Mindful Kids: 50 Mindfulness Activities for Kindness, Focus and Calm (Mindful Tots)

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Blow on your pinwheels together using long, deep breaths. Notice how you feel—calm and relaxed? Having trouble sitting still? Each of these toys can capture a child’s attention and keep them grounded in the present—batteries not required! The Mindfulness Bear Simply print, cut, and laminate the cards and place it on a small binder ring. Then you can take it on the go, place it in a calm down kit, or have available to your child at school. Or adults might find it helpful to keep at their desk at work. When you or your child are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or stressed and need to calm down (before it turns into a full blown meltdown), you'll want to keep the acronym S.T.O.P. in mind.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy exercises are intended to help clients deal with intense negative emotions and experiences.

What is mindfulness?

Teachers know how important brain breaks can be in education. That's why we've made our Printable Brain Break Cards PDF resource – to help your students unwind. But it’s far from the only activity available!

This game will help your child see the advantages of being mindful and encourage him to work on his own mindfulness. 3. Pennies GameMindfulness-based interventions for children are not only feasible, but seem promising in their impacts as well (Burke, 2009; Greenberg & Harris, 2011). The balancing relay game is good for children 5 and older. If you’ve ever seen or participated in an egg and spoon race, you’ll recognize this game.

If you’re looking to teach mindfulness to children in your kindergarten class (or to children around kindergarten age), try these four tips: As more and more research is produced on the subject, we’ll surely hear more about the benefits and applications of mindfulness for children. For example, mindfulness worksheets are an often overlooked tool that we can use to deepen our practice. Many worksheets involve some element of practice or reflection before probing us to more deeply considered whatever our experience may be. The penny game can be played with other objects too; the important part is that the children playing are able to focus in on something and pay attention to detail. 4. Balancing RelayFinally, this script will walk you through giving yourself a break and offering yourself love and understanding. Towards the end, you will repeat some phrases or mantras to help you appreciate yourself, including “ May I be safe. May I be peaceful. May I be kind to myself. May I accept myself as I am.” Breathing exercises are helpful for managing negative emotions and remaining more present. Share this activity with the client to help them practice abdominal, thoracic, and clavicular breathing. The following worksheets can be tailored according to the age and skills of the child or for group settings: Consider using the following to manage unhelpful or negative thoughts and emotions and foster a greater perception of control: This step is all about connecting with your body, emotions, and mind to take note of what's going on with each. You could also try one of these grounding techniques to help you observe what's happening. P = PROCEED

Next, it guides you through identifying a mistake, a failure, or a part of your personality that you don’t feel great about. It shows you how to accept the emotions that come with it and allow them to simply be, without fighting them. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for children ( MBCT-C) has been found to reduce symptoms of anxiety and the rate of problem behaviors in children with anxiety and attention problems (Semple, Lee, Rosa, & Miller, 2009). One technique that we have found helpful so far is the STOP mindfulness exercise. It's a simple exercise for anxiety that kids and adults alike can use when things get a bit overwhelming.Godfrey, K. M., Gallo, L. C., & Afari, N. (2014). Mindfulness-based interventions for binge eating: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 38(2), 348–362. Visual training through video games has effects that are similar to meditating, allowing us to tune out visual distractions and focus on the important things. Children should find it easy to understand what mindfulness is based on this definition, but you might need to discuss it with them to make sure they have a good grasp on it—especially if they are young. Video games train our brains to stay focused and regulate our attention, just like meditation does.