Diversity: Grades 1 - 2

Objectives

• To develop an awareness of gender stereotypes
• To realize that girls and boys can be good at many of the same things
  

Activity

• Share the following story with the children: "One day, I was playing football with three boys in the park. We had been playing for a while when my friend Sarah came along and said she wanted to play too. Right away Tony and Jack said, 'No way! Girls can't play football.' I could tell Sarah felt bad, and I knew that she could throw the ball a lot farther than I could, but I didn't know what to do. What do you think I should have done?"

• Allow the children to discuss what they would have said and done in this situation. You may want to stimulate the discussion with questions such as

• Should the boys have let Sarah play with them?
  

• Why do you think they said girls can't play football?

• Do you think boys are better than girls at some things?

• Read the children the story below and get their advice about how to handle the situation: "One time, my friend Devon and I knocked on the door to my neighbor Maria's house. She was playing with Julie, a girl from our class, and they were pretending to make dinner in Maria's play kitchen. Devon and I thought that sounds like fun but Julie said, 'You can't play with us - boys don't know how to cook!' What do you think I should have said?"

• Tell the children you are going to read some questions and you want them to think about who the question is describing - boys, girls, or both.

• Who is really good at painting pictures?

• Whose favorite sport is soccer?

• Who likes to make pancakes?

• Who is really good at listening to friends when they have a problem?

• Who likes to build with blocks?

• Tell the children you are going to read the same questions again and this time you want them to stand up if the question describes them. Discuss how these results compare with what the children thought the first time they heard the questions. Do the children think boys and girls can be good at, and like doing, the same things?