It’s summer and kids are out of school, spending time at camps or at home looking for fun things to do. Most children are spending time outdoors running and biking with their friends in the neighborhood. I see a lot of children riding bikes in my neighborhood. When they are not outdoors playing, children want to be entertained and want to learn new things. Summertime is the perfect time to connect their time outdoors with resources to help them learn about walking and biking safety, air quality, and to get interested in designing great places to live and play.
Let’s start with walking and biking safety resources:
- Our bike safety TikTok videos can appeal to people of any age
- Walking safety video for younger children https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLxLYdLgzwQ
Air quality resources:
- Help children learn more about how to keep the air clean with our Clean air coloring book https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:472c49a7-051a-3867-8d37-2f7c681d7cbe
- Do a lab – use these NASA resources to teach children about climate in an accessible way https://gpm.nasa.gov/education/weather-climate
- Show a movie, invite some their friends – https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/movies-that-teach-kids-about-climate-change
- Read a book – a list of climate related books available at https://dragonfly.eco/
Planning:
- Let’s build a city crash course – a short video on how to design a city and what to consider when you design a city https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnnUid8Hof0
- Make it a family activity and build a city with Architecture Legos
- Check out the Box City resources to help kids learn how cities function and experience their neighborhood with new eyes
- Go on a neighborhood scavenger hunt – https://www.planning.org/publications/document/9149254/
- Books and movies list available at https://www.lewis.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2019/10/UPFKToolkitV1.pdf
Transit:
- Transit activity that helps children learn how to navigate transit in a different city https://www.ometro.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Metro-Transit-Activity-Kit.pdf
- Fun with Buses math activity https://twitter.com/ChathamTransit/status/1241756702283874307/photo/1
- Transit story time and activity pages https://www.dcta.net/passenger-resources/community-education
We hope you and/or your children have fun with these activities. If you have used any educational materials on the topics above and would like to share, please contact us!
Resources
https://www.npr.org/2019/04/25/716359470/eight-ways-to-teach-climate-change-in-almost-any-classroom