Today’s resource is a free printable Fall Leaves Deep Breathing exercise. This printable breathing exercise handout is a great way to work on mindfulness with a Fall leaves theme! Add this therapy resource to your Fall therapy activities and breathing exercises for kids as a self-regulation tool designed to help kids thrive and build skills.
Fall Leaves Deep Breathing Exercise
This free printable can be used with our other deep breathing activities as a self-regulation strategy for kids. Deep breathing is a powerful tool for calming the body as a coping mechanism. When you add a themed breathing exercise to the mix, it can be a fun way to focus on the regulation strategies kids need.
To use this mindfulness exercise, kids (and adults) can point to the dots on the Fall leaves image. Trace the arrow as the child breathes in deeply. They should pause at the end of the arrow and hold their breath. Then, trace along the next arrow while slowly breathing out. They can continue around the image as they slowly breathe in and out.
This slowed breathing with a pause at the end of the breath fosters breath control and allows the heart rate to slow, engaging the diaphragm for full, “belly breaths” allow for controlled breathing and is helpful in allowing children to reach a calm and alert state so they can focus.
Add this Fall leaves breathing exercise to these Fall themed activities in therapy:
- Fall slide deck for virtual sessions
- Fall fine motor activities for hands-on play
- Fall Fine Motor Kit for fine motor skill work, crafts, handwriting, and more
Free Fall Mindfulness Printable
Want to print off this mindfulness exercise to use in your therapy sessions, at home, or in the classroom? Enter your email address into the form below to grab this printable.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.