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Home>Learn>Teachers>Resources for Virtual Learning>Activities to Support Your Students' Emotional Wellness

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# Art Activities to Support Your Students' Emotional Wellness

Explore the artworks below and discover activities to support your students' sense of well being. This resource is also available as a slide presentation.

Vincent van Gogh, *Self-Portrait*, 1889, oil on canvas, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, 1998.74.5

**Create a Self-Portrait***Social Emotional Learning Target: Self-awareness*

Draw a wheel and label each section or triangle of the wheel with a different emotion, such as anger or happiness.

Use colors and shapes in each section that match each emotion—for example, the anger section of the wheel might be filled in with the color red and sharp lines.

Then, use your wheel as a guide in creating your own self-portraits that show different moods.

*Explore more about this artwork hereListen to guided audio about this artwork here*

Wassily Kandinsky, *Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle)*, 1913, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1978.48.1

**Paint to Music***Social Emotional Learning Target: Self-awareness*

First, choose a special song or piece of music. Close your eyes and listen to the music. How does it make you feel? What kinds of lines, colors, and shapes do you think of as you listen to the music?

Next, listen to the music again—this time, while painting. Start with a background color (or use colored paper) to show the overall mood of the piece. Then, as you listen, paint a line that follows the melody. Pick a shape, such as a circle or square, and paint it every time you hear a part of the song that repeats. Finally, add colors inside and around the shapes that match the different feelings the music inspires in you.

*Explore more about this artwork in a resource for pre-K kids here*

Shawn Walker, *Untitled (Harlem, New York)*, c. 1980, gelatin silver print, Charina Endowment Fund, 2018.82.4

**Photographing Calm***Social Emotional Learning Target: Self-management*

What shapes can you see within this image? Trace the edge of the different shapes with your eyes. What gives you a sense of calm or inner peace? Take a photograph that captures the feeling of calm. It might be a place, time of day, or person that brings you peace. Or create an abstract painting with the colors that bring you a sense of calm.

*Explore more about this artwork here*

J.E. Shadek, *J.E. Shadek Sketchbook*, 1861/1862, bound volume with 93 drawings in mixed media on wove paper, Gift of Mrs. Halleck Lefferts, 1980.57.1

**Keep a Visual Journal***Social Emotional Learning Target: Self-awareness*

Try to carry a sketchbook with you one day a week and stop to record a person, place, activity, or event that you observe — in your home, neighborhood, school, or on a trip.

It might be an everyday occurrence or something unique that you notice. It might be a quick five-minute sketch or a longer drawing. Write the date at the bottom of each sketch. If you wish, paste photographs into the sketchbook alongside your drawings.

At the end of twelve months, you’ll have a visual diary recording your memories of the year.

*Explore more about this artwork here*

John Singleton Copley, *Watson and the Shark*, 1778, oil on canvas, Ferdinand Lammot Belin Fund, 1963.6.1

**Danger! Shark! Making Brave Choices***Social Emotional Learning Target: Responsible decision making*

What is going on in the painting? What do you think happened just before this moment? Come up with a list of adjectives to create a class definition of a hero/heroine. What are the character traits that a hero/heroine possesses? Was there a time when you were saved or helped by a friend? What happened? How did you and that person feel?

*Explore more about this artwork here Listen to guided audio about this artwork here*

Barkley Leonnard Hendricks, *George Jules Taylor*, 1972, oil on canvas, William C. Whitney Foundation, 1973.19.2

**Reading Visual Cues in Portraits***Social Emotional Target: Social awareness*

Portraits can embody a surprising number of qualities that range from the impersonal and public (status, profession, or group identity) to very individual characteristics (appearance, expression, or gender).

Artists and their sitters use portraits to convey a particular impression, such as turning your “good side” to the camera, trying to appear serious, or focusing attention on a particular social issue. Discuss what you think the people pictured are trying to say about themselves and who they are through their portraits.

*Explore more about this artwork here*

Berthe Morisot, *Spring Landscape*, c. 1890/1891, colored pencils and graphite, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection, 1970.17.163

**Mindful Drawing***Social Emotional Target: Self-awareness*

Can a line suggest an idea, emotion, or movement? 

Draw what might represent a quiet line, a loud line, and a dancing line. 

Write down an emotion that you are feeling. 

Draw a line that might represent that emotion. 

Fill your page with similar lines.

*Explore more mindful drawing tips here*

Susan Middleton, Crown Point Press, Asa Muir-Harmony, Emily York, Ianne Kjorlie, *Requiem*, 2008, color photogravure on wove Somerset paper, Gift of Kathan Brown, 2011.119.63

**Poetry, Art, and Nature***Social Emotional Learning Target: Social awareness*

Poets and visual artists alike create work about the natural environment. Read through the poems listed below. 

What are the poets’ points of view, and what sentiments are the poems expressing about nature? How do they evoke the reader’s senses? What emotions or thoughts do you have after reading the poems?

“Patience Taught by Nature,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning  “What Kind of Times Are These,” Adrienne Rich“Some Effects of Global Warming in Lackawanna County,” Jay Parini“Remember,” Joy Harjo

*Explore more about these artworks here* 

Leonardo da Vinci, *Ginevra de' Benci [obverse]*, c. 1474/1478, oil on panel, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1967.6.1.a

**A Double Sided Self-Portrait***Social Emotional Target: Self-awareness*

Imagine what your own emblematic portrait might include (words, symbols, and so on). Think about what you would illustrate about yourself. Which of your personality traits do you want people to remember? What characteristics make you unique? 

Create a double-sided self-portrait, with one side showing your physical appearance and the other side presenting an emblem of your personality and/or interests.

*Explore more about this artwork hereListen to guided audio about this artwork here*

**Step Inside a Painting***Social Emotional Target: Self-management*

Watch the video below to immerse yourself in the setting of Rembrandt van Rijn's *The Mill*. 

*Explore more guided video tours here*

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