Mindfulness- Book and activity ideas

Books for use in small groups, class lessons and with individual students to encourage mindfulness.

Partner any of these titles with my mindfulness activity set.

Don’t forget to get parents and teachers involved. Share with them my mindfulness brochure.

You can also pair any of these books with the Breathing Bubbles or any of these great apps. These also go great with Class Dojo’s Mindfulness Activities.

I Am Peace: A Book Of Mindfulness by Susan Verde and Peter Reynolds

This book is beautiful! The illustrations are classic Peter Reynolds- color and capturing. Susan Verde did a great job of capturing what it means to be mindful. It’s the perfect book for mindfulness and easy for kids to follow along.

Activity: Walk your students through a grounding exercise or some deep breathing from Go Noodle.

Sitting Still Like a Frog: Mindfulness Exercises for Kids (and Their Parents) by Eline Snel

Cover art

This book if full of mindfulness exercises you can walk students through. It even comes with a CD to help you.

Puppy Mind by Andrew Jordan Nanc

Screen Shot 2018-06-15 at 3.55.42 PM.png “In this picture book for children and adults, a young boy discovers his mind is like a puppy, always wandering away, into the past or the future. He sets about learning to train his puppy mind to heel to the present moment. Through remembering to breathe, the boy becomes a stronger and more caring master of his puppy mind, keeping it in the present, if only for a moment.”- Amazon

Activity: If your school does morning meetings, encourage your teachers to include these Mindful Morning activities by Counselor Chelsey. For small groups check out Counselor Keri’s Zen Kids pack.

What Does It Mean To Be Present? byRana DiOrio and Eliza Wheeler

Mindfulness isn’t about taking a nap, it’s about focusing on the present moment. By focusing on the “now” and not what has happened or will happen, we can focus on how are feeling in any given moment and strengthen the mind/body connection.

Activity: Ask students to focus in and center themselves with this simple activity.

Name 5 things you can see

Name 4 things you can feel/touch

Name 3 things you can smell

Name 2 things you can hear

Name 1 thing you can taste

ABC Mindful Me by Christiane Engel

Having a hard time explaining mindfulness? This book is for you. It’s basically a dictionary for mindfulness.

Activity: Try out a new letter each day or month.

Listening To My Body by Gabi Garcia

Teaching kids to stop and check in with their body is a key foundation in the mind/body connection. It also helps them stop and check in before they react. Are they angry or hurt? Are they sad or hungry?

Activity: Ask students to put their hands on their hearts and check in with their heart beat. Is it slow or fast? Now, shift the focus to the breathe. Is it slow or fast? Did your breath change when you checked in? If you slow your breath what happens to your heart rate?