This 5 senses scavenger hunt helps the body and mind calm down and come into the present moment, especially when feeling scared, worried, anxious or stressed.
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Fall Scavenger Hunt Makes Great Nature Break
Our autumn-themed scavenger hunt is a great way to get kids outdoors and makes a wonderful Mindful Recess or Nature Break.
Make a Nature Paintbrush to Create Kindness Cards
Nature and art make perfect companions in this sensory outdoor project. First you’ll use your keen observation skills to collect natural materials outside. Next, you’ll use those items to create a Nature Paint Brush. Finally, you’ll paint beautiful Kindness Cards to send to seniors, delivery people, and the people you love and care about. Let’s get started!
Notice the Good: Dressing Paper Cut Outs in Nature
While free play outdoors is always a good option for kids, making outdoor time mindful offers additional benefits, like easing anxiety and boosting feelings of calm. This simple Clothing Cut Out project is an engaging activity to do with kids that combines art and the outdoors while helping them tap into mindfulness through their sense of sight.
Notice & Soak Up the Good In Your Garden
As we move through another week of quarantine in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus, I’m definitely feeling the effects of being house-bound and out of physical contact with my extended family and friends. While I’m coming to accept this new normal, I’m also experiencing a pretty consistent level of anxiety (anyone else having a hard time sleeping?).
Grounding Nature Name Game
With the pandemic keeping us inside more hours than I’m used to, walking outside has become a necessity – and not just physically.
Rainbow Walk: Sense of Sight Grounds Us
Taking a Rainbow Walk is a simple, fun way to practice mindfulness with Littles using our sense of sight. Focusing on the world through a single sense is a powerful way to anchor our awareness...
A Heart-Filled Treasure Hunt
How To Do It
This activity directs us to use our sense of sight to uncover what might not be readily seen. Step outside — or if the weather’s not exactly cooperating, you can try this indoors. Taking a picture of each find is a great way to tally up how many hearts you see.
Encourage your little one to look high and low, behind and under different objects: does the bark on that tree grow in a cool pattern? What’s under that pile of leaves?
If snow currently blankets your world, it might be more challenging to find heart shapes. Instead, create treasures for each other to find. Gather sticks of different lengths and lay them out in a heart or use one to draw a heart in the snow. Paint flat rocks with colorful hearts to leave around the neighborhood for others to find or if it’s a clear day, search out heart-shaped cloud formations.
The Power of Observation
When kids turn on their powers of observation, they often come up with delightful insights and share a perspective we might miss. On a recent treasure hunt with my 7-year-old daughter she showed me how simply changing your perspective reveals the unexpected.
A dormant vine clinging to the side of our house didn’t seem like much at first, but when my daughter noticed the way a thin branch curved and looped, she adjusted her point of view until it blended with the rest of the leafless plant to look like a heart (see the photo above for a sample of our finds and a hand-made creation).
Now, when we step outside, we see “found hearts” all around us and point out new ones when we walk the dog or play in the park. Noticing new hearts as the seasons change is especially exciting and motivating. Enjoy your heart-shaped hunt!
The Science Behind the Smiles
Besides enjoying the benefits of fresh air, being outdoors together is a great time to be in the moment with your child and notice the ways nature helps us use our senses to connect with the environment.
How to Tap Into Your Five Senses to Find Peace and Be Present (Shape)
Outdoor Sound Hunt: Sense of Hearing Anchors
An Outdoor Sound Hunt is exactly what it sounds like: you walk, hike or sit with your kiddos outside, stay (relatively) quiet and try to "hunt" or notice all the different sounds you hear. This...
