Parents and guardians, we feel your pain, a lot of you are juggling work life and keeping your children busy, let alone staying on top of ensuring they have a quality education.
Of course there are loads of fantastic educational materials online for children and we wanted to chip in something that can keep your little ones busy, for half an hour at least, all the materials are at the bottom of this article.
Our wonderful volunteers Verity and Alex have created a very special digital lesson for children on placemaking. Your child has just been elected as the Mayor of ‘Lolatropolis’ and their first order of business is to design an area of the central park.
This aims to help children to reconnect with where they live through fun and play.
We want them to draw their perfect play area, bus stop or bench - and yes, we expect and actively encourage them to be as wacky as possible.
There are downloadable worksheets you can simply print off but if you do not own a printer, don’t worry, they can use a A4 piece of paper, just make sure they state their first name and age, along with what is their favourite thing about their design - there are 3 choices to choose from but they are more than welcome to do them all (more busy time, yes, we know you thought that).
It is aimed at primary school children but younger kids can get involved too, two of the worksheets are colouring in sheets which should be easy enough for them to navigate.
Take a photo of your children holding up their work and upload it to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #RethinkRePlace or email it to hello@new-union.org and we will share it for you - if you do not want their faces in the image just make sure that is not in the photo.
We’ll pick our favourites and send your little placemaker their own personalised certificate.
Are you ready? You can download the video here, just put this on your laptop, tablet or TV - when it comes to the activity, we ask you to pause the video, so just be aware of that.
Photo: Oliver aged 4 from Stoke-on-Trent enjoyed taking part.
Best of luck to your little Mayor and we can’t wait to share their work during our Rethink Re:Place Festival at the end of February.
Parents and guardian checklist:
• Download worksheets and be ready to print (you can ask beforehand or just print them all off so they can have a go at everything)
• Put the video on your chosen device and once you are ready press play
• Pause the video on the activity screen and give your child the worksheets, un pause once they have finished
• Ask the child to hold up their work and take a photo of them holding it, ensure to not get the face in the photo if you do not wish to show them - make sure they have put their name and age on the paper, first name only is fine
• Upload the photo to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #RethinkRePlace, if you do not have social media, send us the image and we will share it
You can download the worksheets here and you can watch the lesson video here.
About The Author
Nathan Coyle is the founder and Chief Executive of New Union. He likes to fill his time drinking coffee (and the odd craft beer), playing metal music and watching his beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers FC.
He's a keen social activist who is passionate about giving citizens a voice in democracy and stripping back the language around academic practice so it’s more understandable and cohesive for change.
Nathan is also a sometimes writer for various media outlets including The Huffington Post and he is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts.