Discover how to make your own Mini Zen Garden. This is a perfect mindful activity for children and adults!
A Zen Garden is a simple item to make with kids and it is absolutely loved by all ages. It is also an easy strategy to help kids relax and calm down after a busy day or stressful time. I also love how it can be used indoors at any time and doesn’t take up much space!
When I think on all the times I’ve done art activities with children, it is truly a time that has allowed for creativity, self-expression and connecting. Our hands were busy, and the creative juices were flowing.
The creativity and self-expression that shines when a child is involved in crafting and creating is important in childhood development.
Merging yoga with craft time will only expand the benefits children receive as they move their bodies and allow imaginations to flow.
Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Games & Activities for Children
How to make your own Mini Zen Garden is included in our new bestselling book, Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Games & Activities includes over 150 activities to keep kids engaged, thinking creatively, and practicing self-expression.
How to Make a Mini Zen Garden:
Supplies:
Baby plates or a container that won’t break easily
sand
rocks, crystals, melted crayon (for jewels!) or any other small item
wooden or plastic fork
Directions:
Add sand to your container. Include rocks, or crystals. Use your rake (fork) to draw designs in the sand.
See More Yoga Crafts and Activities Below:
Conclusion:
When you become inspired through your creating your energy is lifted. Just like yoga, there are a number of benefits that come along with crafting, which is known to help kids develop fine motor skills, teaches children to follow instruction while also allowing them to express themselves, and creates bonds, whether that’s with a parent, teacher, or peer.
Exploring art with children is the perfect way to connect. This is true for all ages!
It is so important to think not just about physical health, but also our emotional and mental health. This is true note only for adults, but especially the kids that we love and care about.
One easy and fun way to increase the well being of kids is through simple art and mindfulness art therapy.
In our newest book; Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Games & Activities, we share our favorite kids yoga crafts and activities. These crafts and activities are perfect for home, school, camps and clubs.
Yoga Mirror is a wonderful game to practice slowing down, mindfulness and working together. I know that kids learn best by doing as opposed to us telling them about how to do it.
With Yoga Mirror, one child gets to be the leader and their partner needs to follow them exactly. This is empowering and fun for kids!
How to Play Yoga Mirror:
With Yoga Mirror, one child gets to be the leader and their partner needs to follow them exactly.
The leader needs to move very very slowly so their partner can keep up. It is almost as if you are looking into a mirror and seeing the movements happen at the same time.
I like to have the partners begin facing one another.
Model how slow they will move such as raising one hand and then the other, rolling their neck or looking up at the ceiling.
Once they have that mastered they can begin moving slowing into Cat/Cow stretches, Warrior 1 or other poses that allow them to still face one another so they can keep track of what is happening.
By letting kids take a turn being in charge and making decisions on what poses they are going to do, allows a deeper level of understanding. It is the simple act of doing, rather than telling.
Be sure to jump in and play along too. That makes it even extra special. How often do children get to lead and have adults follow? They love it!
Allow children to change who is the leader and follower each time.
Allow each turn to last 45 seconds to a minute. They do not need long!
How to Play Quiet Ball: A Mindfulness Game for Children:
Number of Players: 4+
Materials: Small ball (or other seasonal type balls; beach ball, soccer ball, etc)
Recommended Ages: 5 and up
How to play
Have the children sit in a circle. Depending on the ages of the kids, determines how far away everyone sits. The younger the ages, the closer they sit together.
One child gets to toss the ball to anyone they wish as long as that person is quiet and paying attention.
The ball is continually passed around the circle with each person making eye contact to the person they will pass it to.
The ball cannot be passed to someone who is not paying attention because they will may not to catch it.
See how long you can keep the ball going without it being dropped.
Leader Notes:
If I am playing this game at school, I would allow the children to sit on top of their desks or tables. How often do they get to do that? That alone ups the fun factor for sure!
To sometimes change the game up, I also have the class count aloud to see how many times we can catch it in a row without dropping the ball.
This doesn’t necessarily keep the game quiet, but it does provide a change in pace and definitely keeps everyone paying attention.
More Favorite Kids Yoga Games
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Kids love playing yoga games and it is a wonderful way to build strength, teamwork, flexibility and have fun moving their bodies in good and healthy ways.
Find your FREE Games Guide with directions, game downloads, resources and more.
Do you remember as a kid playing a game where you cannot touch the ground at the park or playground?
The Hot Lava Yoga Game is similar to that, but played with yoga mats. It one of the most popular yoga game for the kids! They love to play Hot Lava and cannot get enough.
Thisis a wonderful game to get bodies moving, hearts pumping and smiles on faces while they practice the yoga poses that they just learned.
Place yoga mats in a circle so they are stepping distance apart. Here is where I find my Kid-Sized Yoga Mats.
Place a Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cardat the top of each mat. Play music. Players go in a circle being careful not to touch the floor (hot lava). When the music stops, they must stay on the mat they are on and make the yoga pose.
Leader Notes: This is a fun game for all ages. The younger children tend to stay at the top of the mats so the distance is not as far. The older children enjoy leaping from one mat to another from the back of the mats.
I do not generally have the children get out “out” if they are the last one to make their yoga pose. The goal is after all to get the children moving in positive ways, practice yoga poses, and have fun.
Welcome to our Summer Yoga Games for Children, I’m so happy that you’re here! Welcome to the first of our yoga games for preschoolers.
Grab your FREE Summer Yoga Games Guide with directions, poses and downloads.
Be a Bubble a mindfulness game that I play with my younger aged yoga students. This game is perfect for kids ages 2-5 years old and they love this mindfulness game. It also teaches them body awareness and respecting one another’s personal space.
This game is a lot of fun because kids get to pretend, they get to move their bodies in good and healthy ways, plus you get to incorporate bubbles which is always a good time!
This game and dozens of others are found in our new book, Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Games & Activities for Children. This bestselling mindfulness book includes over 150 yoga games. Be a Bubble is included in the mindfulness chapter of this book.
First introduce Bubble Breath or Bubble Breathing. Have kids think about how they would blow a big bubble. They will need to breathe in and then they exhale. They’re going to pretend to blow a big bubble. The greater the exhale then they are going to have and the bigger bubble!
Have the children move their hands and arms to show how they are blowing the bubble and how big it gets. So breathe in then they’re blowing the bubble. And that is a great way to practice breathing exercises with be a bubble.
Practicing our Bubble Breathing
After Bubble Breathing, it is time to get the kids moving! Have a Bubble Dance! Play music, use real bubbles, and blow them into the center of the dance floor.
Let the kids dance and try to stomp on the bubbles. Let them try to catch them on their hand, on their elbow, on their knee, on their foot, on their head, on their nose, let them try to catch bubbles on different places and body parts. They love this!
After the Bubble Breathing and the Bubble Dance, it is time to bring down the energy a little bit. and play the Mindfulness Game with Be a Bubble. I would tell the children that they have already played with bubbles and they know what happens if we are too rough with it. It pops!
Now it is time to pretend to be a bubble. We don’t want our bubble to pop, so everyone needs to blow up their bubble really big. Now let’s put ourselves into it. Be very careful! Now everyone needs to walk very mindfully and carefully around the room.
Play some slower music, quieter music and I would demonstrate tiptoeing and moving quietly. I don’t want my bubble to pop, I don’t want to bump into anyone or anything, I want to be mindful of my own space.
This is also a great way to teach kids about being mindful of their own bodies, their personal space and other people’s personal space.
When the music stops, have the kids stay “inside their bubble. It is time to make a yoga pose. So this is tons of fun and it’s a great way to practice both mindfulness and yoga poses. So some great ones for kids, I would have from our Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards which include 40 kid-friendly yoga poses and games.
Call out the pose that everyone can make and show the corresponding Yoga Pose Card Visual. For example, “Everyone moves into Chair Pose. The kids would very carefully make their Chair Pose inside their Bubble. They must be careful not to be too rough, as they don’t want their bubble to pop.
Now we are going to go into a Tree Pose and the kids would practice holding that pose “inside their bubble”.
Be very careful to hold Tree Pose inside your bubble so it does not pop!
Next turn the music would turn on again and the children would resume moving around carefully and trying not letting their bubble pop.
This is a great game to bring the energy level back down, bring mindfulness back in and the younger kids love this.
Go Go Yoga for Kids: Yoga Games & Activities for Children
The Kids Yoga Challenge Pose Cards
