Change The Way They Play!

 

About This Lesson-Toddlers and other young kids often learn how to behave physically, emotionally, and mentally by their parents and/or society. It is generally taught that girls are supposed to wear makeup, associate with the color pink, and dress up like a princess. And for the boys, it’s about being muscular and strong, associating with the color blue, and dressing up as a superhero. However, that may not be the case for some other kids? What limits a girl from building houses of legos with the boys, and a boy from playing the imaginary game of “House” usually associated with girls? Sesame Street even tackled the idea of gender expression in an episode called “Dress Me Up Club”. In this episode, some of the boy puppets were wearing princess costumes, while the girls dressed up as superheroes. When the puppets were doing so while having fun, another puppet, Prairie Dawn, appears and calls everything they’re doing wrong. This lesson is supposed to change how boys and girls think about their own being in positive ways.

 

Goals:

1. Tackle the idea of gender expression

2. Have kids be comfortable while understanding different options aside from the norm.

 

Materials:

1. Barbie Dolls

2. Toy Trucks

3. Computer w/ Flash Player

4. Gender Neutral Videos such as:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgs4bcRWamc

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tstc6NmNAus

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs

1. Group of no less than 13 kids in a room

 

Procedure:

1. Ask the question, “Should girls play with dolls or trucks?”

2. Wait for the response and ask follow-up questions on why they think like that.

3. Ask the question, “Should boys have tea parties or play football?”

4. Repeat #2.

5. Show them the gender neutral videos one by one and ask their thoughts on them.

6. Explain to them the basics of gender neutrality and expression so that they could hopefully play with freedom; without anything holding them back.

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Intended Results-

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What a teacher can hope to gain from this are improvements in behavior amongst students. It is the great hope that students will begin to look towards playing with different toys and indulging in different activities during free-time, to demonstrate that they took and understood a significant amount from the lesson plan. Not only should students be doing so, but the way they speak to fellow classmates should hope to change. For example, if a male student tells a female student they can't play with them because it's only for boys, it would be spectacular if the girl were able to speak against that statement, stating that they learned that playing with toys or games can be gender neutral. In addition, inviting opposite-gender students to play with them and simply creating this more friendly and accepting environment should gradually come out of this lesson.