Body mapping

Purpose

A fun activity which can be used in a variety of ways, to start to explore feelings or to share information.

You will need

• Large sheet of paper (a roll of lining paper works well)
• Pens or felt pens
• Materials for decorating it if desired.

How to do it

Lie someone down on the paper and draw around their body. This can be a group activity with one outline, or you could put them in pairs/small groups to produce lots of outlines.

Options for use

Talking about feelings

• Talk about different feelings and maybe write down a list of common feelings siblings experience. Then:
• Think of a feeling and draw how it affects you in your body e.g. worried –wrinkles on the forehead where you frown, nervous – butterflies in tummy, anxious – sweating under arms, proud – hold your head up high etc
• Colour in the body as appropriate to the feeling e.g. red for angry, blue for sad, pink for happy, green for jealous, black for fearful etc or
• Use materials to stick on to give texture and shape to the feelings

Information about disablity or illness

Use the body outline to discuss how their brother or sister's body works, or which parts are ill. This could be the sibling telling you, or you telling them, or a mixture of the two!