Pinwheel Breathing for Kids: Make a Calm-Breath Buddy

Step 1: Colour the pinwheel: Print the page on thin card. Let your child colour the rainbow arcs on the square, then cut the square out.

Step 2: Cut along the lines: Grown-up job: cut along the four black dashed lines from each corner towards the middle. Stop where each line ends.

Step 3: Bend the corners in: Gently bend each orange-dot corner into the middle. Do not press it flat, because the curve is what catches the breath.

Step 4: Pin it to the pencil: Grown-up job: push the pin through the four dots and the middle dot, into the eraser of the pencil. Make the hole a little loose so the pinwheel can spin, then push a small cork onto the pin tip so nobody is scratched.

Step 5: Try a fast breath and a slow one: Ask which breath makes it spin gently and smoothly: fast or slow? Try both, then tick the answer on the page. Stop and rest if anyone feels dizzy.

Step 6: Spin it for three slow breaths: Breathe in slowly through the nose, then blow out gently so the pinwheel turns. Do it three times and colour one star on the page each time.

Step 7: Spin it gently like a whisper: Can your child make it spin with a tiny breath, as quiet as a whisper? Circle the puff you used: tiny, medium or big.

Step 8: Check how you feel now: Ask how it feels after the breaths, and circle one face on the page: calm, happy or worried. Any answer is fine, and talking about it is part of the game.