Am I a Boy or a Girl?
A story for the oldest preschool children to explore gender roles and stereotypes. The story is taken from Íris Arnardóttir's book 'Are the Mountains Blue?' and is titled 'Am I a Boy or a Girl?' It comes with questions to ask the children after the reading to create discussions.
About the project
Equality, gender roles, stereotypes, self-identity
- Connection to the Education Policy: Social skills, literacy, self-empowerment.
- Type of material: Project.
- Target audience: Preschool children aged 4-6.
- Subjects: Mental and social well-being, equality, self-image, stereotypes, and gender roles.
Am I a Boy or a Girl?
In the mornings when I wake up, I get dressed in my clothes. Today, I'm wearing a red sweater and blue pants. Then I put on my crocodile socks. My crocodile socks are fun because they keep my toes from getting nipped by the cold.
I'm going to preschool today to play with my friends.
I always go to preschool with my dad because he works at the same preschool I attend, but he's not in my section. He works with the youngest kids.
One of my friends is a girl and another is a boy.
Today, a guest is visiting the preschool. A policewoman is coming to teach us traffic rules.
I'm really looking forward to it.
When I leave preschool today, my grandpa will pick me up and I'll get to ride in his jeep. We're going to Byko because grandpa is buying a drill for grandma as a birthday gift. Grandma is really good at carpentry.
Once, I was with grandma and grandpa at the summer house. Then grandma built a sandbox for me and I got to help.
Grandpa baked a really nice chocolate cake while we were building and we got to eat it when we were done with the work.
I find it really fun in the winter because sometimes there's so much snow and I enjoy sledding. But the most fun of all is when I get to go with mom to work. Mom works on a large excavator and when no one is looking, I get to sit in the large scoop in front of the excavator and mom lets me go up and down. Then she shovels all the snow into a big pile and my friends and I on my street build a snow house.
One time, we made a really cool snow house and I got my stuffed animals and dressed them in a hat and mittens. Then we drank hot cocoa in the snow house. One stuffed animal has a hat just like mine, a blue hat with a Pokémon picture.
In the evenings, when I go to bed, I always try to think of something beautiful.
Questions that can be asked to children after reading the story
- Am I a Boy or a Girl?
- Do many women work on excavators? Why or why not?
- Do many men work in preschools? Why or why not?
- Do boys have stuffed animals? And dolls?
- Do girls have cars and excavators?
- Does someone have to be the mom or the dad in pretend play? Why or why not?
- Do grandpas bake chocolate cakes? Why or why not?
- Do many moms know how to build and drill? Why or why not?
- Are there many women who can fix cars? Why or why not?
- Is a stuffed animal with a blue hat a girl or a boy stuffed animal? Why or why not?
- Is there anything unusual about the story? What?