With Christmas right around the corner, I thought I would share 3 Relaxing Festive Gingerbread Activities for Kids. So get cosy as you’ll be settling down to a Relaxation Story, practicing muscle relaxation, chocolate button breaths and then getting busy in the kitchen with our favourite gingerbread man recipe.
Related Post: {9 Calming Christmas Activities for Kids}
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{Click Here for Free Button Breaths Poster}
3 Relaxing Festive Gingerbread Activities for Kids
The first two activities can be found in my relaxation story, ‘The Relaxed Gingerbread Man’. You’ll find the activities for the Gingerbread Man Button Breaths and the ‘Scrunch, Crunch and Crumble‘ progressive muscle relaxation activity for kids.
You can find the audio available on both YouTube and Insight Timer. So get cosy a settle down for a 10 minutes of relaation. Then I’ll go into more detail on how to practice the exercises next.
{Related Post: Hot Chocolate Breaths – Playful Breathing for Kids}
Activity One: Gingerbread Man Button Breaths
Gingerbread man button breaths is based on the breathing technique of counting breaths and is a lovely grounding, mindfulness activity for kids to try. I’ve also created a free printable which you can download and use with your children.
The use of touch is a great way for kids to stay focused on counting their breaths.
- Print off the Gingerbread Man Breaths poster.
- Point to the first button and breathe in and breathe out slowly.
- Next point to the second button and breathe in and out slowly.
- Finally, point to the third button and breathe in and out slowly.
- Then colour in your gingerbread man and display him proudly.
Activity Two: Scrunch, Crunch and Crumble Progressive Muscle Relaxation
After you have practiced your button breaths, then its time to try out the, ‘Scrunch, crunch and Crumble Muscle Relaxation. You can follow the script below, listen to the audio and follow it or I have even created a fun printable game to practice ths activity with.
Gingerbread Man Printable Game
- First, Crunch and scrunch your toes as tight as you can. Then, relax them as if they were a crumbling biscuit.
- Then crunch and scrunch your legs, make them as tense as you can.Now, relax them, let them crumble like a biscuit.
- Now Crunch and scrunch your hands and arms, squeeze them.Then, relax and crumble, like a crumbly biscuit.
- Then your neck and shoulders, scrunch your shoulders to your ears. Now let your shoulders fall like crumbs and your neck relax.
- Now your face, scrunch your scrunch your nose. Crunch your eyes.Then let your face be all crumbly. Let it relax.
- Now close your eyes and tense up your whole body. Imagine that you are an overbaked gingerbread man. Very, very crunchy. That’s it! Crunch and scrunch. Then crumble. It’s time to completely relax, crumble, crumble, crumble, crumble….
Activity Three: Baking Gingerbread Men
This week we dusted off the gingerbread man cutter and made some gingerbread men, inspired by the Relaxed Gingerbread man wemade enough to share with are friends and family.
We also made sure to add three buttons so we could practice our button breaths and also had a little go at crumbling the gingerbread man and noticing the difference between a crunchy and crumbly.
We love this recipe by Cooking with my Kids, although we leave out the ginger as my son dosen’t like it.
If you try this activity, tag me on Instagram! I’d love to see how your snail sanctuary’s turn out!
I hope you enjoy your gingerbread relaxing as much as we have. Take care, Emma x
