Here at Be Happy Resources, we’re passionate about supporting children’s mental health and empowering young voices. With Children’s Mental Health Week just around the corner, our goal is to provide engaging resources and activities that support self-expression and awareness. In this blog post, we’ll explore some fun and interactive classroom activities designed to resonate with this year’s theme – “My Voice Matters.”
The Importance of Expression in Children’s Mental Health
Before we dive into the activities, let’s highlight why self-expression is crucial for children’s mental well-being. Acknowledging and understanding their emotions, thoughts, and unique voices contributes to building resilience, self-esteem and a positive sense of identity.
Children’s Mental Health Week Activity Ideas for Classrooms
If you’re looking for ways to incorporate this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week theme into your classroom and curriculum, then we have suggested some fun ways below! Be sure to let us know if you choose to use any of these activities and tag us in your pictures.
1. Say It! Collage Wall: Celebrating Beliefs, Dreams and Opinions
Encourage students to use answer our free Thought Provoking Questions for Kids! These help children to communicate their goals, dreams and views on the world. You could create a vibrant wall display afterwards by cutting out the speech bubbles, making a wonderful collage of their voices, interests, and dreams, visually celebrating the diversity within the classroom.
2. My Most Important Object: Respectful Listening and Communication Activity
Ask each child to bring in something from home that is important to them. Form a circle and have each child introduce their object, explaining what it is and why it matters to them. Encourage the class to be respectful as each child talks about their object, perhaps you could also encourage their classmates to ask thoughtful questions!
3. Expressive Art Stations: Unleashing Creativity
Set up art stations with drawing, painting, and crafting materials. Allow students to freely express their thoughts and emotions through various art forms, promoting creativity as a therapeutic outlet. At the end, each child could talk for 2 minutes about their creation.
4. My Matter Splatter: A Splash of What Matters
A Matter Splatter is a splash of all the things that matter to you. In your Matter Splatter you can put people, objects, places, things, beliefs, values and so much more. Creating a Matter Splatter is the perfect way for children to think about what is important to them, helping them to build their self-identity.
This is a wonderful activity that helps children realise that we are all unique and teaches us to respect the opinions and beliefs of others. Afterwards, you could have your children swap their Matter Splatters to find out what they can learn about their friends and peers.
5. Emotion Charades: Understanding and Expressing Feelings
Play a game of charades where students act out various emotions. After each round, facilitate a discussion on how recognising and expressing these emotions contributes to a better understanding of one another.
6. Gratitude Circle: Building a Supportive and Thankful Environment
Gather students in a circle, ask each child to share something they are thankful for. It can be an object that is important to them or a friend or family member, for example. Exploring gratitude helps us to think about all the good things in our lives and can help children to feel positive and optimistic. This activity also fosters an environment of respect and builds on listening and communication skills.
7. Hear Me Roar! Ask Children to Write About a Subject They are Passionate About
Encourage older students to pick a subject they are passionate about, such as climate change, the environment and even mental health and write about it. We have a free template you can use! (Coming Soon). You could ask each student to read their written pieces aloud, or ask for volunteers to share their passionate pieces.
8. Healthy Classroom Debate: Sharing Beliefs and Respecting Others
We’ll be bringing you some fun, healthy debate cards this week in the run up to Children’s Mental Health Week. These cards will ask topical questions for your children to debate in a healthy and respectful way, helping them learn to speak up and share their own voices, whilst learning to be respectful of others’ opinions and beliefs.
What do you think of our activity suggestions above? Why not share your ideas in the comments below for others to see!
Our classroom activity suggestions aim to create an environment where children feel heard, understood, and empowered. Incorporate these ideas into your week’s curriculum, and together, let’s make this Children’s Mental Health Week a memorable and impactful experience for our young minds. We believe that every child’s voice truly matters.