I conducted a workshop along with Nandini http://ludicrouscombinations.tumblr.com/ with 8 prep class kids at Mallya Aditi school. I gave them hand sewn creatures and other dolls along with craft material. They were asked to pick a doll/creature and give it super powers or make it special. They were given 45 minutes. It was wonderful. Although most of what they talked about or made had to do with death and poison and monsters.
One of the girls made a poisonous cake and told me 'if u eat it you be dead, if you touch it your hands will become invisible'. She made this with the material provided of which clay seemed to be the most important ingredient. She said 'if u eat clay you be dead. my grandfather ate clay and he died.' Then the other kids heard this and elaborated on the topic. One said, 'my grandfather is also dead', another said, 'mines in heaven' and another said 'my grandfather died because of heart atta-tack. heart atta-tack is when something happens and your heart doesnt work and you cant even talk and breathe.'
What was really interesting is that when i showed some adults the 'kewpie doll'(the naked baby),they said it was quite creepy and that they doubt the kids would play with it. some said the face was fine but the body and the face put together made it look repulsive and didn't evoke 'love' feelings. whereas, during the workshop, about 5 kids(4 girls + 1 boy)picked them up and used it in their activity. This made me think about perception a lot more. Adults and children have different perceptions of cute and ugly. I also noticed that when a child spoke about his toy, it would most often influence the others. This was evident in the way they described their toy.
A girl was painting a baby doll red. and instantly one of them said, 'the baby has blood everywhere' and everyone joined in to talk about the bleeding baby. and after a few minutes she looked up and said 'its Spiderman'.
Although there were some who made rangoli, a puppy named biscuit, a watch and other not so gorey things.
Here's what they created:
The little ones at work:
Here's some drawings done by the prep class. These were pinned on the soft board. They all had a little writeup which started with 'I wish i was....'
These are lovely
