 Happy Tuesday Owls, this is a beautiful activity on making Worry Dolls or Munecas Quitapenas, that we welcome all to try. We'll be doing a special share of the worry dolls you make during a live lunch with Ina on Tuesday (June 2nd) of next week. For the share, please bring your dolls and we'll discuss your creations as well as how they might help in this time of many worries. Now I'm going to get working on mine! - Bonnie We all worry sometimes, or have things that trouble us and make us upset. These days, you might even be more worried than usual - about your families and friends, about school, about your own health – and you shouldn’t feel like you need to pretend it’s all okay if it isn’t. At AmPark, we often talk about having strategies to help us cope with our emotions. Some of those strategies come from our inner strength, some from others that care about us, and sometimes it helps to simply change our environment.  Ina's son, Charlie Sometimes we can also find help in the cultural, and artistic, traditions of other cultures. I am going to share one of those traditions with you, from a country called Guatemala in Central America. This country, and its traditions, are very special to my family because my son was born there. We adopted him from Guatemala in 2005. WORRY DOLLS, also called trouble dolls, are small, hand-made dolls that originate from Guatemala. In Spanish, they are Muñeca quitapena. How do the Worry Dolls work? According to legend, Guatemalan children tell their worries to the Worry Dolls, placing them under their pillow when they go to bed at night. By morning the dolls have gifted them with the wisdom and knowledge to eliminate their worries. The story of the worry doll is a local Mayan legend. The origin of the Muñeca quitapena refers to a Mayan princess named Ixmucane. The princess received a special gift from the sun god that allowed her to solve any problem a human could worry about. The worry doll represents the princess and her wisdom.  Worry Dolls are usually handmade using wire, wool and scraps of traditional colorful textiles, and they can vary in size from ½” to 2” tall. They are meant to be held in your hand so you can bring them close and tell them your troubles. The idea is to have someone or something special to talk to, to share your worries and fears with. Sometimes it helps just to be able to talk. And then, when you sleep, the spirit of the Princess Ixmucane may give you the wisdom and comfort to be ready for a new day! Think about what a LEGEND is. Do you know of any legends that come from your family’s cultures? How do these kinds of traditions and crafts help people when they are feeling concerned or worried? You may not have exactly the same materials that they have in Guatemala, but I bet you should be able to find some fabric, wire, toothpicks, thin yarn, fabric scraps or other materials around the house. In my video I’ll show you some examples... PE & Wellness Wisdom from our Super Owls Caitlin asked this question on last week's Google Form for students: If you could give some advice or try to convince someone else to participate too, what would be your reasons as to why they should start to be active at home? Their responses were so wise and a great reminder of how important our PE, Music & Art resources are to tap into every day! Take a look here: Ethan - You get muscles! Francesca - Be active at home so you don't start going crazy and fighting your siblings and annoying your parents! Zohaib - Because you have to have fun. Miranda - Since we can not go outside we have to do our best to get exercise inside. Charlize - I feel like since this pandemic started, people might be eating too much snacks. So to balance the sugar and calories, you have to be active at home. Also, not exercising and eating too much sugar leads to diabetes. You don't want that do you? this is why you have to be active at home. Noah - It’ll make you happier. Frank - It's fun and makes you healthy. Amable - It helps you wake up. Chloe - Because it’s good for you and fun at the same time! In case you missed it from our Field Day live events in the past weeks, here are AmPark's Teachers lighting the torch across America! Here are this week's Wellness offerings from PE, Music & Art! Check them out below...  Finally, Families, please don't miss tomorrow's Parent Workshop with Mike, Ana & Niomi offering important wellness resources for families and children alike. Please join with the Zoom link here, on 5/27/20 @11:00am:
Live Lunch - Parent & Family Resource Meeting led by Ana, Mike & Niomi Join Zoom Meeting 11AM https://lehman.zoom.us/j/93100527161 Meeting ID: 931 0052 7161 Comments are closed.
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