Help your child calm their body and mind with the Mindful Star Maze from Learn with Sesame Street! With Elmo as a guide, kids practice tracing, breathing, and reflecting—building healthy strategies for working through big feelings.
Materials Needed:
🖨️ Printed maze (laminate or place in a sheet protector for reuse)
🖍️ Crayons, markers, or colored pencils
⏱️ Time Needed: 5 minutes
👩👧 Best As: A do-together activity (modeling and guidance help children learn the strategy)
How to Use:
- Print the star maze.
- Optional: Have your child color the page.
- Model it first: trace one side of the star while taking a slow breath in, then trace the next side while breathing out.
- Say “ This tool can help us find calm when we have BIG feelings. Let’s practice this together now so that when we have big feelings, we will already know how to use it. It’s like adding a tool to our calm-down toolkit!”
- Invite your child to join in, tracing and breathing with you.
- Continue around the star until complete, then pause to reflect together on how you feel.
- You might say: “[Put hand on your chest]. My heart isn’t beating really fast anymore. This helped me calm my body. How do you feel?”
- Practice during calm moments, so your child builds the calming strategy before they need it in harder times.
- Keep the tool in a place your child can find it when they need it.
Build mindfulness, strengthen self-regulation, and give your child a calming strategy they can carry anywhere!
Why Mindfulness Matters for Growing Minds
As your child traces each side of the star, breathe in and out together, then talk about how you both feel afterward. Practicing mindfulness in calm moments prepares kids to use this strategy when big emotions come up—turning the maze into a powerful tool they can carry with them.
✨ Want to make it even more meaningful? Let your child color the star before using it, or keep a copy in your bag so they have a calming tool ready to go wherever they are.
Meet the app that helps kids 2–5 navigate big feelings with the help of their Sesame Street friends!
Get Started TODAY with Learn with Sesame Street!
