This activity helps bring an awareness of the most important people in your life through drawing and creating a road model and going on a special journey!
What you’ll need: Recycled cereal boxes, toilet roll tubes, pencils, pens, lids, food pouch lids, glue and scissors
What’s it for? This activity explores the process of building a road model that will contain special places to visit with the key people in your life. During the lockdowns there have been so many restrictions. Here we can open up our imagination and build a scene of fun places to visit! 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:
Firstly, take the cereal boxes, flatten these out and use a pencil or pen to mark out a long and winding road that can bend left, right, up and down and around the page!
Decide where you are going to go on your special journey and how many places you would like to visit
Mark various points on the road model of where you would like to go
It could be that you want to stop at the park to meet your best friend. Draw a picture of the park and your best friend at this point on the road model. You could want to go to the seaside to spend time with Grandad, so draw a picture of the seaside and Grandad to represent this part of the journey
It could be that you also include historic and memorable places to spend time thinking about someone who is no longer with us who might have gone away or died such as a friend, family member or pet
Now let’s make a car and to do this you will need a toilet roll tube, paint or coloured pens, lids, glue and scissors
Request help from a grown up, and using scissors cut a U-shape hole in the top of the toilet roll tube for the driver and passenger to sit in
Paint and decorate the toilet roll tube however you wish and perhaps mark it so it can be identified as being your car
Using the glue, attach the small lids as the car wheels
Either use your own toy people, or craft your own to go in the front of the car
Imagine that you are the driver and choose who your passenger is going to be - a family member, best friend, pet, teacher or character from a TV programme
Begin your journey and pause at each of the locations that you have marked on the road model and reflect, think, and imagine where you are. How does it smell? Can you hear any sounds? How does this make you feel? Is there a new memory or thought emerging as you sit and listen?
Now move onto your next location and repeat the same until the full road model has been covered
Extra Activity: If you pair up with a friend or family member you could create the road model together to remember a special time you spent in each other's company and reflect on everything you experienced together.
When you’ve finished, spend a moment reflecting on the activity and ask yourself the following questions:
Did it take a long time to think about where you wanted to travel on your special journey and who you wanted to travel with?
Did you find some locations you wanted to stay at for longer than others?
Do you know why you might have wanted to stay longer?
Did you change your mind about any of the locations?
If the car could fit more people in, then who would you invite to come on your special journey?
Conclusion: In this activity, there is the opportunity to reflect on and enable the processing of treasured journeys and memories together. 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? 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 © July 2021
Creative Arts Used: Art
Psychological Areas Explored: Resilience, Emotional Wellbeing, Emotional Literacy and Relationships
If you enjoyed this activity, you might also like: Street Life: Draw yourself as a house and your friends and family as neighbours on the street of your life!
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).