Does your head ever get tired of worrying? What if you had a second head to share your worries with so your own head could take a break?
In this project you can create a personal worry head for yourself, or you can create a larger worry head to share with your family or classroom.
Read to get started?
First, here’s what you will need:
1. Self-hardening clay OR a container that can be painted or collaged, like a bowl, paper cup, pot, or plastic tub (eat up that yogurt!)
2. Depending on your container, you will either want some paints, markers, or materials for collaging (magazines with faces, scissors, and glue or tape)
3. Paper that can be cut up into notes
4. Little offerings (bribes) for your worry head, like a piece of candy, pretty leaf, marble or shell. Anything will work as long as it keeps your worry head holding your worries for you!
If you are working with clay, start by making a “pinch pot.” Here’s a video that shows you how (thanks, Trista!). Or you can follow the directions below. If you’re working with a paper cup or other container, skip to step 4.
1. First, form a ball that’s about half the size of what you want your finished head to be.
2. When your ball is nice and smooth, stick your thumb down into the middle of it. Now, with your thumb inside, keep pinching your clay and rotating it around your thumb after each pinch.
3. Keep doing this until you have a created a bowl shape.
Now it’s time to add your face. You can form some clay into face parts, or you can carve a face into your clay bowl using a pencil, plastic knife or other carving tool.
We made our Worry Heads look worried, but you can make any kind of face you want. Maybe your Worry Head looks peaceful or happy because it loves to worry!
If you’re using a paper cup or other container to make your head, you can either use markers, paints or collaging materials to create a face.
Even though we made our Worry Heads look worried, you can create whatever kind of face you want. Maybe your Worry Head looks peaceful or happy because it loves to worry!
Now that you have created another head, it’s time to give yourself a break from those worries you’ve been carrying.
On little pieces of paper, write down any worries you want to share with your new Worry Head. Maybe you’re worried about a friendship or a test, or maybe you’re just having trouble turning your brain off.
Write as many notes as you want, and when you’re done, fold them up and put them inside your Worry Head.
You can also add little gifts (also known as bribes!) to your head so it will do a good job worrying for you. : )
All done? Great! Now all you have to do is take a nice long deep breath.
And, without anything to worry about right now, you can fill your head with whatever beautiful and creative thoughts you want!
If you really want to relax your brain, try our Take Your Brain on Vacation project.
And remember, you can take a break from worry any time you want.
Want to share your Worry Head in our gallery? We’d love to see it!
