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The week beginning 7th February is Children’s Mental Health Awareness week! On social media, you may have seen Citywise posting top tips that help our children’s mental health. The next few blog posts will not only be expanding on those tips, but also sharing activities that families can do at home to be aware of their mental health.
Tip #2: ‘Identify and Manage Emotions!’
The second tip for Children’s Mental Health Awareness week teaches us to help children learn how to identify and manage their emotions.
Studies show that children who learn to regulate their emotions are more likely to develop resilience and develop healthy coping mechanisms when things are hard. It is very difficult for a child to do this without guidance and support. A great way you can show support is by naming your own emotions, and giving children the language to describe their own.
At Citywise, children love to explore expressing different emotions through music. The following craft allows the child to be creative, and make their own working instrument as a result. You can make many different instruments, below is the step-by-step guide to make a drum!
Let’s make a Household Drum!
Equipment
- Empty and Clean Tin Can
- Balloon
- Tape
- Paper (white or coloured)
- Scissors
- Pens
Step 1: Prepare Your Can!
Make sure that your can is clean and any labels have been removed. Whilst an adult is cleaning the tin, a child could be cutting and decorating a strip of paper that can cover the tin.
Once the tin and the paper is ready, cover the tin with the paper and tape it into place.
Step 2: Make the Drum!
Now that the can is nicely decorated, we can start assembling the drum part of this craft.
Take the balloon and stretch it a little bit. Take your scissors and cut along the part of the balloon that you would usually blow into, as seen below. Stretch the rounder piece of the balloon and put it on top of the tin can. Be careful when stretching the balloon- you don’t want this to rip!
You should have a completed drum! You can play it or display it!
This craft can also be used in a fun game that the children at Citywise play, called Musical Emotions. On this link you can find emotion cards made by Citywise. Take turns to pick an emotion card and express it on the drum you’ve created. It’s the other person’s job to guess what emotion you picked.
If you give this fun activity a go, make sure to tag us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using @CitywiseUK. We would love to see how you have expressed your emotions during Children’s Mental Health week.
