This mindfulness section is quite long. To better accommodate you, it has been split into multiple sections which you can explore on your own time (not necessarily all in one sitting).

• Physical Care
• Mental Care
• Nutrition Care
• Sleep Care
• Little Self-Care Reminders
• Craft Activity

Physical Care

Exercise is a major factor when it comes to physical care. You not only build important muscles but also your immune system! Scientists have shown proof that exercising for 15-30 minutes a day can protect yourself from threatening viruses and/or infections. With children, it is even more important that they stay active. Children are growing and thus need to keep moving their muscles as they get taller and stronger!

To get moving and start building a strong self-care routine it is nice to have some activities under your belt. Here are two that you can try out.

Discovering Nature

Next time you go for a walk or run (do it now if you have the time!), spend 2-3 minutes focusing on your 5 senses. Clear your mind. Breathe. Pay attention to what you see, hear, and smell.
Remember to relax, take a deep breath, and keep a clear mind.
Be sure to discuss with someone about your experience on your mindfulness walk.

A Day at the Zoo (Group Activity)

If you like animals, this game is for you! With this game, we bring the zoo to you! Learn something new and get your sillies out playing this fun game that gets you moving!
Lets do some research:

1. Visit the Toronto Zoo Website and explore the different dropdown elements of the “Animals and Plants” tab at the top.
2. Choose 4 to 5 regions for your group to study and divide them up to the people playing. Each person will research 1 or 2 regions. The role of each person is to create a list of animals for each region and learn a little bit about each animal.

Note: Don’t try to learn everything about each animal, pay attention to what they look like, what they eat, and the kind of habitat they live in. You may also take notes if you are worried about forgetting.

Game On!

1. Nominate one person as the “zookeeper” and all the others as the “zoo animals“.
2. The “zookeeper” describes where the group is going throughout the zoo. They start with the first exhibit everyone must see as the ___ exhibit”. The “zookeeper” names an exhibit they studied earlier: e.g., Africa, Americas, Australia, etc.
3. The “zookeeper” will narrate the kinds of animals that will be seen in these exhibits by looking at their list. Go through one animal at a time and describe what the animals are doing (this is when you remember what the animal looked like, what it eats and where it lives). The “animals” must act out this action and attempt to make the sounds and movemements that animal would make at the actual zoo!

Mental Care

Close your eyes and imagine your brain like any other muscle in your body. To grow big and strong you need to push yourself to run faster, lift heavier, and sweat! If you do not challenge your brain to get stronger, faster and allow it to think differently, it will never grow. Some activities you can use to strengthen your brain include: puzzles, suduko, word search, board / card games, art-making (learning a new art technique), doing anything that challenges your brain and especially something you’ve never done before.

Here are some fun memory games that will definitely help challenge and strengthen your brain:

Thieves and Detectives Eye Spy (2+ people)

Goals of this game:

1. Learn to notice the world around you.
2. Encourage you to be more present in your surroundings.
3. Train your mind to notice changes.
   Directions:
4. Pick a location with many objects around.
5. Choose one person to be the thief and everyone else the detectives.
6. Have everyone sit and look around for 20 seconds, they should try to remember everything they see.
7. The detectives close their eyes while the thief removes one object from the room and puts it away out of sight.
8. Each detective gets a chance to identify what is missing.
9. If the detectives fail to identify what’s missing, the thief gives a clue about its size, shape or what it does.
10. Continue until it is identified.
11. If the hidden object is identified by a detective without needing any clues, they become the new thief.
12. Put back the object and start the next round!

Note: If you run out of objects you can play a more difficult variation – instead of removing the object entirely, you just move it either to a different location or turn it around at least a ¼ turn (minimum 90degrees) where it is.
Variation: If you find that there are too many objects in your home that it may be too difficult, choose 10 random objects and set them up on the floor in front of you and play the same game but only with these objects!

Mental Pictures (2+ people)

1. Place a minimum of 5 random small objects on the floor in front of you.
2. Give everyone a minute to try to memorize all the objects in front of you.
3. Throw a covering (blanket or towel works) over the objects.
4. Give everyone 30 seconds to write down all the objects the remember.
5. For each object that you identify correctly, give yourself a point.
6. Repeat for 5 rounds and change out all or some objects each round.
7. Tally up your points!

Note: This game is difficult for the best of minds. If you find yourself getting frustrated with how you are doing, or getting a little too competitive, take a moment to identify your emotions, assess how you are expressing them, and question if it is appropriate. Is there a productive way you can express your emotions? Talk about it with the group.
Below is a video to explain the game with visuals!

Nutrition Care

It is important to keep your body fed whilst also maintaining a healthy and balanced diet. You can try out the “Create Your Own Plate” activity … after some light research of course!

1. Look at Canada’s Food Guide on the government website.
2. Look at the plate pictures and the recommendations offered on the home page. Think about what your meals usually look like on your plate, do you follow these reccomendations? Are things different?

Did you know that it is far better to eat your fruit rather than drink fruit juice from the store? Fruit juice contains the sugar from multiple fruits all together in one cup, when normally your wouldn’t be able to eat all the fruit it’s made from in one sitting. Additionally, when you eat your fruit you get all the healthy fibre in the skin of your fruit. Juices usually take this out!
Did you also know that pop drinks contain refined sugars which are not from its natural source like fruits. If you drink pop regularly, consider drinking carbonated water that doesn’t contain these unhelthy sugars. Look for drinks with natural sweeteners and flavouring.

Create Your Own Plate

Ready for an activity? See the pictures below to see what you will be making.

1. Gather the following the materials:
   1. Tissue paper
   2. Coloured paper
   3. Any colouring pencils/markers
2. On a blank piece of paper, create a half section and two quarter sections (similar to the plate on Canada’s Food Guide).
3. Chat with an adult about what foods go in each section and why they are in the portion sizes they are.
4. Draw, colour, paint, or paste coloured tissue paper on the sections to represent what fods that add to each section. This is your plate, be creative and add foods you would enjoy eating!

Time to reflect and compare!

1. Check and make sure you’ve put all your foods in the right spot. Compare your plate with someone else in your home, do you enjoy similar foods?
2. Were you hoping to put more foods down but didn’t have enough room?
3. Ask yourself why Canada’s Food Guide recommends those specific portions for different foods?
4. What colours do you see on your plate, are they only in certain sections, or are all sections colourful?

Next time you go to a grocery store, think about trying something new that Canada’s Food Guide recommends!

Mindfulness Activity

Remember when you did the nature activity? If you skipped it, go back and do it first! Think about how that made you feel. Let’s put some of that practice to use with our senses (this time including taste)! Before you dig into a meal today, take the oppurtunity to test your senses and expand your vovabulary to describe what you sense.

1. Take a few deep breathes (discuss your answers with the person you’re sharing your meal with) Sniff the food you are about to eat, what does it smell like?
2. Look at the food, what do you notice about its texture, is it soft or hard, mushy or crunchy? Wha about its colour, does it look like a desert or a rainbow?
3. Take a small bite and chew slowly, what do you taste, is it sweet or salty? Tart or sour? Spicy or bland? Can you identify some of the flavours?
4. Swallow your food, do you feel any sensations through your body as you eat it?

Was this different than the way you normally eat? Can you eat your whole snack or meal like this? What benefits are there to being more thoughtful about what we are eating?

Sleep Care

With a proper sleep schedule, you can sleep well throughout the night and wake up feeling totally refreshed. A solid 8-10 hours of sleep each night is reccomended for most children. Factor sleep into your daily schedule by going to sleep at a certain time and wake up to an alarm to avoid over sleeping. Here are some things to remember when trying to get a good nights sleep:

• Be intentional with your routine. Plan to settle down for the night at a certain time and avoid straining your eyes, brain, and body during this time.
• Science of screens: One major brain over-stimulator and eye-strainer is any technology with a screen. The light from the screen stimulates your brain which keeps it active when it should be winding down for the night.
• A morning routine is just as important as a bedtime routine; it is equally important to wake up at the same time every day. When you wake up, do something you enjoy to start off on the right foot and get the day moving!

Little Self-Care Reminders

Craft Activities:

Album Cover

BRAINSTORM

1. First think of an album name, what positive words best describe you? You may choose to create a phrase with this word(s), make it fun! Write this in the centre of a blank piece of paper in a creative way. 
2. Think of how you want your cover to look. Plan your colour scheme, and the shapes and designs you want to include. 

CREATE:

1. 1. Use any materials you have at home from crayons, markers, to paint and pastels! You could even choose to create your design using pieces of cut up paper from newspapers, magazines, whatever you want! Use what speaks to you, and create what you want!