Week 3
October 30, 2014
Field Notes:
For our third activity at the Boys and Girls Club we asked them to make an animal out of Play-Doh. When Meredith brought the Play-Doh out, they nearly trampled her to get the colors they wanted. Without us saying anything about ways of constructing things out of this medium, they all immediately started making coils to begin their projects. This seemed very promising at first until most of them just held up a coil and called it a snake. They were never bored with this activity because they liked the Play-Doh so much. Most of them didn’t actually make an animal, but there were some very interesting objects made.
Out of all the kids, about 5 of them actually made an animal. This included a Chihuahua by a girl, a baboon by a boy, a starfish by a boy, and two snakes by both a boy and girl. For the Chihuahua, the girl made the legs, body, and tail fairly detailed, but then just had a rolled up ball for the head with nothing else on it. Oliver’s snake was incredibly detailed with a long tongue and sharp teeth. He was very sweet and when he finished he was so proud and said he wanted to show his dad.
One girl made a heart, so the rest of the girls made hearts and most of them gave their hearts to Tre, which was cute. I think all the girls have a crush on Tre, so they always do what he says and they are always hanging around him and messing with him. All the girls starting making random things and giving them to Tre to get his attention. One girl handed him a flower and said it was going to “follow him to his death.”
One boy took pieces of all the colors and mixed them together to make a brownish-grey color.
Boy- “Look, it’s a nutrition color!”
Other Boy- “Don’t you mean neutral?”
This was the first time we’ve really seen the boys actively participating in an activity. They all loved the Play-Doh, but it got very out of hand. One boy balled some up to make a ball and started throwing it at people; so naturally, the rest of the boys did the same. A big problem with the boys was that when they made coils, one of them said it was a penis, so they all started making them and giggling about it. One girl’s comment, “Y’all some nasty little kids.” Another boy made a very detailed gun and pointed it at people saying, “Bang-bang, I kill you!”
Reflections:
Gender Stereotypes:
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The girls made hearts, flowers, and puppies
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The boys made snakes and guns
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One boy made a baboon’s butt
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The girls used pink, purple, yellow
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The boys tried mixing them together to made darker colors
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The boys punched the Play-Doh to flatten it
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The girls made detailed pieces
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The boys made balls and threw them
Peer Influence:
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One girl made a heart, the rest made hearts
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One boy made a ball and threw it, the rest followed along
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The girls fought over holding Tre’s attention
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When I complimented Oliver on his snake, I saw a few start to make snakes
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One made a coil, the rest made coils
Pop Culture:
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One boy made Patrick Star, the starfish from SpongeBob
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All the girls kept doing some popular dance and asking Tre to do it too
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Girls made flowers and hearts
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The boy who made a baboon’s butt was talking about the Lion King
Inventive Characteristics:
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A boy used a colored pencil as a rolling pin to flatten out the Play-Doh to make his starfish
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They all made coils into letters to spell their names
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The boys attempted to mix colors to get new colors
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Some of them built around a colored pencil, using it as a base
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A boy made a hat out of Play-Doh
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The girls made bracelets with details flowers on them