Wise Owl Mindfulness Activities for Children, Teens & Families: Look, Listen and Pause
Four gentle owl themed mindfulness activities for autumn: Hello Owl Eyes, Wise Owl Mind, Tune In Your Owl Ears and the I Can Choose Wisely affirmation, with HERE's Wise Owl pack.
Jen and Dana, HERE co-founders · · 4 min read
As the evenings draw in, this gentle collection of mindful activities invites children, teens and families to slow down and tune in to the season. Take your lead from the owl: look with soft owl eyes, listen with careful owl ears, and pause with a wise owl mind before you respond.
Inside, you'll find simple settling practices, a visualisation, a mindful reminder and a calming affirmation to help support big feelings and quiet moments alike.
Why the owl is a good guide to mindfulness for children
Owls are an autumn animal, most active as the evenings grow longer. They are known for wide, watchful eyes, sharp hearing and a stillness before they move. Those three qualities, looking, listening and pausing, are the heart of mindfulness, and the owl gives children an easy picture to remember them by.
Four owl mindfulness activities for children, teens and families
Hello Owl Eyes: a settling activity to start the day or session
A joyful opener to the day or session. This simple settling activity welcomes children into the space and encourages gentle eye contact with one another.
- Sit up tall.
- Bring your thumb and first finger together over each eye to make owl eyes.
- Peek through and look around at everyone in the room, saying "hellooooo" just like an owl would.
It helps encourage eye contact across the group and breaks down any initial barriers, which makes it a good first moment for a new group or a new term.
Wise Owl Mind: a pause before you respond, for teens
A moment to breathe before you respond. A simple pause reminder to help teens slow down, breathe and choose how to respond.
The part of our brain that helps us think things through, the prefrontal cortex, is still growing through the teenage years. That means quick decisions and big emotions can sometimes take over before we've had time to think, and we may react in ways we don't really mean. In those moments, switch on your wise owl mind:
- Take a breath.
- Look at the situation.
- Choose how you want to respond.
Provider note: for teens, you can invite them to share a time a pause would have helped, but let them opt out.
Tune In Your Owl Ears: a mindful listening visualisation
A visualisation for tuning into the senses. Read the script slowly, in a calm voice.
- Sit quietly and close your eyes. Imagine you are an owl perched on a branch in a quiet, peaceful forest. Owls are very good at hearing what's around them, so let's try the same.
- Take a few really deep breaths in through the nose, filling the whole body and feeling your feathers rise. Gently breathe out, settling even more onto the branch.
- Two more times together: a big breath in, sitting up tall, and breathe it out. One last time: a calm breath in, and a slow, soft breath out.
- Now, sitting quietly, notice what sounds are around you for the next minute. Whatever you hear, quiet, loud, close or far, just notice it in your mind.
Provider note: after one minute, ask what they noticed. In a group, take turns sharing.
I Can Choose Wisely: a daily affirmation for big feelings
A daily affirmation to say together, or quietly to yourself, at the start of the day or whenever feelings run big:
“I can pause, breathe, and choose wisely.”
It pairs well with Wise Owl Mind: the pause is the practice, and the affirmation is the reminder to come back to it.
Who the wise owl activities are for: home, school and group settings
Children, teens and the adults who support them: parents and carers, educators, family hub teams, counsellors and wellbeing professionals. Hello Owl Eyes and Tune In Your Owl Ears suit younger children and groups, Wise Owl Mind is written with teens in mind, and the affirmation works at any age.
Download the Wise Owl activity pack to print or share
All four activities are together in one free pack, ready to read on screen, print for a classroom or share with a family.
More mindfulness activities for children, teens and families
Every activity here sits within HERE's reviewed activity library. If you are looking for something for a particular moment, describe it to Noa and Noa will suggest activities from the library.
