Alien Names

Alien Names.... sounds a little out of this world, but no worries it's actually quick and simple to do with children. Before we did this project as a class however we had a discussion on what is beauty, and what our culture and past cultures have considered as beautiful. As part of our discussion we watched these wonderful videos, please enjoy and think about what beauty is.

This is a Dove film called evolution. The purpose of this film was to raise awareness about ideals on what beauty is and how they have been changed through photoshop and advertisement.

This is the famous Britain's got Talent contestant Susan Boyle, and her first appearance on the show. Did you notice how people treated/reacted to her appearance before she sung and how they judged her based on appearance. Notice how appearance is a big part of society and how we treat others because of their appearances.

This is a very difficult subject to teach to children because they don't fully understand what beauty is. Since it is important to understand beauty have them reflect upon what characteristics they like in others; example: scars, wrinkles, long hair, short hair, body hair, no hair, etc.

In this project they are going to be creating their own world and own standards of beauty. To begin off have the student take a piece of paper and fold it down the middle (preferably hot dog style). Have the folded edge facing closer to them and write along that edge their name, any way they want to. Then make it so they can cut it out continuously, not cutting the bottom completely off, and then have them unfold it to show them the alien! These are going to look funny, and present a challenge to the children on using their imaginations to create an alien our of the form presented. Have the children create a world to also fit their alien. Here is a picture of my project:

The blue alien is a boy, and the pink a girl. The names used were Teddy (my boyfriends name) and Katie, my own name. I chose to create their body's see through to represent that this world considered what was on the inside more important than the outside (though not literally, just character). Also my aliens had the ability to rise above things with their wings. They lived in a world surrounded by flowers and light. This is my perfect aline world.

At the end of the project have every student explain what beauty is on their planet and explain who they chose to make an alien- could be families, friends, pets, etc. 

There is a tutorial on how to do this project at Oodles of Codles: Alien Names. Enjoy!