Draw Your Day
An art therapy activity for kids and teens
Draw Your Day
This worksheet is a great way to help kids conceptualize their days and learn about fluctuating emotions. Use this worksheet to talk about emotions and to gain insights into how a child functions and copes through different parts of their day.
Find this FREE PRINTABLE worksheet and more in our Therapeutic Activities tab!
Why is this important?
Because it exercises two main skills: routine conceptualization and emotional exploration. By preparing for and embracing the natural ebbs and flows of a day, kids can improve their adaptive functioning and lead more balanced lives.
ROUTINE CONCEPTUALIZATION: This activity can help kids to better understand and prepare for their days by visualizing and exploring their fluctuating emotions and reactions to daily stimuli. Routine conceptualization includes:
Sense of Routine – Having a clear understanding of the daily schedule offers a sense of security and preparedness.
Time Management – Learning how to organize and optimize time is a life skill that can help diminish frustration, prioritize needs, and foster a sense of accomplishment.
Productivity – Confidently engaging in appropriate and stimulating tasks can decrease dysregulated, inattentive, or impulsive behaviors.
Reflection and Growth – Reflecting on experiences offers valuable insights and helps develop problem-solving skills.
Independence – Exercising decision-making skills and taking personal responsibility promotes confident autonomy.
EMOTIONAL EXPLORATION: Understanding the concept of fluctuating emotions is important because it helps kids navigate their days with increased self-awareness, emotional resilience, behavioral management, and empathy. Emotional exploration includes:
Emotional Regulation – Recognizing that emotions naturally fluctuate can help us manage reactions, rather than feeling overwhelmed or controlled by temporary feelings.
Improved Decision-Making – Emotions can influence choices and contribute to impulsive reactions. Awareness of emotional shifts allows for more thoughtful and balanced decision-making.
Enhanced Relationships – Building empathy for ourselves and others fosters patience, compassion, and better communication in relationships.
Increased Resilience – Reflecting upon emotions and catalysts helps us develop targeted coping skills and a growth mindset.
Practical Application
This activity can help supervising adults gain insight into a kid’s daily functioning. In relation to this therapeutic activity, consider the following questions:
Do they have a clear sense of their daily routine and expectations?
Are they able to demonstrate self-care and independence in their routine?
Do they manage their time well?
Do they have coping skills?
Do they struggle to control impulses?
Are their needs being met?
Are they regulating their emotions?
Do they have social supports throughout the day?
Is their overall functioning adaptive?
Use this activity and these questions to find applications for targeted support.
Other Creative Therapeutic ActivitIes:
My Home
Ask kids to draw their home (or homes) and the people and animals that live there. Build a holistic family systems perspective by using the drawing to explore environment and family dynamics.
Who is the best listener? Where do you go when you're sad? Is your home safe?
Find this activity and more in our Therapeutic Activities tab!
Build-It Prompts
This therapeutic activity is a great way to roll the dice and find constructive inspiration!
After each turn, try these talking points: What did you build? Why did you choose to build this? Would you change anything about your creation? If you could take a magic wand and make this creation real, would you do it? Why or why not?
Find this activity and more in our Therapeutic Activities tab!
Drawing Prompts
Encourage kids to identify, draw, and discuss people in their lives (either real or fantasy) that match the descriptor. This helps therapists (or parents) gain insight into how the child sees the world through an interpersonal lens.
Find this activity and more in our Therapeutic Activities tab!
Animal Color Prompts
Use color-coded prompts to talk about feelings, people, and bests/worsts while bringing the animals to life with a preferred medium. In this practice, art has the power to disarm apprehension and cultivate healthy rapport.
We suggest letting kids “unlock” the colors by answering the prompts.
Find this activity and more in our Therapeutic Activities tab!
My Perfect Day / My Imperfect Day
Use this prompt to help kids appreciate good days and receive bad days with a growth mindset.
Find this activity and more in our Writing Prompts tab!
