In this creative activity using shapes, explore your individual personal growth and imagine how you can keep growing into the future to build confidence and self-esteem.
What you’ll need: Paper, coloured pencils or pens What’s it for? This activity brings awareness to your emotional, social and physical development by reflecting on ways you have grown in the past and how you can keep growing into the future.
Check In: Notice how you’re feeling right now. Close your eyes and notice what’s going on inside your mind and body.
How are you feeling?
What are you thinking?
How does your body feel?
Method:
Begin by choosing a shape - it could be a circle, square, star, heart or a shape you make up yourself
Draw two of the same shape on your piece of paper so they fill up as much of the page as possible
Make sure the shapes overlap in the middle
Imagine this overlap in the shapes symbolises you as you are right now
Draw how you are feeling today
It could be that you are happy and include a smiley face, then colour the space in to express this feeling. If you are sad that is fine too, and choose a colour and some designs or patterns that might represent this
Use the left side of the shape to think about your past emotional, social and physical development and title this 'PAST GROWTH'
How have you grown? Is there something you used to find hard that you can now do? Have you learnt new things over a period of time? Perhaps you might think back a long time ago, eg: when you learnt to take your first steps as a baby or perhaps more recently when you made a new friend?
Use images/symbols/colours/patterns/words to depict these moments of personal growth
Now focus on the right side of the shape to think about ways in which you would like to grow in the future and title this 'FUTURE GROWTH'
How would you like to grow? What things would you like to try and achieve? Do you have skills you want to acquire? Is there a particular attribute you would like to develop eg: be kind to others, be grateful and spend more time with family?
Use images/symbols/colours/patterns/words to depict these future hopes of personal growth
If the space in between the shapes at the beginning was a sad or other negative emotion, has this activity changed this perception of yourself and how you are feeling now?
Keep your art piece in a safe place and consider reassessing things in another year to see how you have developed
Remember you are continually growing and changing as a person and individual
Extra Activity: Do you have any songs that remind you of your past or future growth? Perhaps you could create a playlist to go alongside the ever-changing shapes art piece. When you’ve finished, spend a moment reflecting on the activity and ask yourself the following questions:
How did you find focusing on you at the centre of the shapes?
Did you prefer to think about the past or future?
Did the past bring up any particular feelings and were these feelings happy or difficult overall?
Did it help to put some focus on past growth to develop future thoughts around growth?
Did it support your future growth considering the new things to explore and develop?
Conclusion: Remembering that we are constantly growing and changing as individuals is important to be mindful of as this can affect our relationships with others and how we feel about ourselves. Reflecting on how we have developed in the past can build our resilience for future emotional, social and physical growth. Take a moment to notice how you are feeling at the end of this activity. Did you discover anything surprising? What can you take away to make you feel better about yourself from this activity? Reference: This is taken from Place2Be's 'My Changing Shapes' activity as part of - Children's Mental Health Week 2022. You can find the video here. If you would like to, share something about your experience with this activity with someone you live with! Ask the person who looks after you to send us an email if you have any questions or comments about the activity, or would like to send us any pictures (info@catcorner.co.uk). Don't forget to subscribe for more fun CAT activities! Created by Sarah Kong © June 2022
Creative Arts Used: Art Psychological Areas Explored: Emotional Wellbeing, Relationships and Self-Esteem If you enjoyed this activity, you might also like: Colourful Composition: Write your own music using colourful cues. These activities could be done by children of all ages, but some may need the support of their parent or carer to read the instructions or complete the activity safely. This website was made by CAT Corner to help you explore your feelings through fun creative arts activities. The people using the website and the people responsible for them need to make sure they stay safe (full disclaimer on About page).
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