Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids

While meditation, yoga, and journaling are all great mindfulness activities for kids, you shouldn’t limit their mindfulness practice to these things. Practicing mindfulness is to practice non-judgmental awareness of oneself and our surroundings so we learn to bring that mindful awareness into our everyday life. This means that there is no limit to what a child’s mindfulness activities can be! In this blog, I’m sharing the best creative mindfulness activities for kids that they will love and will encourage self-awareness!

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.1

Emotional Expression Painting 

Have your child create a painting to represent how they are feeling. Ask them “What are you feeling right now?” “How can you express what you are feeling using color and paintbrushes?” “Notice your thoughts as they come up.” Use the color code below! Each color symbolizes a different emotion. 

• Red = Angry
• Orange = Inspired/Creative
• Yellow = Happy
• Green = Loving/Loved
• Blue = Sad
• Purple = Frustrated
• Pink = Excited
• Black = Confused
• White = Clarity/Peaceful
• Indigo = Afraid
• Dark Green = Disgust
• Brown = Unstimulated/Bored

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.2

Mindful Music 

Instruct your child to put on a pair of headphones and play a variety of songs. As they listen, tell them to write down how each song makes them feel and if they can figure out why that emotion is coming up.

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.3

Create A Mantra

Help your child come up with a mantra that speaks to them! What do they want to feel more of? What are they struggling with right now? Building a personalized mantra will help them with their struggles, promote mindfulness, and allow them to express their creativity while doing a mindfulness activity!

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.4

Paint Kindness Rocks

Go to the store, park, or beach with your kiddo and gather up some rocks. Wash them off and paint them with some words of kindness! Encourage your child to write words that mean a lot to them and share why those words of kindness are important to them! Next time you go out, leave the rocks in a safe place to be seen by others or gift them to strangers!

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.5

Mindful Instruments

Does your child love music? Do they play guitar, piano, or another instrument? This one can be a bit painful to listen to if your child is on the younger side. Get out an instrument and allow your chid to strum and play with awareness.

Note the sound of the string and the vibration it emits. How does it sound? Pretty? Deep? Light?  How does it feel underneath their hands? Play with curious awareness! 

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.6

Mindful Dance Party

Yes, a dance party is totally mindfulness! Bond with friends and family, practice vulnerable expression, and awareness for your body and you bust a move to your favorite song.

Let loose, be creative, be expressive, and be mindful of how you feel as you dance. Ask them what their favorite song to dance to was and why? Did they feel expressive?

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.7

Mindful Glitter Jar

This is a very popular Pinterest idea and I don’t understand entirely why it is so popular but I figured I’d include it. Get a mason jar, some water, dish soap and glitter. 

Instructions:

1. Fill your mason jar almost entirely with water then add glitter and a few drops of dish soap. 
2. Close the jar and shake it up. If it is needed, add more drops of dish soap until the glitter floats and the mixture reaches desired consistency.
3. When your child is feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or needs a break from the day, shake the jar up. Breathe deeply and let your thoughts settle as the glitter settles.

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.8

Mindful Poem Writing

Writing poems is one of my favorite mindfulness practices! There are unlimited possibilities as to what you could express and it feels mentally good to get your thoughts out with such fluidity. Help your child write a poem about something that is on their mind or to express what they feel.

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.9

Gratitude Tree

This is one of the best ways to practice gratitude with kids! You’ll need these supplies! String or ribbon, paper, scissors, twigs/tree branches, some stones/marbles (to fill your vase/pot), and a vase/pot 

1. Cut out leaf shapes on your paper then write things you are grateful for on those leaves you cut out. 
2. Cut a piece of string and tape it to each leaf. 
3. Put your stones/marbles in your vase and stick the tree branches/twigs in the middle.
4. Tie the strings with the leaves onto the tree and behold your gratitude tree!
5. Continue to add to your gratitude tree throughout the next few days, weeks, months, or even the entire year! 

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.10

Freestyle Self-Expression Rap

My younger brother came up with this activity and he loves it so why not! This is a lot like poem writing but the only difference is you have to freestyle your self expression! Get the rest of the family involved and have them beatbox while everyone takes a turn self expression rapping. 

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.11

Emotional Awareness Cookie Decorating 

This creative mindfulness activity is great in moderation. Do your kids love sugar cookies? Of course they do! Here is an easy-to-incorporate mindfulness practice you can do with your kids.

Bake some sugar cookies and have them decorate the cookies to match the emotions they are feeling. I.e put a happy face on it if they are happy or a sad face if they feel sad or use a lot of colors if they feel energized or a grayish color if they feel “meh”. You could even make a variety of different colored icings and label them as different emotions i.e yellow is happy, blue is sad, pink is hyper, black is frustrated etc.

Prompts

• How are you feeling right now?
• Is there anything bothering you?
• Tell me more about this cookies design?

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.12

CHA(L)KRAS 

PUN INTENDED! If you are familiar with the chakras then you’ll love this exercise. Get some sidewalk chalk and draw an outline of you and your child on the floor. Then, draw the 7 chakras and how they feel right now. Maybe your child root chakra feels unstable and they draw it very small or they draw a huge heart chakra because they feel full of love.

Creative Mindfulness Activities For Kids No.13

Mindfulness Cootie Catcher

Making a mindfulness cootie catcher is a great creative mindfulness activity for younger kids who are being introduced to mindfulness. Create a basic cootie catcher. On the 4 outer quadrants, put some mindful words like breathe, intention, mindful, awareness, etc. Next, on the 8 middle inner quadrants, put mindful activities like breathwork, yoga, meditation, creativity, journaling, grounding, reflecting, and expressing. Finally, on the 8 inner, and final quadrants, put a mindful activity that they have to do when picked! 

Here are some ideas…

• Take 3 deep breaths and notice how your lungs feel.
• Create a dance move to express how you feel right now
• Check in with your chakras. Do any of them need more attention?
• Make a yoga flow
• 3 rounds of breath of joy
• Do a brain dump. 
• Shake out all your negativity
• Think of 10 things you’re grateful for

Crystals Are The Perfect Addition To Your Child’s Mindfulness!

Related Blogs:

• Top 20 Confidence Affirmations For Kids
• Mindful Eating For Kids
• Tips For Getting Kids To Meditate
• Mindful Gifts For Kids That They Will Be Excited To Receive
• Best Mindfulness Activities For Teens

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