this class and he is rarely ever shy anymore.

Now let’s get started

I highly recommend looking into whether or not story time yoga would be well received in your studio, or you can even try it at home or in your classroom! It’s hard to find activities for toddlers that keep them physically and mentally engaged, so I feel that this is a large reason why storytime yoga has been so well received in our studio.

I hope you enjoy trying out story time yoga; and I know that seeing the smiles on the children’s faces keeps you searching for new ways to spruce up your classes. You can start your own journey into story time yoga at www.kidsyogastories.com.

The post Getting Started with Storytime Yoga appeared first on Super Simple.

A few months ago I wrote about Circle Time, a great way to keep a group of kids entertained and/or focused. I gave you three Circle Time games to try the next time you find yourself with a group of kids and now I have three more to share!

Counting Circle

This game is great for creating calm, focus and teamwork in a group of children and can be played with as little as three or as many kids as you’d like. It’s best for slightly older children who are conformable with their numbers.

To play simply have the group stand in in tight circle with their shoulders touching. Everyone should bow their heads comfortably, close their eyes and together take in a deep breath and let it out. Then begin counting to ten. The trick is only one person can say each number. If two or more people speak at the same time the group must start again from one. Remind them it’s not a race, they can take as long as they’d like to count to ten as long as only one person speaks at a time. The game is about listening, connecting with the group and finding a mutual focus. If they do reach ten you can up the difficulty each time the game is played by increasing their goal. It can be done! I was once part of a group that made it to 117!

Zip Zap Zop

This is a classic theatre game for those who recognize it but I find it great in any group who needs some energy but still require focus so as not to devolve into chaos. The game is about following a pattern, finding and maintaining eye contact and being energized while staying focused.

To play have your group stand in a wider circle so there’s a bit of space between each person. The starting person points at anyone in the circle and says “zip”, the person they pointed to then repeats the action to anyone else but this time says “zap” and then that person repeats the action one more time but says “zop”. The pattern then repeats with the next person saying “zip” again and so on and so forth without leaving gaps between each pass of the action and word.

Some things to consider while playing this game:

• Think of the action and word as passing energy. Many iterations of this game use a more energized action instead of pointing, like sliding one hand over top of the other toward the person they’re passing to, or throwing a “ball of energy”. Keep it simple and direct but animated!
• Try to make eye contact with the person you’re passing to before you pass. Don’t let it slow you down though. Everyone should be nice and open to receiving a pass so it shouldn’t be hard to find someone to make eye contact with.
• Don’t speed up too fast. There’s a tendency to get fast quite quickly with this game but don’t let your group do so too early. They should get the hang of it first and then try for speed.
• You can raise the stakes by having elimination rounds for mistakes such as saying the wrong word or hesitating too long.

Human Knot

The Human Knot is a fantastic team building game common among many age groups. It does involve the holding of hands and being in close quarters though so you may want to avoid it during cold season or have a quick hand washing session before.

The game is playing by having everyone stand in a tight circle. Each person extends their hands out and takes the hand of a person who is not beside them and makes sure they’re not holding both hands of another person. Now the group must untangle themselves without letting go of their hands. Remind everyone to take it slow and be gentle. This is a great exercise in listening and being respectful of others while they work together on a solution.

The post More Circle Time! appeared first on Super Simple.

The definition of a Blanket Fort:

A den constructed indoors, made of sheets, blankets, cushions, pillows, clothes pegs, elastic bands and fairy lights. Though specifically made for children, all ages welcome. This space becomes a place for whispers or shouts, quiet time or raucous time, watching films or playing, getting cuddly and cozy or… fort battles. Am I right?!

In probably a few adults childhood memories there will be one treasured day where a Blanket Fort was made. Perhaps it was a day in the middle of winter where biblical amounts of snow or rain continued to fall or perhaps a day of quarantine from a sickness in the house. Perhaps you were climbing the walls and your parents were out of ideas of entertaining you themselves. Or perhaps, just perhaps it was you, your 5-year-old moment of genius in deciding to build one yourself. Either way, one was built and it was epic, perhaps in your mind, it was the size of Perkin’s tent that was lent to the Weasley family to use for the Quidditch World Cup in Harry Potter. Let’s be honest, it probably wasn’t anywhere near that size in reality, but that is beside the point really, isn’t it? The point is, it was awesome. Which is why you still remember it to this day and why when you re-tell it, it was the size of a small mansion.

Perhaps you never made one though. No Problem!

We are here to explain WHY they are so awesome.

Apart from the fact that, you know… they just are, there are so many reasons to why they can create pinnacle moments in your child’s long-term memory bank.

We all need somewhere to retreat to from time to time, both child and adult alike. The world can sometimes feel big and overwhelming. Blanket Fort offers a space to process everything. It can be a tool for either contemplation or energy releasing play!

They are great tools to be able to engage with your children, to spend some quality time with them. It is also a fun way for siblings to interact with each other, role play loudly or sit quietly together watching a movie.

They can be bubbles of energy and noise just as they can be pockets of quiet sanctuary and calm – a safe space. They are great for reading with your kids or watching a movie, just as they are great sleepover territory. A small warning – no sleeping will probably occur! Just many, many, MANY films. I should know, I remember them well!

They can be small forts with only one room or big ones with tunnels and multiple chambers. They can be bright with flashlights shining everywhere, dark with no lighting, or somewhere in-between with fairy lights twinkling.

They can be made in any room of the house, whether sitting room, bedroom or dining room, everywhere has potential.

In fact, if anyone needs me…I’ll be in my own blanket fort, that’s the size of the tent in Harry Potter (obviously), eating a tub full of popcorn and reading a book. Perhaps if I’m quiet enough the kids won’t find me…

Items you can use to make your Blanket Fort

For the walls and roof of your fortress

• Blankets
• Quilt covers
• Fitted sheets

For attaching and holding up the walls

• Clothes pegs
• Food pegs
• Elastic bands
• Removable sticky hooks that can be stuck on walls or ceilings
• A broomstick for the middle if you want to make a teepee shapes fort
• Bed frames
• Tables
• Armchairs
• Sofas
• Teepee structures

For inside comfort

• Cushions
• Pillows
• Rugs
• Mattresses
• Plush blankets/cable knit (the more cuddly the better)
• Sleeping bags

Lights to use inside

• Flashlights
• Fairy lights
• Table lamps

Entertainment

• TV
• Laptop
• Tablet
• Coloring pads and pens
• Book
• Magazine

Snacks

• Hot chocolate
• Popcorn
• Dried fruit
• Potato Chips
• Chocolate
• Sweets
• Bumble Nums Snack Mix
• Any treat!

Sign (optional)

• Sign of the name of your fort so that everyone that passes will remember for now and prosperity!

The post Why Blanket Forts are Amazing! appeared first on Super Simple.

Yoga is becoming increasingly popular; there aren’t many cities you could go to without finding a yoga studio with a variety of different classes. However, one of the more recent trends in yoga is Story Time Yoga. This is a 30-45 minute class targeted to children between the ages of 18 months and 5 years.  In these classes, stories are used to help the children remember and repeat the poses. Here are the 5 simplest poses to teach toddlers that are derived from Story Time Yoga, but can be done one their one with your little ones.

1. Mountain Pose

Why? This pose is particularly simple as it only involves standing up straight, with your arms either at your sides or overhead. Sometimes I have the toddlers raise their arms above their heads and clap. They love anything to do with clapping, as it makes them feel like they’re doing something worth celebrating!

The benefits – Mountain pose helps with posture. It also helps strengthen the legs, lower back, thighs, knees, and ankles.

2. Tree Pose

Why? This pose is exciting for toddlers as they are now finally mastering walking and running, and anything new that they can learn to do with their legs makes them feel like a big boy/big girl. We start out by holding our toddler’s hand and encouraging them to lift one leg up and touch their other leg with it. Eventually, once they gain their balance, they can lift the foot up without holding your hand.

Benefits – The benefits of tree pose are that it helps to stretch the thighs, torso and shoulders. It also helps to strengthen the ankles, calves and abdominal muscles.

3. Downward Facing Dog.

Why? This one is fun for toddlers and easy to do. Toddlers are constantly observing everything around them, and having their hands on the floor, heads upside down, and looking through their legs can help them see their surroundings from yet another different perspective. We try to encourage legs hip-width apart, but we allow toddlers to explore and learn on their own terms as well.

Benefits – The benefits of downward facing dog include strengthening the hands, wrists, hamstrings, and calves. It also helps decrease back pain as it strengthens the entire back and shoulder girdle.

4. Legs up the wall.

Why? This pose is fun because most toddlers know they aren’t allowed to touch walls with their feet. When they are asked to come close to the wall, sit down, and walk their feet up the wall; you can see the wonder in their eyes. You can also encourage toddlers to stretch their legs wide on the wall.

Benefits – Legs up the wall has many benefits. It is more of a restorative pose, so it allows the mind and body to relax. It also helps to increase circulation, relieve lower back pain and helps to soothe feet and legs. Toddlers are busy little people, so adding a pose like this to a practice is even more important.

5. Happy Baby Pose.

Why? Happy baby pose is one of the simplest poses to teach young. Most babies spend a lot of time on their backs, exploring their feet. It’s almost like second nature to ask your toddler to lie on their back and hold their feet.

Benefits – Happy baby pose helps strengthen the outer hips, chest and shoulders, it also helps to lengthen the spine and relieve lower back pain.

Now that you know the 5 simplest yoga poses for toddlers, try teaching them to your toddler, or see if Children’s Story Time yoga is offered in your community. Learn, teach, stretch and enjoy!

Namaste.

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Contributor
Amanda Ryan is an RYT200 and is registered with the Canadian Yoga Alliance as of July 2018. She completed her yoga training through Soul Vibration in Woodstock, ON. Amanda lives in Woodstock, Canada with her husband Jonathan, her 18 month old son Harrison, and their 3 dogs. She is also currently 4.5 months pregnant with her second son. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Original content © 2018 Super Simple. Not to be reprinted without express written permission. Terms of Service.

The post 5 Simple Yoga Moves for Toddlers appeared first on Super Simple.

Circle Time is as simple as it sounds. Gather your kids in the circle and play a few games or sing some songs to get them focused and listening again. Many teachers or camp/class instructors like to start the day off with some Circle Time because it gives them the chance to have (mostly) undivided attention of the kids where, in addition to games, you can talk about how the day is going to go, set ground rules or anything that needs to be communicated.

Below we’ve selected three great circle time games you can play with various groups of children from around ages four to eight.

Bananas of the World Unite!

This is a very simple chant with some actions that you can either do as a call and answer or, if the kids know it, all together. It’s a fun, short chant that can get sleepy kids energized! Here are the words with the actions in brackets.

Bananas of the World Unite! (slowly raise arms over head and slap your hands together to create a banana shape)

Peel bananas, peel peel bananas x2 (slowly bring each arm down, one at a time, from above your head with a twirling wrist motion)

Slice bananas, slice slice bananas x2 (pass your hands back and forth overtop one another in a slicing motion)

Mash bananas, mash mash bananas x 2 (mash and twist your palms together)

Eat bananas, eat eat bananas x2 (bring your hands towards your mouth as if you’re eating a banana)

GO BANANAS! GO GO BANANAS! x2 (GO BANANAS! Dance around in a circle and go as bananas as you’d like, just be careful of the others around you)

Wake Up Dragon

This game is a good, quiet game that will help with focusing a group of excited kids. You will need one prop that does make a little bit of noise like a set of keys. Here’s how you play!

1. In your circle choose one child to be the dragon. The dragon curls up in a ball pretending to be asleep. Beside the dragon are the set of keys as the dragon’s treasure.
2. When the dragon is asleep with their eyes closed choose another child to be the adventurer. They have to sneak very very quietly up to the dragon and try to steal the treasure without making any noise and return to their seat.
3. Once back at their seat the adventurer holds the treasure behind their back and everyone else does the same. Then together they all say “Wake up dragon!”
4. The dragon wakes up and stays sitting in the middle of the circle. They now have to guess who stole their treasure in two or three guesses. They can spin around on the spot but they can’t get up or move from the centre.

Rhythm Master

This game is a great introduction to creating rhythms and beats as well as following instructions! Here’s how you play!

1. Choose one child to leave the room or stand off to the side and close their eyes and ears. They will be guessing who the Rhythm Master is!
2. With the guesser out of earshot, quietly choose a Rhythm Master from the remaining kids. They will create a beat or rhythm by clapping their hands together or on their legs.
3. Everyone else in the circle now follows the Rhythm Master and claps the same beat at the same time. The master can change the beat or rhythm at any time and the rest of the group should follow as closely as possible but make sure you don’t give away who the Rhythm Master is by watching them too closely!
4. The guesser returns to the group and watches closely to try to figure out who the Rhythm Master could be!

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