Lesson video

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's lesson on Don't Worry About a Thing, with me, Miss Jadoon.

So today we're going to be talking about communicating feelings, and how we can respond to other people's feelings? You ready to go? Great.

Let's get started.

In this lesson, you will be making some worry dolls.

For that, you need some ice lolly sticks, different coloured wool, and a pair of scissors.

You may also need a black felt tip.

Pause the video while you go and collect these things.

We're going to start with what are worries.

Then, we're going to look at the boy who worried too much.

Next, we're going to talk about dealing with worries, and then we're going to make some worry dolls.

So what are worries? Have you ever been worried before? What were you worried about? Who did you speak to about it? Did you speak to someone about it, or did you keep it all to yourself? Let's explore.

So what is worrying? Worrying is when you can't stop thinking about problems or fears.

It's when you feel anxious or nervous about something that might happen.

Have you ever been worried before? What have you been worried about? It's okay.

Everybody worries sometimes.

It is absolutely normal to be worried about things.

For the next part of this lesson, we're going to take some inspiration from one of my favourite books.

It's a book called Silly Billy, and it's by the author Anthony Browne.

Now I love this book because it's about a little boy called Billy who worries about everything.

Let's have a look at him.

Can you see him? Oh, nope.

Wrong way, wrong way, wrong way.

Oh, there he is.

Now you can see him.

There you go.

So Billy is a little chap who worries about everything.

In fact, he worries so much that he can't even go to sleep at night.

Do you think we can help him? I think so too.

Let's go.

Let's imagine this is Billy, and we know that he can't sleep at night because he's simply too worried.

He has awful all sorts of strange thoughts flying around his head, about whether or not he's going to wake up on time or whether or not he's going to get the breakfast that he wants, or if he left his shoes untied.

He's worried about all kinds of things.

What should Billy do? He can't sleep at night.

He just looks very worried.

So what should he do? What do you think? Billy simply can't sleep at night because he worries too much.

What should Billy do next? Option one, keep on worrying.

Option two, tell someone he trusts, like his parents, grandma, teacher or friends.

Option three, keep his worries a secret.

Option four, act like he doesn't have any worries.

Pause the video, and think about which option he should go for.

Remember, everyone worries, and that's okay.

It is okay if you are worried about something and it is okay for you to feel like that.

Remember to share your worries.

Don't be afraid.

People will not judge you for your worries.

You can always talk to your parents or your carers, your friends, and maybe an adult you trust.

Focus on something else, and keep busy.

It's always good to do something else.

Do one thing every day that makes you proud, and then think about it.

I often think about the good thing that I've done during the day, one good thing or one kind thing that I might've done to somebody, and I tend to focus on that before I go to sleep.

And do one thing that brings you joy, something that makes you happy, and that will hopefully stop you from worrying.

Remember, everyone worries, and that's okay.

Share your worries.

Don't be afraid.

Focus on something else and keep busy.

Do one thing every day that makes you proud.

Think about that.

Do one thing that brings you joy.

Think about that.

Now it's time for the really exciting bit.

You are going to make your own worry dolls.

Worry dolls are something that the people of Guatemala used to use when they were worried.

What they would do is make tiny little dolls, like this, tiny little dolls, and before they went to sleep at night, they would tell the doll all their worries, anything that was going to keep them awake, and then they would put the doll underneath their pillow and go to sleep.

Today, we're going to make our own version of worry dolls.

Now don't worry if you don't have everything that was spoken about at the beginning of this lesson.

You can always improvise, use other things, use other materials that you may have that would help to make a great worry doll.

Okay, are you ready? Me too.

Come on.

Let's go.

Worry dolls, which are also known as trouble dolls, are small, handmade dolls that originate from Guatemala.

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.

You will be making your own worry doll.

Look at the process on the next few slides to learn how.

This is how I made my first worry doll.

First, I got a disposable, plastic spoon.

Then I stuck two googly eyes onto it.

After that, I got some wool, black coloured wool, and I cut it into short strips to make her hair, which I stuck onto her head with some PVA glue.

After that, I made her top, and her top is a bright pink top, which I also cut down into a strip and stuck on with some PVA glue.

I actually wrapped this around her body.

And finally, I got a lovely, green material, which had sequins on it, and I made her a skirt.

And then, with a pink felt tip, I drew on her lips and her mouth.

And that's what the final result looked like.

For my next worry doll, I used ice lolly sticks.

I got an ice lolly stick, and took some wool and wrapped it around the ice lolly stick.

I stuck the wool on with PVA glue.

Now the easiest way to do this is to cover your ice lolly stick with PVA glue first, and then stick the wool all the way around.

Leave a little gap in the middle where you can stick the legs on.

Next, I got two other ice lolly sticks and glued them together and made the worry doll's legs.

I also used a felt tip to make some shoes at the bottom.

I just coloured those in.

After that, I joint the arms and the legs together with PVA glue.

Next, I cut out some of its body.

It looks like a top, the green circle in the middle.

Once I've joined all those bits together, I let it dry a little bit, and then I started cutting out the worry doll's hair, and I also stuck on some googly eyes.

You can see at the bottom what the final result is.

And this is what my two worry dolls look like.

Here, I've got Sarah and Martin.

Now I love them both, and you can make whichever one you like.

You may even choose to do it in a different way, and that is okay.

Martin has lots of wool on him, and he's got all of his hair, and I like Sarah's dress.

So it's up to you which one you choose to do.

All that matters is that you have fun and you enjoy yourself.

Good luck.

Okay, so to make your worry doll, you've got to start with its body.

You've got to make sure your worry doll has a body.

Now for this, you can use lolly sticks, ice lolly sticks, or you can use a disposable, plastic spoon, or you can use pipe cleaners.

There's many things you could use.

You could even use toothpicks if you like, because the original worry dolls are actually really quite small, so it doesn't matter what you use, so long as it makes a body.

Okay? So, you can use any of those things.

Give it hair.

Worry dolls tend to look good with hair.

If you want to keep it bald, that's also fine too.

Your doll can be unique to you.

The next thing, make sure you give your worry doll some clothes, and you can give it whatever kind of clothes you want.

You could even make the clothes out of newspaper, if you wanted to have something really fashionable.

Share your worries with your doll.

That's what your worry doll is for.

It's for you to tell it all the things you're worried about before you go to bed at night, and then you can put it under your pillow, and the worry doll will take all the worries from you.

And finally, share.

Share your worry doll.

Show it to your family and friends.

Maybe it could help them too.

Maybe they would want to make a worry doll of their own.

So, enjoy.

If you would like to, why don't you share your worry dolls with us by asking your parent or carer to take a photograph, and to share it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

I'd love to see some of your work.