DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET 3 Smell the Flower, Blow Out the Candles Purpose To help children develop breath awareness  Materials Collection of artificial flowers—or real ones!  Procedure Hand out one flower to each child. One hand should hold the flower, and the other should be held up, fingers spread, to form pretend candles on a cake. Put your nose next to the flower in your hand, and take a slow, deep breath through your nose, pretending to smell the flower. Say, “Smell the flower” as you breathe in deeply through your nose. Then say, “Blow out the birthday candles” as you blow onto each of your fingers through your mouth. Assist the children in doing the same. After a while, they won’t need their flowers to breathe deeply. This activity makes things go more smoothly during transitions between activities. 8  Chapter 1 COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL