Stop and smell the flowers with this Flower Breathing mindfulness activity! Come learn how to take deep breaths that help you feel calm. This activity combines mindfulness and sensory experiences to create a great way for elementary school-aged children to learn a new way to practice taking deep breaths. It is a relaxing way to calm down, take it slow, and feel better when experiencing difficult emotions.
Supplies:
Paper
Markers/Crayons/Colored Pencils
Before we start, make sure all of your materials are ready! You should have a piece of paper and something to draw with nearby!
Step 1: Before we learn how to Flower Breathe, we first need to draw a flower! For this step, we need a piece of paper and something to draw with. We are going to draw a big flower with six petals. First, we will draw a stem starting at the bottom of our paper up towards the middle of our paper. You can add leaves on the stem if you want to!
Step 2: Then, we will draw the flower on top of the stem. To do this, I drew a circle for the middle of my flower. Then, I drew 6 U-shapes attached to the circle as my petals. You can leave your flower drawing as just an outline or color it in.
Step 3: Next, draw a curved arrow around each flower petal. We will use these arrows later to help us take deep breaths!
Step 4: Now that our flower is drawn, we can learn how to use this flower to practice taking deep breaths. This might sound silly at first, why would we need to practice taking breaths if we breathe every day, right? But taking deep breaths is something that doesn’t always come easily to people. It is also very helpful to practice because it can be relaxing and calming. It is great to practice so that you can try taking deep breaths the next time you feel upset, nervous, sad, or angry to help make you feel a little bit better. Let’s practice taking some deep breaths before we use the flower to help us. One way I know that I’m taking deep breaths is to put one hand on my chest and one on my belly. As you breathe in, you will feel your chest and belly rise. When you breathe out, you will feel your chest and belly fall.
Step 5: So how will we use the flower that we drew to help take deep breaths? We are going to trace the petals with our fingers! We will trace two flower petals while taking a deep breath in. Then, we will take a deep breath out when we trace the next two flower petals. We will keep tracing the petals for a few minutes to practice these deep breaths! Remember, if tracing two petals feels like you are waiting too long to take a breath in or out, DON’T keep breathing at this pace. Instead, trace just one petal for each breath, or even half of a petal (example: trace up the petal while breathing in, down the petal while breathing out). This activity is meant to make our bodies feel good and relaxed, not to feel like we are holding our breath!
You can continue tracing and breathing for as long as you’d like. I usually do it for a few minutes until I am feeling a little calmer. I hope you enjoyed learning how to flower breathe with me! You can do this activity with lots of other shapes and drawings too. What other shapes/drawings could you use to practice deep breathing in the future?
~Made by Maddie W.