Wellness day 4 grades K - 3 learning activities

Time: 5 minutes

Trivia question: Think of the answer in your head. What’s the seventh letter of the alphabet?

Mindfulness activity:

• Slowly raise your hands in the air and take a deep breath in.
• Hold it there for 3-5 seconds.
• Now slowly lower your hands to the floor and breathe out as much as you can.

Time: 5-10 minutes

Supplies: 10-15 small items (these could be toy cars, Lego pieces or anything you have in the house)

• Make a small pile of 10-15 items.
• Then, ask your child what they do to calm down when they are feeling stressed, or when they have big emotions.
• For every answer they think of, move one small item into a new pile – these are your child’s Stress Breakers, things that they can do for themselves to feel calm in challenging times.
• The goal is for you child to take all the items from the small pile and move them into the new pile by thinking of new ideas for staying calm.

Time: 10-15 minutes

Stretching our bodies can help us feel calm. For this activity, find a space where your child can move around. Choose one of the animals below and ask them to make up a stretch that looks like that animal. Get them to hold the stretch for 20 seconds.

• Turtle
• Dog
• Cat
• Cow
• Rabbit
• Alligator
• Giraffe
• Lion
• Donkey
• Penguin
• Grizzly Bear
• Flamingo
• Tiger
• Octopus
• Worm
• Dolphin
• Swan
• Caterpillar
• Ladybug
• Hedgehog

Ask your child which animal helped them feel the calmest.​

Time: 5 minutes

Trivia question: Think of the answer in your head. How many letters are in the word "rabbit"?

Mindfulness activity:

• Slowly raise your hands in the air and take a deep breath in.
• Hold it there for 3-5 seconds.
• Now slowly lower your hands to the floor and breathe out as much as you can.

Time: 5-10 minutes

Supplies:

• 3 paper bags
• 3 different nice smelling things (you can use things like peppermint, orange peels, pine needles or essential oils)

• Put a different smell in each paper bag.
• Tie or close the bag so there is a small gap for your child to smell through.
• Ask your child to smell the bag and try to guess what smell is inside.
• When they have guessed all three bags, ask which one helped them feel the calmest.
• Ask them if there are other smells they like, and if any of them help them feel calm.

Time: 5-10 minutes

Tell your child that thinking through tricky questions can help them feel calm. Ask your child to solve the following riddles:

• What is full of holes but still holds water? (A sponge)
• What becomes wetter the more it dries? (A towel)
• What is something you can always count on? (Your fingers)
• What is black and white and blue? (A sad zebra)
• What word is spelled wrong in the dictionary? (Wrong)
• What has to be broken before you can use it? (An egg)
• What starts with “E” but has only one letter? (An envelope)
• Ask your child if they can think of any of their own riddles to ask you

When you're done, ask your child how it feels to think really hard about something. Ask if it makes them feel calm and focused.

Time: 10-15 minutes

Supplies:

• Blank paper
• Crayons or markers

Help your child make a string of paper dolls.

• Fold a piece of paper like an accordion (so it zig zags back and forth).
• Draw half of a person along the folded edge.
• Cut it out the shape.
• Unfold the paper.
• Have your child think of people who help them calm down.
• Then, have your child colour their paper dolls as those people.

Time: 5 minutes

Trivia question: Think of the answer in your head. What happens to water when it gets too cold?

Mindfulness activity:

• Slowly raise your hands in the air and take a deep breath in.
• Hold it there for 3-5 seconds.
• Now slowly lower your hands to the floor and breathe out as much as you can.

Time: 5-10 minutes

Take your child outside. It could be for a short walk, or it could just be on the porch or a balcony.

• With your child, take ten deep breaths of fresh air.
• Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
• Ask you child how they feel after they breathe deeply.

Time: 5 minutes

Supplies:

• Blank paper
• Pencil
• Markers

Activity:

• Ask your child what activity from today helped them feel the calmest.
• Ask them how activities like this help us when we are feeling big emotions.
• Then, have your child draw and colour a picture to show what it’s like to feel calm.

Mindfulness Activity 1: G

Mindfulness Activity 2: 6

Mindfulness Activity 3: It freezes and turns into ice.​