Sweets Kendamas Foundation

The Sweets Kendamas Foundation is a MPLS community Education partner and  501(c)3 educational non-profit based in Minneapolis, MN teaching mindfulness through play in public schools through kendama education. The foundation is currently raising funds to bring our "Mindfulness through Play" program to title one schools and low income communities. Check out our Fundraiser campaign to learn more about us!

Our Mission: 

Sweets Kendamas Foundation: is dedicated to empowering growth mindset, social emotional learning and mindfulness through kendama education.

Our Process: We provide transformative kendama programs with world class instructors that lead to lasting, positive, personal and educational outcomes for participants.

Mindfulness helps students manage difficult emotions and stay focused. These skills are important for success in academic and interpersonal situations. The benefits of mindfulness are well documented; the challenge comes in getting students excited about adopting a mindful lifestyle. From a child’s perspective, mindfulness often means boring breathing exercises. At The Sweets Kendamas Foundation we teach mindfulness through play. We utilize a Japanese wooden skill toy called a kendama to present mindfulness in a fun and engaging way. A kendama has a ball on a string, a spike, three cups and an infinite amount of physical and mental challenges to accomplish.

The Sweets Kendamas Foundation programs focus on helping students set goals to achieve certain ‘tricks’ and coaches them through emotional regulation techniques to remain in a mindful state. SKF programs focus on three core pillars: mindfulness, growth mindset, and social emotional learning. These pillars are paired with SHAPE literacy standards.

What We Do: We use kendama as a mindfulness tool to teach participants how to regulate challenging emotions, communicate with compassion, and transform failure into opportunities to learn and grow. The moments of pure excitement from overcoming adversity can be seen first hand in the video below.

MAKING MINDFULNESS FUN THROUGH PLAY 

By presenting kendama lessons, the Sweets Kendamas Foundation teaches students about mindfulness, social-emotional learning, growth mindset and Japanese culture 

Our Program Goals:

OUR REACH IN 2022

Sweets Kendamas Foundation has held over 200 programs and worked with over 7,000 students across 7 states in 2022 alone. SKF is seeking donations to be able to offer programming at title 1 schools in Minnesota and beyond for 2023.

BRINGING MINDFULNESS THROUGH PLAY INTO PHYSICAL EDUCATION

• WHAT ARE TEACHERS SAYING ABOUT MINDFULNESS THROUGH PLAY? 

• Students loved the program, they really took to the reframing of mistakes as an opportunity to learn. I loved the stopping during a hard task to focus in on the breath/calming the mind, this was a big benefit for our students

  — Jered Hewet/Jason Lee k-5, Portland Oregon 

• “ They had awesome programming/curriculum and were great with the kids. They taught great principles and worked our values into teaching kendama. They did a great job of involving everyone, making sure everyone had a great time, and everyone learned something they could take beyond kendama.” Bethany Pitts:  Afterschool Coordinator Rogue Valley Family YMCA

• So many impacts and almost too many to list. Kids are excited about something. Its new, its fresh and everyone can do it. I hear kids encouraging each other and groups of kids working together that usually don’t engage much. For the last few days I have had one student in particular who in in middle school and typically chooses not to participate in PE. He has come in everything since program asking to use one and telling me about what he practiced at home. He is fully engaged now and is now a leader in class.“Kendama helps meditation and mindfulness for me and gets my mind and body focused on my kendama goals instead of anything else that might be going on. Also it teaches me anything is possible and to never give up which gives me a more positive outlook on life in general.”  - High school Student

  — Ed Rosario, PE coach Cezar Chavez, K-8 Portland Oregon 

• Focusing my busy mind is something I definitely think Kendama helps with. I would also go so far to say that all theories, mechanics, flows and lessons learned during play can easily translate to any facet of life you wish to apply them too.

• Kendama is the most growth mindset thing there is. Just look back over any period of time to see your progression.. I took a class about growth mindset last semester and really saw how kendama is such a great example. It can be discouraging at times but in the long run it's amazing to see how much one can improve
  
  

 Help us reach more students this year and consider a donation to 

Sweets Kendama Foundation! THANK YOU!

“If you want a program that not only shows your students the rewarding principles of accomplishing ones goals, but also gets your students moving in a fun way, this is it!”

-Shneur Fomin/ PE Teacher/ Williamsburgh High School Brooklyn NY