Help ease kids’ back-to-school anxiety with these powerful art prompts. Create treasure maps, find sunflower superpower, and discover lots more ways to transform anxious thoughts into positive mindsets.
You can sense when the new school year is just around the corner.
There’s that gentle shift in atmosphere. Days begin to shorten, the morning air becomes crisper and those back-to-school advertisements appear everywhere!
For some kids this countdown is exciting but for many, the start of the new school year brings a flood of anxiety.
It’s a difficult task knowing how to help children who struggle with back-to-school anxiety. And the obvious solution – simply asking them what they’re so worried about -is usually incredibly ineffective (as I’m sure you’ve already discovered!) But in fairness, you know yourself how difficult it can be to figure out what’s at the root of an anxious feeling and then try to explain it. It’s often easier to just tell people we’re fine than try to put things into words.
But art is a great way to break down these barriers. For one, it bypasses the need for words. And for two, it helps us express and uncover thoughts and feelings we aren’t even aware of, that lie buried in our subconscious. This step is vital, because the only way we can deal with these problematic mindsets, is by becoming consciously aware of them.
So, art helps kids work through worries that are difficult to put into words. It also helps them externalize emotions and inner thought processes to get a clearer perspective on what’s going on. As well as that, art is fun!
So, here are some quirky and effective art prompts to help tackle that back-to-school anxiety.
Art prompts for back-to-school anxiety
These art prompts not only provide a fun outlet, but also help build confidence and a more optimistic outlook for the new school year.
1 The treasure map for back-to-school anxiety
Kids love making maps.
And there’s interesting psychology behind maps. They give us a sense of who we are in our world and treasure maps in particular, call us to adventure and discovery. Maps also help us connect with our world through symbols. And symbols of course, are a shortcut to our subconscious.
So, encouraging your child to design a pirate’s map of their school, might give helpful insight into how they think and feel about this environment.
Encourage them to start by making a layout of all the key locations. They can mark out things like previous classrooms, their new classroom, the playground, principal’s office, the school gate etc.
Then draw a winding path around these, adding pirate symbols. Treasure chests may represent joyful moments or achievements they hope to have in the new school year. Things such as making a new friend, joining a club, discovering a favourite activity, achieving something unexpected, or meeting a great new teacher.
Then invite them to add some danger symbols such as sea monsters or skulls, to represent anxieties they have. It may be things to do with making friends or schoolwork, or just simply the unknown.
Encourage them to think about the ‘population’ of Treasure Island – is it full of helpful allies or deadly foes? Does the map warn of any dangers, like shark infested playgrounds? Perhaps the map gives helpful clues about how to ‘navigate’ those dangers.
There’s loads to explore with this activity. It can help children recognize there will be good things as well as bad things.
It can also help shift feelings of back-to-school anxiety into feelings of an adventure challenge. And interestingly, psychology shows that if you view life’s journey as a game, it can help us push through difficulties and handle stress better.
2 Blots, blobs, lines and colour
For this activity, encourage your child to paint their back-to-school anxiety in nothing other than blots, blobs, lines and colours. It might seem like an impossible task to draw in this way, with nothing real. But this is where you really learn to trust your intuition and understand your emotions. It’s amazing how children can intuitively capture their feelings this way.
When you put your feelings into abstract art, you’re free to express yourself without worrying about making things look realistic. Picking colors, making random marks, and just letting your hand move can be really calming. It’s like turning all that anxious energy into something you can see and touch. This kind of art helps you get a handle on your emotions and can make you feel more in control. Plus, it can be a huge relief to get those feelings out of your head and onto the page, helping children feel clearer and more balanced.
Children may talk to you about what certain things represent as they work. If not, it may be worth taking a minute at the end to ask them a few questions, such as how certain colours make them feel or what sort of energy certain shapes or strokes are projecting.
3 Sunflower superpower
For this art activity, begin by taking a few minutes to help your child imagine themselves as a sunflower. Encourage them to think about where they are growing, if they are big or small and how much they love the sun. Then encourage them to think about all the things that make them unique and colourful like the sunflower- all the good things about them and their personality. Are they growing tall and strong like the sunflower? Are they warm and friendly and colourful like the sunflower? Then invite them to paint a picture of themselves as that sunflower – but here’s the twist – it’s a sunflower on a cloudy, rainy day.
As they paint, chat with them about how it feels to be a beautiful flower on a difficult day. What strengths does the sunflower have that will help it stay vibrant? Perhaps it knows the sun will soon appear appear again and so survives through hope, perhaps it sees other flowers who also look sad and decides to encourage them, perhaps it knows it needs a little bit of rain to help it grow?
Thinking about their strengths this way, will help children symbolically search for solutions to their struggles, internalize helpful qualities they have that will help them get through back-to-school anxiety and find their own unique sunflower superpower.
4 Time travel
Have your child imagine they have discovered a time machine. When they climb in, it takes them into the future, to their first day of school. Take a few minutes to guide them through what this might look like, then encourage them to make a time line of everything that happens, using symbols and pictures.
Visualizing each step of the school day in advance like this, helps children mentally prepare and helps combat the unknown. Creating a tangible, symbolic plan further reinforces this, and is known to be an effective way to support children on the autistic spectrum.
You see, our brain is in a constant state of growth and change. Every experience we have alters our neural pathways. But the incredible thing is – these experiences don’t necessarily have to be real. Neuroplasticity occurs even during imaginary events.
This means, if we spend time imagining a threat without being in the negative situation it prepares our brain, by forming and strengthening new pathways related to the ability to cope. Research shows it is an effective way to help us cope with stress. Athletes, surgeons and police officers all use this technique to help them handle stress better.
Visualization, therefore, is a great coping strategy that promotes optimism and reduces stress. (Yes please – I’ll have some of that!)
5. Design a happy school day
Using various art tools, encourage your child to design a happy school day. It can be either one from experience from a day they remember, or else one from their imagination.
Encourage them to create a visual representation of the event, the feelings, and the joy.
This will be a reminder of good times in school, especially if children base it on an actual event. But with way, it will help them associate happiness with school and build up positive expectations, all of which will help counter back-to-school anxiety.
Closing thoughts on how to handle back-to-school anxiety: 5 powerful art prompts
These art prompts are a valuable way to help children explore back-to-school anxiety.
As well as helping them uncover what may be causing this stress it also helps them reflect on their strengths, interests, and sources of comfort.
By engaging in creative expression, children can transform anxious thoughts into positive visualizations and build a more confident and optimistic outlook for the school year ahead. So grab the art supplies and have fun with these art prompts—let their creativity guide them to find their inner strength.
