15 Fun Mental Health Activities & Games to Build Resilience in Kids
Mental health for kids doesn’t usually look like serious conversations or sitting still and talking about feelings. More often, it looks like play. It shows up in quiet moments, imaginative games, messy art projects, and the way adults respond when big emotions spill out unexpectedly.
Mental health matters, and it's never too early to start helping kids build the tools they will need to navigate the world. In this guide, we'll go over a range of mental health activities for kids, grouped based on the goal they help accomplish. We'll also explore how the specialized support made available through the GMS Care Network can help parents and caregivers ensure that all of their children's mental health needs are being met.
Why Mental Health Activities Matter for Kids
Children experience stress, frustration, fear, and sadness just like adults do. What’s different is that they’re still learning the language for those feelings and the skills for managing them.
Mental health activities and games for kids present the opportunity for parents, teachers, and caregivers to explore mental health topics with children in a way that's fun and engaging. These activities can serve several different purposes, from building emotional resilience to calming big feelings to encouraging creative expression.
Mental health activities help children:
- Identify and name emotions
- Regulate their nervous systems during stress
- Develop resilience and self-soothing skills
- Build confidence in handling challenges
- Strengthen trust and emotional safety with adults
When these skills are introduced early, they become part of a child’s internal toolkit. Like any other type of skill, mental health skills that are learned early in life tend to stick much more naturally than those that are learned later.
Category 1: Emotional Literacy Activities
Emotional literacy is the foundation upon which all other mental health skills are built. Before children can be expected to manage their feelings, they need to know how to recognize and name them. With that in mind, here are a few mental health games for kids that are designed to build emotional literacy:
1. Feelings Check-In (The “Weather Report”)
Young children often struggle to explain how they are feeling, even when you ask them directly. So, instead of asking, “How was your day?” try asking, “What’s your weather like right now?”
Explain it like this:
- Sunny = feeling happy or calm
- Cloudy = tired or unsure
- Stormy = angry or overwhelmed
- Rainy = sad or disappointed
This approach gives kids emotional language without pressure. It allows them to talk about their feelings in a way that's more comfortable and explain their emotions in a single response.
2. Emotion Cards or Faces
Children often feel emotions before they can explain them, and visual cues bridge that gap. One great way to create visual cues for different feelings is to make emotion cards.
You can draw them yourself on paper or print images you find online. For younger kids, limit choices to 4–6 emotions. For older kids, include more complex ones like “frustrated,” “nervous,” or “disappointed.” Then, when you want your kid to talk about how they are feeling, show them the cards and ask them to point to the one that matches their feelings.
3. “Name It to Tame It"
When a child is upset, calmly narrate what you see. For example, it might sound something like: "It looks like you’re feeling really frustrated that the game ended."
This doesn’t minimize the feeling or try to fix it—it validates it. It also helps children learn over time how to name emotions themselves. This ability to recognize and name how they are feeling naturally reduces emotional intensity and is the foundation for all other emotional regulation skills they will learn later in life.
Category 2: Grounding and Calming Activities
Grounding activities help children feel safe in their bodies and present in the moment. These are especially helpful during meltdowns or moments of high emotional intensity.
4. Hot Cocoa Breathing
Explain the game like this: "Pretend you are holding a mug of hot cocoa. Breathe in to smell, then blow out gently to cool it down."
There are a couple of reasons why this is a great exercise for calming intense feelings. For one, the imagery itself is calming; when kids are imagining a cup of hot cocoa, it's a great distraction from whatever is upsetting them. Having kids breathe slowly in through their nose and out through their mouth is also a calming exercise, with slow inhales and exhales signaling safety to the nervous system.
5. Birthday Candle Breathing
Along the same lines as hot cocoa breathing, birthday candle breathing acts as both a calming breathing exercise and a pleasant scenario for children to imagine when they're feeling upset.
Ask your child to imagine birthday candles in front of them. Have them take a deep breath in, then blow out the candles slowly, one at a time. This game works well for younger kids who need something playful to get their attention when emotions are spiraling.
6. Five-Senses Grounding Game
It's helpful sometimes to pull children away from the strong emotions they are feeling and back into the present moment. One of the best ways to do this is to engage their senses and encourage focus on those rather than what they are feeling on the inside.
Anytime you want to ground your child in the present, ask them to name:
- 5 things they can see
- 4 things they can touch
- 3 things they can hear
- 2 things they can smell
- 1 thing they can taste
You can do this anywhere: at home, in the car, in the classroom. Whatever the circumstance, it's a great way to gently pull attention away from upsetting thoughts.
Category 3: Sensory Play
Many children regulate emotions through movement and sensory input. For kids who rely on sensory input to regulate big emotions, these mental health games for kids can be deeply calming:
7. Sensory Bins
Fill a container with materials like rice, sand, water beads, or dried beans. Try to include materials with a range of textures, and throw in some items like scoops or small toys as well. From there, all you have to do is let your kid play in the bin.
For many children, this kind of sensory input is relaxing and allows them to self-regulate their emotions. It is crucial to note, however, that young children should be closely supervised when playing with sensory bins if you include any items that might be choking hazards.
8. Movement Breaks
Simple movement can often reset an overwhelmed nervous system. When you notice your child starting to get upset, tell them it's time for a movement break.
It doesn't really matter what the movement looks like. It can be jumping jacks or stretching like a cat or whatever else you come up with. The more fun you make it, the more likely kids are to engage, but the point is the movement itself and the calming effect it can have.
Movement breaks are especially helpful during homework time, long classroom sessions, or any other time that kids are required to sit for long periods.
9. Weighted Comfort
Weighted blankets, lap pads, or even a firm hug can help some children feel grounded. Even for adults, light pressure can be calming, and kids who experience anxiety or sensory overload often respond well to it.
Category 4: Creative Expression
Children often express feelings more easily through creativity than conversation. If you want to encourage more creative expression, here are some great mental health activities for kids to try out:
10. Feelings Art
Offer crayons or markers and ask your kid to draw how they feel. You can say things like "Can you draw what your feelings look like?" or "What color is your mood today?"
There’s no right or wrong result. The process matters more than the outcome.
11. Music and Mood
Try creating playlists for different emotions. For example, calm music for winding down, energetic music for releasing energy or frustration, and soft instrumental music for focus. You can then let kids choose the playlist they want to listen to based on how they are feeling.
Not only does the music itself help with emotional regulation, but having kids match music to their feelings reinforces emotional awareness.
12. Storytelling and Role-Play
Invite your child to make up a story about a character who feels nervous, angry, or sad. Help them along with leading questions like "What happens to them?" and "Who helps them?"
Children often process their own experiences through fictional characters. Having them make up a fictional character allows them to project their own feelings onto it, building imagination and emotional intelligence at the same time.
Category 5: Connection-Based Activities
Mental health isn’t just about individual coping skills; it's also about feeling connected and supported. Here are some great mental health activities for kids that you can use to let them know they are supported:
13. One-on-One Time
Even 10 minutes of uninterrupted attention can make a difference. Let your child choose the activity they want to do, whether that's playing a game, reading a book, or anything else that the two of you like to do together.
Whatever it looks like, nothing builds emotional security like spending time with just you and your child.
14. Gratitude Sharing
At bedtime or dinner, ask: "What's one good thing that happened to you today?" For younger kids, the answer might be something as simple as "I played outside", but that still counts.
In the same way that practicing gratitude helps adults reorient their mindset toward more positive thinking, it works for children as well.
15. Repair After Big Emotions
After a meltdown, once your child has calmed down, gently circle back to the episode. You can say something like: “That was a big moment earlier. Do you want to talk about what happened?”
This teaches kids that it's okay to talk about the strong feelings they experience. It also gives you a chance to better address why they felt that way and reacted like they did at a time when your child will likely find it a lot easier to explain their feelings compared to the heat of the moment.
Mental Wellness Is a Daily Practice
None of these mental health activities for kids are meant to “fix” a child or prevent every difficult emotion. After all, strong feelings are part of being human.
What these activities do provide is consistency. They show children that emotions are normal, manageable, and safe to explore. Over time, these small moments can add up to stronger emotional resilience.
Just like physical health, regular, consistent care is an important part of mental health. And sometimes, a little extra support is needed as well.
When You Need a Little More Guidance
Daily activities at home are the front-line support for children’s mental health. However, there are also many times when parents and caretakers may feel unsure, overwhelmed, or in need of professional insight.
For those times, GMS members with Personal Health, Replacement Health, and Group Advantage® plans have access to the GMS Care Network, which acts as a professional safety net for mental health support. It connects families with qualified counsellors, therapists, and mental health professionals who specialize in supporting children and families through more complex emotional challenges.
You can think of it as a complement to the everyday practices you’re already using, there anytime you need extra guidance or professional support.
By combining daily practices such as mental health games for kids with this safety net for times when you need a little more guidance, you can help your child build skills that will serve them for a lifetime.