My Circle of VIPs
Updated: Apr 7
Create a picture to think about the very important people in your life.
What you’ll need: Paper and art supplies [Optional: Photographs of your friends or family]
What’s it for?
This activity helps you identify and think about the people in your life who you love and care about. These might be people who are related to you, friends from school, or people who take care of you.
Notice how you’re feeling right now. Close your eyes and notice what’s going on inside your mind and body.
How are you feeling?
What are you thinking?
How does your body feel?
Write your name down in the middle of a piece of paper and draw a circle around it
Leave some space, and then draw another circle. Do the same thing until you have four or five circles filling up your paper, one inside another.
In the space between each circle, draw or write the names of people who you know.
Start with the closest circle to your name. Who are the people you see most frequently, who keep you safe and make you feel loved? This might be your family or other people you live with.
In the next circle, think about the people you see regularly who add to your life and you have a great relationship with. This might be your best friends, or maybe other family members like cousins, or a special teacher you know from school.
In the next circle, write down other friends, classmates, or relationships you feel comfortable and happy with. Maybe these are friends from a hobby, or other classmates or teachers from school.
If you still have space and another circle, think about other relationships. These might be people you know a little less well, but would still stop and say hello to or play with in the park if you met.
There might be some people that you wish were in a circle on your picture, and it might feel sad to think about these relationships. Try to talk about these feelings with someone you trust - maybe someone from that circle closest to your name.
Extra Activity: Colour in each circle a different colour. If you have photographs of people in your circles, you might like to stick them on the paper too. Maybe you would like to decorate the gaps on the paper with pictures of things you associate with those people.
When you’ve finished filling in your circles, ask yourself the following questions:
Who are the people in the circles closest to your name?
What makes these people your Very Important People?
Where do you like to spend time with these people?
What do you like to do with them?
How did it make you feel to think about these relationships?
When might it be useful to look at your drawing?
Take a moment to notice how you are feeling at the end of this activity. Did you discover anything surprising? What can you take away to make you feel better about yourself from this activity?
If you would like to, share something about your experience with this activity with someone you live with! Ask the person who looks after you to send us an email if you have any questions or comments about the activity, or would like to send us any pictures (firstname.lastname@example.org). Don't forget to subscribe for more fun CAT activities!
Created by Heather Dingle © March 2020
Creative Art Used: Art
Psychological Area Explored: Resilience, Relationships, Self-Exploration
These activities could be done by children of all ages, but some may need the support of their parent or carer to read the instructions or complete the activity safely.
This website was made by CAT Corner to help you explore your feelings through fun creative arts activities. The people using the website and the people responsible for them need to make sure they stay safe (full disclaimer on About page).