Fairly Foul: Cosmetics, Sociometry and Annie Leonard!

Soumis par katie. le mer, 08/25/2010 - 20:01

So my last blog entry reviewed my first session with the girls. After that, I sat down and went over everything I did, what worked well, what didn't and what I should do about it. I switched up the activities to include more movement, make them more accessible for all reading levels, changed the video and added some interactive stuff.

This time, I started out with some sociometry - putting down pieces of coloured paper for answers (e.g. blue is yes, red is no), and having the girls move to the spaces representing their answer. This is a great way to start out a session because it gives a visual representation of the group's answers, and it gets the girls thinking about the issues. Some of the questions were:

"Do you help your parents pick out products like shampoo?"

"Do you buy your own makeup?"

"Do you like to paint your nails?"

In the next section, I hid items with messages around the space. The messages essentially covered the same topics as my last session, just in a different format. For example, I had a bottle labeled "organic" that contained a lot of toxic ingredients with a message talking about what the labels "organic" and "natural" really mean. This method really helped facilitate discussion.

The morning of this session, The Story of Cosmetics was released. I was pretty excited (even though it meant a 5 a.m. screening before the program). The girls loved the video, some even had me write down the link so they could share it with their friends and family.

This session was the first with Internet access on-site, so we took full advantage of it by visiting the Skin Deep Database to check out some of the products the girls use or were curious about. This was a great way to get the girls engaged, and to teach them how to use the resources we had talked about so they can use them on their own. We also checked out FemmeToxic to give them an idea of what other cool sites are out there.

Partway through the session, a local reporter dropped by to chat with the girls. It was great to hear their feedback and ideas, and even better that our message would be passed on through the area's newspaper.

The last activity of the day, as always, was an "Artsy Smartsy" activity (inspired by FemmeToxic). This is a fun and creative way to end a session packed full of information (note: it's always great to have handouts so the girls don't feel like they have to remember everything).

It was great to hear from the regular facilitators that after the session some of the girls made their own products at home, while others checked all of their household's personal care products on Skin Deep.