Imagination Exercise
Before we create a beautiful, calming place for our busy hands with our Zen Garden, let’s work a couple soothing exercises for our imagination! We’ll use two exercises from Breathe Like a Bear by Kira Willey. In one, we imagine what kind of cloud we are, and in the next we bring ourselves back to earth and imagine ourselves as a tree!
Breathe Like a Bear by Kira Willey
For more meditation exercises, check out the book from FDL, or read, watch, or listen to the entire book on hoopla. More yoga and meditation books for kids are available from our collection, including Stretch by Doreen Cronin on Tumblebooks and I Am Yoga by Susan Verde on hoopla.
Zen Garden Craft
Zen gardens are a beautiful way to introduce a sense of calm and peace into your life! Long ago, Buddhist monks created the first zen gardens to aid in meditation. They are traditionally composed of fine sand, stones, and trees, and a rake is used to create patterns in the sand to represent water. 
This mini zen garden craft is something you can easily create in your home with materials you already have on hand. You’ll need flour, crushed oatmeal or sugar (though sugar will harden up over time), rocks from your backyard, a Tupperware container or shoe box, and a fork to make designs. To add the pagoda all you need is marshmallows, spaghetti noodles, brown paper bags, or a cereal box and glue.
Materials:
18 3-inch pieces of spaghetti noodles
10 4-inch pieces of spaghetti noodles
1 smaller noodle
9 marshmallows
Glue
4 triangles cut out of a brown paper bag or cereal box
Pagoda Instructions:
Take four of the 3-inch pieces of spaghetti and four of the marshmallows. Make a square with the spaghetti noodles, connecting them in the corners with the four marshmallows.
Place two 4-inch pieces of noodle like an X across the center of the square poking the noodles in the marshmallows of the opposite corners.
Lay that square flat on your table and place four 3-inch pieces of noodle in the marshmallows at each corner so that they are vertical (perpendicular to the table).
Place a marshmallow at the top of each vertical noodle. Place two 4-inch noodles in the shape of an X in each of the four sides of the pagoda. This will make the structure more stable and is also a good way to teach some building basics to your child.
Place a 3-inch noodle across the top of each side, parallel to the bottom noodle. Each side should look like a square with an X running through the center.
Take two 4-inch noodles and push them through a marshmallow in an X shape, so the marshmallow is in the center of the X. Place this X at the top of the cube.
Place the smaller noodle in the marshmallow vertically.
Take the 4 triangle paper bag pieces and glue the top of the triangle to the marshmallow at the top of the vertical noodle with the corners of the bases at each corner of the pagoda. I used hot glue, which requires adult assistance.
Once the glue is dry, gather your Tupperware container and place the pagoda inside.
Pour flour (or oatmeal) and glitter (optional) into the container, filling it up about ⅓ of the way. Place your rocks in the “sand” in a pattern or randomly. Then use a fork to make your wave designs and enjoy your garden!
– Cassie, Youth Services Specialist