About Calm Caterpillar
We make the thing a kid can actually reach for.
Calm Caterpillar started as a movement and mindfulness curriculum in one school. Today it is a set of physical tools for big feelings, used at home and in more than 40 schools. Nothing to fix. Something to hold.
How it started
Calm Caterpillar was founded by Sarah Habib, who has extensive experience in teaching mindfulness to kids of all ages and backgrounds. In 2016, Sarah created a curriculum primarily focused on movement and mindfulness that was used by the San Venetia Valley School in Marin County, California, for 3rd–8th graders.
After receiving strong support from the principal, teachers, students, and families, the program turned into a 501c3 focused on bringing movement and mindfulness to as many schools as possible. In 2017 that 501c3 landed in the Cincinnati Public School district and began working with a school on how to incorporate movement and mindfulness into teacher lesson plans as well as direct programming.
The products came later. They exist because a room full of instructions still left kids with nothing to hold.
A hard moment does not need one more instruction. It needs something a kid can hold.
We employ mindfulness in our own way: a calm space at home or in the classroom, plus breathing techniques that parents and teachers model themselves. Reaching for a tool is a choice, and putting it down is one too.
Body before behavior
Respond to what may be happening inside the child before judging what is happening outside. Behavior is information, not a verdict.
Joy is functional
A support can be carefully designed and still be colorful, loud, and worth choosing. A tool a kid is embarrassed to use never becomes their tool.
Evidence with empathy
Every factual claim should be supportable, and every explanation should still sound human. Exact facts, honest limits, plain language.
The program behind the products
The school work did not stop when the products started. It is still where the practices get tested.
- 40+ schools Using the curriculum, up from one in 2017
- 10,000+ Students who have used the program
- 2,000+ Students receiving it every week
- Ages 2–18 From preschool rooms to high school seniors
Since 2017 the curriculum has spread from one school to more than 40 schools. Over 10,000 students have used the program, and 2,000+ students receive it every week — from two-year-olds to seniors in high school. It is currently used to meet Ohio state requirements for Social and Emotional Learning for Cincinnati Public preschool students.
University of Cincinnati, 2019
“Students receiving the program were rated with fewer conduct problems and improved social competence and prosocial behavior over time relative to control students.”
How they get made
It starts on paper. Sketches, then a spec, then samples — and eventually pallets going out the door.
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Four takes on Calmee’s face, before anything was sewn. -
The spec: ten segments, blue underside, red feet, sixteen inches. -
Classroom kits palletized for a school order.
Where you will find them
Homes, classrooms, bookstore shelves, and the occasional trade-show floor.
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A Calmee Kit display and a demo afternoon for families and educators. -
Calmee Kits, in the Storytime aisle at Barnes & Noble. -
Booth built as a calm corner, because that is the pitch.
Meet Sarah Habib
Founder
Sarah is an educator, movement specialist and the founder of Calm Caterpillar. She spent ten years running Mission to Move, bringing movement and mindfulness into more than 40 schools, training over 3,000 teachers and serving on school boards along the way. For the last four years she’s poured that classroom experience into Calm Caterpillar, turning what works with real kids into tools that families and teachers can actually hold.
Her approach is grounded in both science and practice. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University, certificates in Z-Health — a neurology-based approach to movement training — and a certificate from Mindful Schools. What drives her hasn’t changed since that first classroom: breathing is a lifelong skill, and every kid deserves a fun, easy way to learn it!
Meet Kathryn Prigge
Marketing
Kathryn is a creative thinker, community builder and mom of two young kiddos who brings a real-life perspective to Calm Caterpillar. She’s been part of the brand since the early days, helping shape how it connects with parents through thoughtful content, practical strategies and fresh ways to use Calm Caterpillar products in everyday routines.
At home, she’s learned firsthand that every child needs something a little different. That experience fuels her passion for helping families support emotional regulation and sensory needs in ways that feel approachable, useful and grounded in real life, with a little humor along the way!
What we can honestly promise
This won’t stop the hard moments. It gives your kid something to do inside them.
A hard moment can remain hard. The tool is not a guarantee, a treatment, or a perfect ending. It is one physical option a child can reach for, refuse, repeat, carry, or return to.
Nothing to fix. Something to hold.
