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Week 4
November 6, 2014
Field Notes:
This week, at the Boys and Girls Club, we brought construction paper, scissors, and yarn for them to make masks for Halloween. This was the most fun I’ve seen them have so far. They seemed to really enjoy making these and there was a lot less fighting going on among the kids. We started out by cutting out the face shapes and the eyeholes, but most of them ended up wanting to do it by them self. They all wanted very particular colors and were very precise about their choices in making the masks. I have not seen this excitement for art making here yet before. This was really exciting for us because we finally found something they thoroughly enjoyed and were all interested in. This activity really kept their attention for the majority of the time, which was a big surprise and a first for this group of children. Most of them wanted to make more than one, while some spent a lot of time on just one with their particular details. We actually ended up with more children than we started with, because kids around the center were coming up and wanting to join us because of all the fun we were having with these masks.
A lot of the kids wanted to make their mask “creepy” in the spirit of Halloween. They cut out different shapes and colored with crayon for details.
One girl, Taylor, wanted glue so she could cut out other shapes and glue them to the mask. When we told her we didn’t have any glue, she got frustrated and stormed off saying, “I don’t wanna make no more masks!” While she was looking for attention, no one responded or agreed with her. She covertly came back and started working on her mask again without another word until towards the end because she knew her friends would call her out for making a big scene.
One girl made a puppy face and her friend said, “That is one raggedy-butt puppy.” I always hold my breath when they say things like this because I never know if they’re joking or if the other kid is going to take it to heart. They were joking, which they usually are, but I can never usually tell with these kids.
A boy, Saveone, who is always running around jumping on people, made an all-black mask. He ran around to everyone holding up a “gun” made from his hand telling people he was a bank robber here to take all their money.
When Tre asked Enia if she wanted to be the special helper to clean up, she responded, “You crazy?!” After she said that, other girls stepped up and to keep Tre’s interest, started cleaning and helping us pick up little bits of paper.
Reflections:
Gender Stereotypes:
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Girls added make-up to their masks with crayon
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Girl made a puppy face
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Girls wanted to do everything themselves
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Boys wanted us to do it for them
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Girls helped clean up, boys did not
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Girls made their masks “pretty”
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Boys made their masks “scary”
Peer Influence:
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One kid made snowflakes with the paper, so multiple followed
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One boy wanted to arm wrestle, so many others wanted to as well
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One kids made multiple masks, so they all did
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They copied each other’s shapes on the face
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Other kids (not in our group) wanted to join because of the excitement
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One girl started helping clean up, so all the girls joined in
Pop Culture:
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Girls made sugar skull masks (Day of the Dead)
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Oliver made a Mardi Gras mask
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Saveone made a bank robber mask
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Girl made a puppy face
Inventive Characteristics
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Oliver’s Mardi Gras mask covered only the eyes and he wanted feathers and glitter to make it “authentic”
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Girls stacked multiple sheets of paper to make snowflake pages
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The kids cut out different shapes for the eyes and mouth instead of the natural shapes (diamonds, triangles, etc.)
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They wanted glue to add more to their mask than was asked of them