Mindful Breathing with Kids (Free Printable Cards)

When we experience stressful events, our body goes into “fight, flight or freeze” mode. Different sensations in our body come up, such as a heart rate increase, breathing more shallow, stomach aches, and more. When our body feels this way then difficult behaviors are also likely to appear.

When kids get into this body state, and we try to come to them with logic, it is not going to be effective. Helping them to integrate the emotional and logical parts of their brain through breathing can be very helpful.

+ Slow breathing anchors us to the present

+Reduce stress and anxiety

Let’s Go Through Each One

(at the end you can download your own set of printable cards)

Stuffed Animal Breathing

Have your child lay down on their back. Put a stuffed animal on their belly. Breathe in and move the stuffed animal up. Breathe out and bring the stuffed animal down. This helps teach kids to use their bellies to take big deep breaths.

Feather Breathing

Have your child hold a feather. Take a deep breath in. Slowly blow down one side of the feather, then the other. You can do this with just your finger as well.

Snake Breathing

Have your child breathe in. Pause briefly, then breathe out slowly while you make a hissing sound for as long as you can. Optional: add your hands moving slowly like a snake.

5-5-10

Breathe in for 5. Hold for 5. Breathe out for 10.

5 Finger Breathing

Have child stretch one-hand open. Hold up pointer finger from the other hand. Use the pointer to trace each finger as you breathe in. When you get to the top breathe out your mouth as you trace down the other side. Repeat for all fingers.

Volcano Breathing

Pretend your hands and arms are like lava flowing from a volcano. Start with your hands

in front of your heart, with palms touching. Keeping your hands together, reach straight up and breathe in. Separate your hands and move your arms down to your side and breathe out.

Whale Breathing

Sit up tall and take a deep breath in, Hold it while you count to 5 with your fingers then tilt your head up to blow it out of the blowhole.

Bumblebee Breathing

Breathe in and pretend you are smelling a flower. As you breathe out, make a humming bee sound.

How to use these cards:

Teach Proactively: Start with one of these exercises. Practice it in the mornings, at lunch, before bedtime… use it throughout the day.

Prompt when Triggered: Then when children start to experience a stressful event and move toward fight/flight mode you can remind them “let’s do some whale breaths” or just hold up the breathing card

Breathing isn’t an attempt to change the feeling or dismiss the feeling. It’s just helping their body to get present and willing to experience the emotion without the difficult behaviors.