Crayons respond to the strength of children’s pressure and movements across the paper, making them a great art supply to use when discussing feelings like anger and sadness. Practice this activity to give children a way to practice managing sad feelings:

• Let’s get out our crayons and make feelings art.
• Let’s imagine the last time each of us felt really sad.
• Let’s pick a color (or colors) that represent that feeling.
• Let’s close our eyes, take a deep breath, and think about how anger feels. When we’re ready, let’s open our eyes and start to draw with our crayons.
• As we draw, think about sadness: how does it make us feel? Where in our bodies do we feel it? What color does it remind us of?
• Let’s talk about how our fingers, hands, wrists, and arms move while we’re drawing. How do our hands feel when you’re finished?
• Let’s look at all of our finished sadness art.