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Activities

Yoga Storytime for Toddlers – Updated for 2025

August 6, 2025 / No Comments

I wrote this post originally way back in 2012! And while the core tenets of the idea has stayed the same – how to incorporate yoga into a storytime for toddlers, I wanted to take a moment to update this post to help you find more great resources and just share what I’ve learned in the past 10+ years.

Why Yoga Storytime?

Let’s start at the beginning, why would a yoga storytime be something you want to offer your community, your school, or even at home? Well, it has been documented that yoga has a number of beneficial aspects for kids, but the ones I originally focused on and the ones I continue to share with parents are:

  • improved emotional regulation – and who doesn’t need more of that?
  • promotes motor development – think balance, body awareness, coordination
  • creates a opportunity to experience storytime in a different way (less sitting and more movement)

Let’s be honest, I wouldn’t necessarily share a lot of breathing techniques with toddlers, but we do practice a little, especially as we cool down. These are perfect moments to share with parents, “encourage your kids to take deep belly breaths when they are frustrated” or “do 5 lion breaths when you are mad”. These aren’t difficult, they don’t require you to have a lot of things, and can be done just about anywhere!

When kids try to do hard, like balancing like a tree, or stretching like a star, they are learning about how their body moves and what they can expect from it! Plus, they also get to feel really good about themselves when they accomplish a hard task. Toddlers especially are learning how to move their bodies and yoga is a great way to do that!

Finally, there are some kids that find it difficult to attend a typical storytime with a few books, maybe some movement, but not much. In this program, kids are given the chance to move a lot and are encouraged to do so! You can also select books that encourage yoga moves throughout to keep the moving throughout the entire program, not just in between stories.

A Few Notes

And let me also tell you that I am not a yoga instructor. I’ve taken yoga classes in studios and with online classes, and just enjoy the practice a lot. Typically, the poses being done in storytime are not high-level poses, these are simple poses that I sometimes accommodate to work for toddlers!

I usually give this storytime a little more time that the typical 30-minutes. I find that you really need closer to 45-minutes to allow kids time to explore some of the poses. Especially if you’re doing this for the first time. I usually walk through our sun salutation pretty slowly the first time and then we’ll repeat it 2-3 more times as the kids get warmed. That alone can take 8ish minutes!

We use a large meeting room for this program so we have room to spread out. I encourage the kids to come to the front of the room when we read a story, so that they can see the pages, but otherwise we want space for everyone to move a bit!

We also encourage this to be a caregiver and child program where both are participating (if possible). We want the adults to get the chance to move their bodies in a fun way too. And finally, while we ask that families bring a yoga mat or even a towel with them, it’s not a requirement of the program!

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Lesson Plan Details

A typical lesson plan includes:

  • Warm-up
    • Rock and roll – This is a simple roll backward onto your back and then rock back up into a sitting position. It can be difficult for little ones to roll back and rock back up, but this is where I encourage caregivers to help out!
    • Zip-up spine – I have the kids sit criss-cross applesauce and we locate our belly buttons and then we run an imaginary zipper all the way up to our chin making sure we sit up nice and straight and tall.
    • Raise shoulders – From that point, we do some shoulder shrugs to help take deep breaths in and out.
    • Cat pose – And we can’t start a yoga storytime without doing both cat and cow pose (sound effects included)!
    • Cow pose
  • Read Aloud
  • Sun Salutations (usually repeated 2-3 times)
    • There are a number of variations in sun salutations, but you can start with something very simple like this one I found on Pinterest.
  • Read Aloud
  • Poses for the Week
    • Here is where I change it up a bit – sometimes I’ll focus on animal poses, shape poses, or maybe I’ll select some poses that allow kids to practice balancing or something similar.
    • I usually pick 5-8 poses that we can practice and adjust it to the length I need depending on how the kids are feeling and how the program is going.
  • Read Aloud
  • Relaxation
    • Star Pose – Kids love jumping into this position and it’s a great way to start slowing down
    • Triangle Pose – Moving from star pose right into triangle pose begins to quiet the kids down a bit for the end of the program.
    • Bridge Pose – A great pose to move into laying down on the floor
    • Happy Baby Pose – And this pose is so great for massaging the back and is fun to do!
    • Star Pose (laying down) – At this point, I try to dim the lights (if possible), put on a quiet song, and allow the kids about 2-3 minutes to spend time practicing deep breathing. We use a bunch of little stuffies (Beanie Babies actually). We place one on each child’s belly and I ask them to try and move them up and down as they take deep breaths.

Resources for Yoga Storytime

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