Preschool Pretzels

I ran the story class for My Daddy is a Pretzel with the preschool groups which went very well. I am always a little unsure of how things are going to go with such a young group, but they surprise me each week with their enthusiasm and ability to stay engaged and on-task. Just like with the older kids, we practiced our snake breath, did our warm-up, and had a pre-reading discussion about jobs. This was actually funny. The best answer for what job does your mommy or daddy do? - "fire truck."

Then we read the book. On the first page of the story, the illustration shows the kids sitting on colorful squares, a bunch of them piped-up "story squares!" Each week I pass out different colored felt squares called "story squares" to help keep the children in place during the story. They were very excited to see themselves  reflected in the book. We read the book and tried out moves in our own way on our story squares - similar to the other groups. For pretzels, I had them all get twisty in their own way.

Then we practiced the yoga poses standing up for "Yogi Says" and closed the group with the yoga dance party. They loved my green ukulele, which is becoming such a wonderful teaching tool, and it is so light and easy to transport. We played a variation of "freeze dance," when I play - you dance, when I stop - yoga pose. They did great with this. I made sure to call out all the different poses I saw, "I see a triangle, I see a tree, I see a bridge!" This was helpful to get all the kids participating and trying out different poses.

One little guy was stuck on doing the lion pose and roaring at everyone, but once I started giving out the verbal attention, then he started trying new things. They all want to be noticed. Every class from preschool to kindergarten, they all say it "watch me!" It's cute and adorable, and they all do it, from the east to the west.

The very last class ending pose was the rainbow pose. I have seen different versions of poses with this name, but what I had them do was lie down on their backs, relax, and look up into an imaginary sky with big white fluffy clouds going by - can you see them? Now look for the rainbow - can you see it? As the kids are lying down calmly and quietly, I pass out stickers, releasing them to their teachers.

I try not to do stickers for every class. I want stickers to be a surprise at the end. For years, I didn't give out anything at the end of each class. I would wait until the final class to give each student a participation certificate - which they all love to get. It took me years to get over it and that stickers are ok. I was concerned that kids would lose the intrinsic value of the class and get too focused on stickers. This has not been the case. Even on the days where I don't (or forget or run out of time) to give stickers, I don't hear any complaints. They don't notice, because, I think, they just had a lot of fun and are leaving the group happy. So now, I have three booklets of stickers I keep in my Mary-Poppins-Like tote bag (along with scarves, tambourine, bells, a toy microphone, felt squares, and anything else I may need). It is good to keep things with you even if you don't plan on using it, sometimes, in the moment, you many need a plan B, or C, or D.