Bibliotherapy and art therapy are the perfect combo. One of my new favorite books is, "Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color" by Julia Denos. This book is as engaging as it is colorful! This resource is great for sparking creative play and color experimentation. I will be sharing how to engage kids in a creative art therapy activity using colors to identify emotions.
I am back with another dose of color, creativity, and inspiration. Sorry for the delay; I know it's been quite a while since I last posted on my blog. Life happens, and we all need to take a little break for self-care! During my time away, I took some time to reflect and brainstorm some new Art Therapy Rx ideas. I am excited to start sharing some of my new ideas in the months to come! My blog turned one year old this past month, by the way! I can't believe how quickly the time goes.
Well, anyway, let's get to it! I stumbled across the book "Swatch: The Girl Who Loved Color" on social media and had to purchase it. The book has stunning and colorful illustrations, and that immediately drew me to it. This book by Julia Denos is a playful book that I believe takes colors to a whole other level.
The author brings colors to life in this book by giving them a personality of their own. The main character, Swatch, is a fierce little girl who loves playing with and taming color. During her adventures, the reader is introduced to each color and their unique personalities. Swatch is excited to catch each color. She likes to capture them in containers to admire their qualities.
When reading this book, I had an idea to create an activity based on the creative process and color and emotion identification. This Art Therapy Rx activity invites the child to create different color swatches to represent different emotions. There are two parts to this activity.
By the way, if you are interested in purchasing this book, click the banner below; it is an affiliate link, each purchase you make through my links help fund my blog and the free resources I make available to you!
The first part focuses on creating color swatch tiles and assigning each color an emotion. The second part engages the child with an exercise creating an image with all the color/feelings that the child chose. The idea is to allow the child freedom to create an image using lines, shapes, and colors to engage in a free-flowing creativity exercise.
Once the child has completed their image, they can then process. The emphasis on this activity is the process; the activity can help children become more familiar and comfortable with art mediums and creating art that, at times, can be abstract. This activity can be utilized as well to facilitate discussion about bottling up feelings versus expressing feelings.
Also, the activity is fun and simple! Making art to create is cathartic. The focus on color and emotion adds a layer of depth. Whether this activity is processed verbally or not, there is a wealth of information to observe in the use of color and line.
Have fun creating color swatches and letting them be free and dance on the page! Don't forget to subscribe to get these free activity worksheets! My Art Therapy Rx scripts have a new look now! Can't wait for you all to see them. For more creative resources for this book, check out the authors website She has also provided free downloadable activities. Follow this link to access these great resources here.
See you next month friends! Feel free to leave a comment below!
What colors do you enjoy using in your own artwork?
Any suggestions on other creative titles to use in therapy?
With Love,
Check these out for more creative bibliotherapy art resources!
Disclaimer: This information is not intended to be utilized as a form of self-help, personal clinical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The content on this blog is meant for educational purposes and to provide clinical art therapy directives/resources for trained mental health professionals. This information is by no means a substitute for therapy.
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