Matthew and Sophie go to school in Africa

Matthew and Sophie go to school in Africa

3 - 6 years

Matthew and Sophie were visiting Granny.

It had been raining for days and days.

Not just soft misty rain.

Tapping fingers on face and head.

But fat, juicy raindrops that formed gigantic puddles.  

Pounding feet on the floor while sitting.

Matthew and Sophie were dancing in front of the giant mirror in the hallway: African dancing. Demonstrate a few traditional steps and put on some inspiring African rhythms so the kids can free form dance for a few minutes.

Sophie and Matthew danced closer and closer to the mirror until they stepped straight through into a luscious school yard.  They could still hear the African drums in the distance but it was definitely not dancing time. 

Sit down in hero pose - kneeling with straight back.

In the little school house, they could see the school children sitting straight and tall, listening carefully to the teacher. Not human school children but animal children. Through the window, Sophie could see monkeys, two giraffes, a couple of lion cubs, three snappy crocodiles, a bunch of cobra snakes and two bucking broncos.

Monkey – squat pose with hands in prayer

Giraffe – half shoulder stand

Lion – cat pose with head up and tongue out

Crocodile – lie on floor with arms extended out ready to snap together and legs lifted

Cobra – cobra

Broncos – down face dog and kick feet up in the air.

The biggest surprise was the teacher: a little mouse.

Mouse – child pose

Sophie and Matthew took their seats in the herbivore section of the classroom, do you know what this means?

Ask children

An herbivore eats vegetables and a carnivore eats meat. The teacher squeaked that this was very important if they did not want to be lunch for the lion or the crocodiles or even the cobras.

During school the children learned how to climb a tree.

Tree pose

How to hide from an eagle

Eagle pose – cross left leg over right leg and grip calf muscle with foot. Wrap left arm under right arm and bring hands together.

And how to reach the yummiest leaves on the tallest trees.

Giraffe pose.

Goodness after all this school work, Matthew and Sophie were getting tired. So they sat down under the shade of a big tree.

Tree pose.

Sit and stretch out legs. Take a big stretch and a yawn and lie down to rest.

Shavasana.

After a lovely sleep they woke up in Granny’s house.

Granny said, “goodness me, look at those dirty feet, you had better run up to the bathroom and wash them off, or else we might have a couple of monkeys and lions staying for the night”. Granny gave the children a wink. She seemed to know everything.

The end.