Mind Jar Activity

The goal for educators and parents is to help raise children who are calm, creative, alert, focused, kind, healthy, and helpful. One of our favorite tools to teach kids how to use their breath, calm their minds and connect with their emotions and bodies is the mind jar activity.

Mind Jars are fun to make and children learn to use them to calm themselves down when stressed or angry or when they just feel they need a pause. With just a few supplies using different color glitter to represent their thoughts this activity is perfect for ages 4+. Recently in our tweens and teens class we did this activity and the response was great.

Ingredients & Recipe

*Mason Jar or Plastic Bottle (Voss Water Bottles work great) *Clear Glue *Glitter: Fine glitter works best but any glitter will do. *Warm water: straight from the tap.

*Optional: Food coloring to color the water. One or two drops is more than enough!

•Optional: A small funnel for the glitter. Our glitter came in little packets, so I just snipped the corner so the kids could easily pour it into their bottles, but it might be worth it to use a funnel or make a small paper funnel so your kids’ glitter goes mostly where they want it!

Fill your bottle about 1/8 to 1/3 full with glue. The more glue you add, the longer it will take for the glitter to settle after shaking.

Add glitter, start with a tablespoon or so.

Fill the bottle the rest of the way with warm water. At this step, before filling the bottle all the way, you can leave a little less than an inch of space at the top of the bottle, cap it, and shake it to see if you want to add more glitter, more glue, or just more water.

When the bottle is full up to the neck with water, glitter, and glue, cap it. I recommend using a hot glue gun to seal the cap closed. I did this by applying a single ring of glue all around the top threading and then screwing the cap on.