Day 35 - Get Creative with Movement!

Welcome to day 35 of the Stay at Home Art Club. This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and all our activities will be focusing on wellbeing through art. Today we have a movement challenge that the whole family can get involved with. Did you know that movement is a great way to promote physical and mental wellbeing by:

Allowing you to move your body and stay healthy
Helping to improve your mood and be happier
Allowing you to be creative and sharpening the mind
Helping to improve balance and co-ordination.

Follow the simple creative movement prompts that we have listed below and respond in movement. You can get someone to read them out to you or just follow along yourself.

1. Curl up as tiny as you can.

2. Uncurl and reach up high, all the way to the sky.

3. Do 1 and 2 again, but really slow.

4. Now make a star with your body.

5. Change it up and have one hand up high and one down low.

6. Try that with one foot off the ground. Change feet. Don't worry if you wobble - just have a go.

7. Stretch all the way back up and jump as high as you can - as if you are trying to reach the clouds.

8. Stop jumping and imagine your body is water - how would you move? Move around the room like this, imagine first that the water is moving slowly like a stream, then quickly like a river.

9. Now pretend to be like runny honey and melt all the way down to the floor.

10. Lie of the floor and stretch your arms and legs out away from your body, then curl them in. Do this 3 times. Then lie still for a moment and close your eyes, take 3 deep breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Feel how good your body feels because you took some time to move. Now open your eyes and slowly get back up and enjoy your day!

You can do this little creative movement exercise anytime you feel like you want to move your body and get creative with movement. Every time you do it try and create new movement, why not see if you connect all the moves together and create a dance too!

Happy moving from all of us at Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre!