Yoga Poses for Kids: Dolphin

Welcome back to our Summer at the Beach Blog Series.

We’re in Week 2 of 6! We delight in keeping your kids practicing yoga and mindfulness all Summer long.

Here is a great way to continue your Summer yoga poses with your kids! Let’s dig into the fun Dolphinyoga pose. Dolphinpose stretches and builds strength in legs, back, arms and shoulders.

Tip:Encourage your little yogis to NOT overdo it. Just do as much as you can comfortably, and practice makes improvement over time.

How to do Dolphin Pose:

1. Come onto your knees and elbows.

2. Bring your hands together into a fist and press them into the floor.

3. Keep your hands and elbows pressing down into the floor as you curl your toes under.

4. Lift your knees up and press your hips high up and back.

5. Keep pressing your heart toward your thighs.

6. Release your knees down and rest.

Children love practicing speaking dolphinese! Spend a little time discussing dolphins’ intelligence. Discuss the mantra, “I speak”, as it relates to a dolphin. And then open a dialog about why it is important for people--young and old--to speak up and be heard.

Fun Dolphin Facts

Here are some facts about dolphins from the Science Kids’ website.

• Bottlenose dolphins are the most common and well-known type of dolphin.
• Female dolphins are called cows, males are called bulls and young dolphins are called calves.
• Dolphins live in schools or pods of up to 12 individuals.
• Dolphins use a blowhole on top of their heads to breathe.
• Dolphins have excellent eyesight and hearing as well as the ability to use echolocation for finding the exact location of objects.
• Dolphins communicate with each other by clicking, whistling and other sounds.

Partner Poses in Pairs

Now that you’ve done shark and dolphin poses, you and your child (or any even combination of children and adults) may practice a partner pose by one person striking the dolphin pose, and the other coming into shark pose below the dolphin.

You can find this pose in our Summer at the Beach Coloring Book, comes with yoga cards just for kids!