Watercolor Worry Monsters!!!!

One of my favorite creative counselors to get ideas from is "Counselor Keri" and this idea for her Worry Group was exactly what I was looking for as I began my "Worry Warriors" group this month with 2nd and 3rd graders! Counselor Keri Worry Group Art Activity.  She got the idea from this site, which gives other ideas for creating monsters using watercolors, straws, and stickers: Watercolor Monsters.

After we went over introductions and created group rules, each student got a piece of watercolor paper, two small round stickers and a straw.  I instructed them to put the two stickers on as if they were "eyes".  The next step was getting enough watercolor paint on their papers, which was a bit of a challenge, so I had to help them with that part!  Students then blew through the straw to push the watercolors every which way on the paper - leaving a messy looking paper. 

We let the papers dry until the next session and their homework was the "name" their worry.  I encouraged somewhat silly names, ones that would at least make them giggle a little bit!

"Personifying" worry allow students to "talk" to their worry and to tell it to leave them alone.  When we recognize we are getting anxious or nervous about something, we can say "Hey, Betsy, Leave me alone right now.  I've got this."  Separating themselves from their worry allows them to see that they can be in control and not let worry boss them around. 

Thank you to Counselor Keri for such a fun activity that had my kids asking all week long "When is our next group??"