The second session of the 'Be Anything Do Anything' project was delivered to the year 4 class 4A, along with the support of their teacher Miss Sadler on Wednesday 6th March 2019.
The excited class entered the room after a busy break on the playground to find creative activities on each table, after quite a few questions to the teacher asking what they were doing the project was introduced through the use of a presentation which has also been used in all other sessions (see below).
After the presentation was delivered we discussed what they thought about stereotypes and if they believed that certain genders could conduct certain jobs, their views were very balanced and didn't seem to have strong stereotypical thinking at this stage. When asked about their future career aspirations the responses were very varied from hairdressers, teachers, vets and plumbers for the girls whereas the boys mentioned wanting to be footballers, soldiers, detectives and even a gangster. So the career aspirations particularly within the girls is promising for future equality within industries.
As in other sessions the children were given short questionnaires before the creative work began on personality traits, job roles and interests and were asked to decide if they suited boys or girls better or both, below are the responses.
The thoughts of 8-9 year olds
Interests
Personality traits
Job roles
Once the questionnaires were completed the children were able to get creative. The children were offered the following choice of activities;
Job Hat faces
Make your own hairstyle
Decorate a letter
Colouring pages
Draw a job role
Space rockets
Create your own planet
Job Hat Faces
The children were given a selection of skin tone face cut-outs, various coloured papers and drawing materials, along with a variety of hat templates including pilot, police officer, chef, soldier, firefighter, builder. They considered what gender their person would be, skin tone and the hairstyle they would have. One student decided to make her own character without the template and made a wizard, which showed creativity and imagination.
Make your own hairstyles
There were a selection of skin tone faces available along with various papers and wool. The children applied the hair to each face and then decorated with facial details with pencils and pens. Some children felt their person would be sad with the hair they created so chose to depict them crying, this will prove an amusing addition to the display.
Decorate a letter
The table had a selection of wooden letters, colouring pens and stickers. The children were encouraged to apply their own individuality to each letter, little guidance was given for this activity with the intention of allowing the students to use their initiative to put some of their personality in their creation. The created letters will form words at the exhibition along with other letters created during other sessions at the school.
Draw a job role
The children were given several descriptions of different job roles, from these they created the below drawings.
Space Rockets
Pre-printed designs of space rockets were provided for the children to colour and decorate, once they cut them out tissue paper strands were added to create the illusion of flames, the results were very bright and colourful and will hopefully stand out well against the proposed black backdrop.
Planet Creations
The children got busy with stickers, paper, shapes and pens to decorate paper plates to create planets or asteroids. The children were encouraged to think about who would live on their planet and the terrain on it, however most children chose to utilise the character stickers to decorate the plates, some using more stickers than others in several layers, this could be interpreted through artistic eyes as ways of highlighting the issues of over population, it is unclear if this was what was intended by the creators, but who knows?
Here are some further creations made by members of 4A, these will be hidden as part of the display as alien beings for visitors to find.
The children seemed to enjoy the session and it is hoped that the children will bring their family and friends to the special event day planned on Saturday 4th May at Skippings Gallery, where other creative activities will be available to everyone along with a larger scales artwork planned for the day.
The class created some varied and exciting works which will make a valuable contribution towards the display in May. Thank you 4A for enthusiastically welcoming the project into your classroom hopefully you will enjoy viewing your work in a gallery setting in May.
The exhibition will be open to the public from 1st - 4th May 2019 11am - 2pm at Skippings Gallery, 133 King Street, Great Yarmouth, NR30 2PQ.
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