11 Mindfulness Card Games for Kindergarten & Primary Children at School & Home

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Mindfulness card games help children learn to be aware of the present moment, to be focused, calm and happy. This is even more important nowadays when children are overexposed to screens and often develop attention, sleep or anxiety disorders.

So I found 11 mindfulness card games designed for young children that can be played with them by parents, teachers, and therapists:

• 8 mindfulness games such are Mindfulness Games (Artagia) with its breadth of content and the cute Mindful Kids (Barefoot Books)
• 3 meditation games such as The Monkey Mind (Bala Kids)

Mindfulness Card Games Comparison Table   

I recommend 6 mindfulness card games. This table sums up their main features so you can quickly find the one you need.

Game	Age	Price	Mindfulness Themes	Exercises	Rating
Mindfulness Skills for Kids	4-10	$$	Breathing and Awareness Kindness and Gratitude Awareness of Senses Affirmations for Self-Esteem	52	★★★★☆
Mindfulness in a Jar	5‑9	$	(not categorized)	101	★★★☆☆
Mindful Games Activity Cards	4‑15	$$	Concentration Kindness and focus Clear thinking Knowing ourselves Knowing others Finding commonalities	55	★★★★☆
Mindful Kids	4‑12	$$	Start your day Find calm Focus Open your heart Rest and relax	50	★★★★☆
Mindfulness Game	4‑17	$$$	Knowing ourselves Knowing others Yoga Meditation Understand our emotions	150	★★★★★
The Monkey Mind	4-10	$$	Meditation	30	★★★★☆

Recommended Mindfulness Card Games For Kids

Mindfulness Skills for Kids (PESI Publishing & Media)

★★★★☆

Age: 4-10 | For parents, therapists, teachers
Author: Debra Burdick

Mindfulness Skills for Kids card deck includes 52 practices and exercises. The cards are nicely illustrated so small kids are easily attracted to them.

The cards comprise 4 types of Mindful exercises (short activities that make the game easy-to-use):

• Breathing and Awareness
• Kindness and Gratitude
• Awareness of Senses
• Affirmations for Self-Esteem

I highly recommend Mindfulness Skills for Kids because it helps with focus, calming, making lasting connections with others, enjoying life, and self-confidence.

Example cards:

• I love myself – A child should look into the mirror and then look into his face. After smiling, the child should say: “I love you, (his name).” This action should be repeated three times.
• When you were kind – This activity includes naming three situations in which a child was kind. He then needs to say how he felt and to ask himself how he can be kind today.
• Relax like a cat – A child learns how to relax by behaving like a cat and paying attention to their paws, four legs and tightening the face and whiskers.

Mindfulness in a Jar (Free Spirit Publishing)

★★★☆☆

Age: 5-9 | For parents, teachers, counselors
Author: James Butler

Mindfulness in a Jar includes 101 exercises. When children show signs of stress, this game can help them relax, have a better focus and be happier.

I recommend this game as it contains mindfulness techniques that help children connect more with their senses such as hearing, vision, touch, etc. while living in the present moment. When they complete an exercise, the children share their emotions and thoughts about what they noticed while doing an activity. 

Example activities:

• Rectangle Breath – This activity includes breathing, counting and drawing a rectangle with a finger in the air. This exercise practices attention and focus because a child needs to focus to be able to count and draw a rectangle.
• Drums – This action connects children with their hearing sense. The first step is to close the eyes and listen to the drums for a minute.
• Texture – By engaging in this exercise, children learn mindful eating. They need to chew slowly and feel the food textures.

Mindful Games Activity Cards (Shambhala)

★★★★☆

Age: 4-15, but can be used with older children or even adults | For families, therapists, teachers, counselors
Author: Susan Kaiser Greenland and Annaka Harris

Mindful Games Activity Cards includes 4 types of illustrated activity cards 55 in total) that teach children how to focus and manage their emotions:

• Anchor cards for concentration
• Visualization cards for kindness and focus
• Analytical cards for clear thinking
• Awareness cards for better knowing ourselves and others and finding commonalities

I recommend Mindful Games Activity Cards because the instructions for each activity are clear and easy to implement (some of them require specific items that you might not have).

Some activities take only two minutes so that you can do them even if you are busy. For example, Counting breaths can take 2 to 10 minutes.

The only “problem” is that there are only 55 cards (I would like more of them!) and the graphical design is not bad but not very engaging for kids (especially those with specific difficulties might not react very much to it).

Mindful Kids (Barefoot Books)

★★★★☆

Age: 4-12 | For parents, therapists, teachers, counselors
Author: Whitney Stewart

Mindful Kids: 50 Mindful Activities for Kindness, Focus and Calm is an attractive game with superb illustrations and step-by-step simple instructions.

By playing this game children learn to breathe, listen, see, and sit mindfully, and build more grounded personalities. Cards are divided into five categories:

• Start your day
• Find calm
• Focus
• Open your heart
• Rest and relax

I highly recommend Mindful Kids because it is both especially beautiful and the exercises are simple to understand for kids. It is great for reinforcing mindfulness and empathy from a young age, resulting in better mood and control of emotions.

Sample card:         

Joyful Jellyfish – Lie down on a mat or blanket. Relax. Close your eyes and focus on breathing. Feel your muscles sinking into the floor beneath you. Imagine you are a jellyfish and that you are floating freely in the sea – nothing in your way, nothing holding you back. When you are done, rise slowly while keeping your joyful jellyfish heart.

Mindfulness Game (Artagia)

★★★★★

Age: 4-17 | For therapists, teachers, counselors

Mindfulness Game contains three card decks: Guess, Connect and Experiment. The 150 cards include meditations, yoga, competitions, exercises for focus, etc.

The game contains:

• Guess cards include personal questions. Players learn how well they know each other and new facts about their friends (recommended age: 4-7).
• Experiment cards have a practical approach. they apply mindfulness through practicing yoga, meditation, and other similar activities (recommended age: 5-17).
• Connect cards teach to understand yourself, your emotions and to become more mindful. Not only children are encouraged to open up but they also learn a lot about themselves through self-reflection (recommended age: 5-17).

I highly recommend Mindfulness Game because it offers diverse activities and valuable lessons that are taught through real-life situations. For example, what a child would do if he or she were a teacher. The game is great for correcting children’s behavior.

Example cards:

• Guess card: If you were a photographer for a day, what would you take pictures of?
• Experiment card: Choose two players to compete. The players maintain eye contact without blinking and this exercise is good in maintaining focus. The first person to blink loses. The winner gets 1 point.

Other Mindfulness Card Games For Kids

50 Mindfulness Activities is a game designed for children aged 3-10. The activities include mindful eating, listening to sounds, drawing, etc. The deck consists of 50 double-sided cards and one easy-to-understand activities card. The activities are grouped by age and include 4 categories: emotions, senses and focus, breathing and gratitude, and kindness.

Calm – Mindfulness Flash Cards for Kids includes 40 reflective, focus, or calming-oriented activities for children aged 7 to 9. Their very clear and pretty illustrations make the proposed activities easy to understand and practice. The game includes activities such as Rainbow breath and Breathing buddy.

Mindful Moments card deck consists of 50 mindfulness actions that help children ages 4+ recognize good things, beauty, love from others, and unique gifts in the world around them. The deck includes five card categories: Stillness, Grounding, Listening, Community and Strength.

Meditation and Self-Care Card Games For Kids

Meditation and self-care go hand in hand with mindfulness and often use similar techniques.

The Monkey Mind (Shambala)

★★★★☆

Age: 4-10 | For parents, therapists, teachers, counselors
Author: Carolyn Kanjuro

The Monkey Mind meditation deck includes 30 nicely illustrated cards that teach children how to meditate to connect with their inner selves and others.

I recommend this game as it teaches focus and managing emotions. The short meditations on cards help children to practice mindfulness and to be able to deal with and release tense feelings without judging themselves.

The attractive illustrations include animals, children, and other inspirational motifs children can connect to, for example, Golden Sun (Smile like the sun), Mountain (You’re bigger than you think you are), Friendly Firefly (Be a light in the darkness), etc.

Other Meditation and Self-Care Games

Mindfulness Activity Cards teach self-awareness, social awareness, self-management decision making, and relationship skills. The deck includes 39 activities and instructions that are suitable for grades 1-5 and children can do exercises individually or in a group. 

Imagine – Meditation Cards for Kids can be used at school, home, or during a therapy session. The activities on cards are easy to understand and interesting. They help children to feel less stressed, to be happier and joyful, and to learn to live mindfully in the present moment. The deck includes 26 illustrated cards.

Other Types of Emotion-related Games

Understanding emotions is not easy for children and expressing them is a way to practice and strengthen mindfulness. The following post discusses over 30 emotion-related games so click to read it: 30+ Games About Emotions for Preschoolers and Kindergarten.

School Indoor/Outdoor games/activities: when children are spending time outdoors, they can do breathing exercises, close their eyes and focus on senses to just be aware of the present moment.

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