Sniff and Puff
When Peppa Pig feels upset or out of control, she counts to calm down!
She’s not the only one who needs to calm down before she can fix problems. Many of us — kids and adults — need to practice calming down before we can be ready to use words to solve problems.
Sniff and Puff or another calm down activity from Big Heart World can help children calm down so that they’re ready to “use their words” to solve problems.
Parent/Caregiver Tip: When we tell children to “use your words,” we are assuming that they know the right words to use in a given situation and have the self regulation skills to stop and think before acting. Instead of prompting them with a pat phrase like, “use your words,” your child may need your help to calm down first, and then might need help finding the right words to use.
Instructions
- Let's calm down like Peppa! We can hold up our hands with our palms open. Let’s pretend that one hand has 5 beautiful flowers, one for each finger, and the other hand has 5 birthday candles, one for each finger.
- Let's smell our flowers. We can use one big sniff to smell them all or 5 little sniffs and smell each one.
- Now, let’s blow out our birthday candles. We can blow them all out with one big puff, or use 5 little puffs to blow out each one.
- Let's try again. Do you like to use 5 small breaths or one big breath?
Vocabulary
Materials
- Feather or toilet/tissue paper
Instructions
- Let's play a breathing game to calm down just like Peppa. Cup your hands together and hold them close to your mouth.
- I'll place a small feather or a 1 inch piece of tissue paper in your palms.
- Now, take a deep breath and blow out slow and steady onto your feather. Can you make it dance in your palms without falling or blowing away? It takes practice!
