Gender and children’s production preferences

Kid play not-quite-museum David Sirota Back to our future, play matters meditations on the history of neuroscience of play What is play?
Pleasure- poise, surprise, strength, anticipation, understanding

Gender and children’s production preferences
When I offered the specials class, “Beaded narrative,” I expected to see mainly girls enroll in the class. I imagined that girls would encourage their friends to sign up together so that they could make jewelry and talk about “girl issues.” To my surprise, more boys enrolled for the class than girls, probably because these kids are just much more creative thinkers than I am. They are creating headbands, small toys, as well as jewelry; rings, earrings, necklaces, etc. The work that students are doing to create their own unique projects often has a problem solving nature. I am interested in learning from the students how they navigate the “gender-playing field,” since they are working with volatile materials- mostly shiny glass seed beads. There are also large glass beads, some that look like gemstones, but so far, only a few girls have attempted to work with these materials.
Zach- first, hacky sack, then became unhappy with it after a mistake, then began a different patterned project
Jeff- multicolored loom work, all different colors of beads, even big pink beads
Mike- blue and green “v/x” pattern, that represents his time at CLC so that he will remember certain things once he is in high school
Lily- star rings for herself and her sister, where star represents the North star that guided Harriet Tubman to lead people to freedom
Greg- loomwork
Brian- blue/silver patterned loomwork
Madison- chain earrings, necklaces
Chris- duct tape bowties, domino crown & necklace,
Miranda- loomwork
Christina- pink & purple right angle weave
Alice- metal chain necklaces with large glass beads
Colin- New York Yankees logo loomwork