Body tracing. I’d say it was a hit. I was a hot sweaty mess, but it was a hit.
We had a few who hesitated and who were content to mostly just observe…or have the freedom to observe themselves.
Some kids just wanted to be traced, giggling the whole time as we glided a marker around their frames, trying to lift their heads mid-trace to sneak a peek before it was complete. That was enough. Coloring and cutting were overrated.
Others could handle a bit more and wanted to roll out the paper, trace their bodies, and get a bit creative with color and scissors. One gave himself tiger pets when he was done. And, another may have made himself into some Japanese comic strip character I never heard of.
And, then there was one, one who took it all very seriously. He added eyes and a mouth and hair. He colored in clothes and shoes and teeny triangle fingers and toes. With every part he completed, he called one of the Měiguó rén over to admire it. When he couldn’t think of anything else to add, he managed to come up with one more thing.
…which left us in a bit of a quandary.
Do we cut out around his boy parts or dis-man-tle him?
Our translator giggled as I told her to tell him we were going to cut off that part. She giggled as she told him. He didn’t giggle. But, he did accept it like a man.
Clearly.