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Stacey came across this book My Magic Breath by Nick Ortner. With mindfulness on her mind she knew it was a PERFECT back to school activity!
The book discusses ways that children (and adults!) can discover peace through the magic of mindful breathing. The illustrations are FANTASTIC and show how we can calm our minds when we are mad, happy, excited, or sad through our magic breath. I felt calmer just after reading through the beautiful pages.
She didn't stop there!
Immediately she knew this was going to be a wonderful art opportunity to remind her students each day the power that they hold in their magic breath. A few quick photos on Friday afternoon in front of the white board and she was ready to read the book on Monday and do this art project.
She asked students to pretend they were blowing out a candle (or a dandelion, whatever works for you) and snapped a picture. They didn't know what the project would be at this point!
She had them printed out over the weekend as actual photographs but if you have access to a color printer regular printing would be just as great too!
On Monday after reading the book and having SO MANY great discussions about feelings she presented each student with their own picture glued to a white piece of paper and some watercolors. Students then painted their own magic breath and the results were AMAZING!
You can see each student used so many colors and different lines to represent their own magic breath. We have so many emotions inside of us everyday!
Right now she has them hanging in their classroom to remind everyone that they have the POWER to calm their own minds with their magic breath.
She even told me that students will stop during a lesson and remind her, "We need to take a magic breath." How powerful is that?
Full disclosure, she couldn't remember if she saw this somewhere first but with a little digging I did find a similar project from Adventures in Kindergarten. It is a great blog to add to your read list if you teach the littles!
She also mentioned that the author, Nick Ortner, has a Facebook post about his book and I loved watching it too! Here is a link to his Facebook live video that explains more about the book and gives us (the grown ups!) some great tips about bringing mindfulness into our lives. Of course now I am following his page because I am obsessed with his positivity!
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Are you looking for more books on the power of mindfulness? Here are some suggestions for you too! My favorites are Sitting Still Like a Frog and I Can Handle It!
Thank you for stopping in today. If you are feeling overwhelmed, take a breath, it can do wonders!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea. I am using the book for a few reasons and this project is just right for an activity.
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