Kids love arts and crafts and what better way to spend a rainy day than with art activities to build self-esteem in kids! I know my daughter is always wanting to draw pictures and create things, so this is a fun way to make sure she knows how special she is as well. Some of these are actually great works of art from your kids you will want to display when done!
Related: 5 Fun Worksheets to Boost Your Kids’ Self-Esteem
Art Activities to Build Self-esteem in Kids
‘I Can’ cans: Start saving empty coffee cans, or baby formula cans (if you have those, like I do). Wrap them in white paper and let your kids decorate them how they want. Or don’t wrap them and let them choose a color paper or patterned paper. The idea is that once decorated, they write on slips of paper all of the things they can do. It is a good reminder when they are having a bad day, that they can dothings.
Mutual Complimenting: This is fun to do together. You need 2 pieces of paper, one with giant bubble letters that says ‘ME’ and the other that says ‘my GIRL’. With a bunch of different colors on hand, whether they be markers, crayons or pens, you will write 5 things you like about your daughter on the ‘my GIRL’ paper and she will write 5 things she likes about you on the ‘ME’ paper. Then you swap and write 5 things you like about yourself and she does the same. You will learn a lot about what your daughter loves about you! It is a great time to open up conversation as well.
Hand tracing: Usually when you trace a child’s hand you turn it into a turkey for Thanksgiving. Not this time. It is the perfect object for a child to write all the things she loves about herself and who she is. Trace her hand, in the center write ‘I am’ and then in the fingers, she writes what she is and what she is good at! Then she can color it. Put it up on the fridge so she can see it everyday!
Related: Self-Esteem Activities to Prevent Bullying & Raise Confidence
Rainbow compliments: I love this because it is so colorful, and a real piece of art! You need white paper, and then colored construction paper (for the rainbow part). Cut the white paper into a cloud shape, and she puts her name on it, make it fun colors! Then cut the colored paper into strips, and she is going to write good things about herself on them. Once she is done, you can put this together one of two ways; paste the colored strips so they come out of the top of the cloud, or do the opposite and paste them to the bottom. It won’t be in your ‘typical’ rainbow shape, but look like rays of colorful sunshine coming from a cloud.
Blooming self-esteem: Again, you want your construction paper. You are going to cut out petals (7 should work) and then a yellow center. You will need green for the stem, and 2 leaves. On the petals, have your child write things she likes about herself, and on the leaves too. A blue background (a full sheet of paper) would be beautiful to display her flower on!
I love to arts and crafts with my daughter, so what better way to tie in a self-esteem booster. Chances have it you already have everything you need on hand, so it’s not like you are making a special trip to the store, just special memories and moments.
Art is such an amazing tool!~ We are all creative beings and its great to use it as a way to build confidence!
These are some great ideas! I will have to share with my mommy group and do some activities.
I LOVE doing art activities with the kiddies. I never thought of using it as a way to build self esteem.
Thanks, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because I’ve noticed a little change in my daughter. Definitely trying this.
These are some really great tips!!! Building self esteem in little ones is so important. I can only hope my daughter grows up to be sting and confident
These are very nice ideas. I love all of them. I will have to try all these with my kiddos.
I love every idea on this list! Self esteem is so important for kids to grow into strong, confident adults.
I love these ideas! Art and creativity are such great ways to help boost self esteem so I am definitely going to be trying these at home!
Those are absolutely beautiful ideas. How did you come up with all of those?
The one about writing the 5 compliments reminds me of a Christmas movie I watch each year where the whole family does that on Christmas Eve and it looks like so much fun.
Art has always helped boost my self esteem when I was a kid. I know it would help the kids out and I like to get my daughter interested in art as well.
Such a great way to spend time with kids. They don’t only have fun, but it is so beneficial for them as well. Gotta love that!
I love these ideas for completing tasks. Children need lots of encouragement in building self esteem. I love the “I Can” section and feel that this really builds up individual confidence.
We’ve done some of these activities and sure my boys did had so much fun. Not only will it help boost their self-esteem, these activities also a offers a great time to bond with the kids.
My son used to be scared in expressing her creativity because he thought that he won’t be as good as his sister but we just keep on encouraging him. NOw he is into it and very confident that he can do it too. Love these ideas!
These are great, I homeschool our 4 and 7 yr olds and building their self esteem is very important to me.
These are really quite simple ideas! I love the Rainbow compliments: – I want to do them!
These are great activities. I love how it gets the creative juices flowing while helping to make them feel good about themselves. Every child needs to participate in these type of activities every once in a while!
These are some clever ideas. They can be fun too! Self esteem seems super important in this day and age.
When my ex and I were still together one of the things we did with his daughter on a very consistent basis was color, draw, and use art as an expression. We did that for so many years and now that she is approaching the pre teen years, she doodles in a journal and uses that as her way of telling herself how she feels. She also journals with words, but art journaling seems to be her favorite.
These are great! A lot of people think parents have gone overboard with the “preservation and building of self-esteem.” Not me! I’ve seen first hand how low self-esteem effects kids later in life, and it presents an obstacle that is very, very difficult to overcome.
These are great ideas. Any time we can foster creativity and self confidence in our kids, it’s a good thing.
These are some great idea’s, I think my kids would really enjoy doing these activities and hopefully would benefit from the self esteem boosting.
There is so many kids out there now that have such a low self-esteem that this would work absolutely wonderful in schools.
My daughter did a similar activity to these last year, and I was amazed with what she said about herself! I thought she would have focused on her appearance and abilities, but in reality, she concentrated on her character traits and the type of friend she is. So eye-opening!
These are such great ideas to use in the classroom since many kids have low self-esteem due to bullying issues. I especially like the rainbow idea!
These all sound so fun and they are great ways to boost that confidence in them. I am going to have to try these with my kids.