Calming Activities for Children

Movement Activities

• Repetitive and rhythmical movement like rocking in a chair is calming for children. Have your child lie down with his back on a large exercise ball. Roll the ball slowly from side to side to create slow, repetitive movements. When trying to calm hyperactive children down from recess, have them participate in slow stretching exercises. An example is a toe stretch. Instruct the children to reach to the sky and slowly reach down to touch their toes. Alternatively, have them sit on the floor and slowly reach out to touch their toes.

Visual Activities

• Visual activities include reading books or magazines. If you are trying to get a child calm for bed, use a room with few visual distractions. Avoid bright or flashy lights. Use dim to no lighting at all to calm children. Prepare a quiet memory game by printing pictures with a different color on each picture. Place the pictures on a board; tell the children to look closely at the pictures. Tell the kids to lay their heads on their desks and close their eyes while you remove one color. Have the children look back at the board to see what color is missing. The first child to quietly raise her hand and tell you the missing color wins the activity.

Touch Activities

• Instruct the children to lie down on their stomachs. Take a large exercise ball and place it on the child's back. Roll the ball up and down his body while applying a little pressure. This will help the child relax, according to the Zone in Products website. Other touch activities include a vibrating pillow and covering up with a heavy blanket. Children can also sculpt with play dough. Playing in a bucket of uncooked rice, sand or dry beans is also calming for children.

Other Activities

• Other activities include listening to music, such as nature sounds or lullabies. When trying to put children to bed, play music softly in the background with the lights down low. Try a game of sleeping lions by having the children slowly crawl around like lions on the floor. Play soft music in the background. When the music stops, the children must fall over like sleeping lions and not move. Any child caught moving is out of the game. The last child remaining in the games wins.