Children love our fun adventure destinations—especially ones with lots of animals. The jungle is full of great possibilities for fun musical yoga—and supporting child development while we sing and stretch!

Yo Re Mi activities are created with specific goals and poses in mind. Plus, we create new sequences using ideas from the children in our classes. By saying “YES” to their ideas, we have come up with some of our favorite activities—including many great Jungle songs and yoga activities.

We know that animal yoga is popular—look at our fun Animal Poses for ideas! Rooted in many yoga poses themselves, is a relationship to an animal. And not only the animal body shape, but its unique attributes, temperament, and more.

Jungle yoga and jungle songs for preschoolers can help support children at all stages of development. The social-emotional (SEL) components of our animal activities resonate deeply with children as they explore body awareness, breath awareness, balance—plus strengthening brains and bodies as well!

Here are some of our favorite musical yoga jungle activities:

These jungle songs and yoga poses for kids are tons of fun and easy to get started!

1. Elephant Pose for stability and heart-opening

In Wide-Legged Forward Fold, we build strength and stability through our legs. As elephants with big long trunks, we gather water from the river, and spray it over our heads to give ourselves a shower, cooling us off in the hot jungle sun.

Heart-opening activities like Elephants can help reverse the hunched posture typically associated with sitting at desks or staring at screens.

Bring your arms up together to make a trunk, and spray the water over your head with a gentle backbend and a big “wooosh” as you exhale!

2. Mosquito Pose for brain activation

Every jungle has bugs! Our Mosquito Activity explores Pyramid Pose—a terrific way to calm the mind, clear the sinuses and elongate the hamstrings!

The lyric, “I like to drink blood!” is presented in a silly way, while also recognizing the spooky facto, to acknowledge the uniqueness of these amazing insects!

3. Sleepy Lion Pose to explore extremes

Get ready to ROAR! Our Sleepy Lion activity combines Child’s Pose: a still and quiet resting pose, with Upward Facing Dog: an upper body strengthening pose accompanied by a big roar.

Children love to play with extremes, it helps them know that a range of emotions is available and acceptable.

Having a quiet moment followed by a loud one, and then looped several times, helps a child know that not only CAN they be loud and quiet, or sleepy and ferocious, but that there are times when each is appropriate!

4. Jungle Cat Pose for balance and right-left brain integration

Starting in table top position, children find this opposite arm-and-leg extension challenging at first. That makes sense, since we develop the ability to do cross-body movements over time.

But as we learn them, we strengthen the corpus callosum, or the neural super-highway that connects the right and left hemispheres of our brains.

Cross-body activities like Jungle Cat can improve coordination, emotional literacy, reading and language skills!

Want a standing alternative to Jungle Cat? Similar benefits are available with Crane Pose.

5. Rainforest Yoga Flow for rhythm and sequencing

In our original Rainforest song, we use Goddess Pose to make monkeys, a deep squat for frogs, and Warrior Three for birds.

The repeating chorus helps children remember the structure of the song, accompanied by a long balance in tree pose.

Understanding a song’s structure is a basic example of rhythm and sequencing—and early exposure to these concepts, reinforced by movement, helps sow the development of math skills and pattern recognition.

We explore the rainforest in depth in our Rainforest Adventure!

6. Lizard Pose for focus and calm

While it may look tricky, children tend to slither right into this pose! Lizard Pose is a great solution for too much sitting—something that classrooms (virtual schooling and in-person alike) need to confront creatively.

Tight hips, short hamstrings and quads hold tension that can manifest in restlessness and fidgeting. An activity like Lizard lets it out—with the benefits of learning a little bit about our reptile friends!

There’s lots more to learn about scaly reptilians in our full-length Reptile Adventure on the Yo Re Mi app!

7. Giraffe Pose with a twist for proprioception

There is no taller land mammal than the giraffe—and this activity, a fun preparation for Camel Pose, gives us the chance to explore proprioception, or the body’s position in space.

With a gentle twist to aid digestion, our Giraffe Activity can be done standing or kneeling. Try it both ways!

8. Crocodile Relaxation to release tension

With so many animals in the jungle, it’s fun to move and sing in different ways for each one. Let’s celebrate one of the oldest species on the planet: the crocodile. With crocodile relaxation, we practice a series of core strengthening stretches, separated by stillness.

This kind of “tension and relaxation” while isolating our upper and lower extremities helps with body awareness. It also helps with breathing—as we exhale and lower to the floor, we know that what follows is stillness and a long inhale.

WATCH MORE: Wildlife Adventure (VIDEO)

Looking for more African Wildlife? Join us in Serengeti National Park for a wild ride! Our educational adventures are full of themed movement and music activities which children enjoy. The adventures keep them engaged and learning!

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