Before the pandemic, cities had rising slum populations, worsening air pollution, minimal open public spaces and limited convenient access to public transport. According to the United Nations, the direct and indirect impacts of Covid-19 are making reaching the goal for Sustainable Cities and Communities even more unlikely. But you can make a difference by addressing issues with the children in your care.
YOU CAN
- Introduce terminology – ‘city’, ‘town’, ‘village’, ‘community’, ‘urban’, ‘rural’. Discuss what they mean and what experience children have of these places.
- Use Google Maps to show the sizes of different areas.
- Explore Google Earth’s This is Home. Can children find their homes, setting or high street?
- Link to SDG 4 and place-based learning by going on a neighbourhood walk and investigating local landmarks.
- Explore local parks and gardens so you know what facilities are available. Perhaps make links with community gardeners.
- Compare old maps with Google Earth to see how the featured areas have changed over time.
- Make a map of the area surrounding your setting and add features, such as bus routes, shops, library and play parks.
- Discuss how children travel to nursery. Do an audit by introducing simple tally or bar charts. If lots of children travel by car, you could organise a ‘walk to nursery day’.
Learning links
Development Matters (2021) Understanding the World: Draw children’s attention to the immediate environment, introducing and modelling new vocabulary where appropriate.
Extension activities
- Familiarise children with the name of the road, village, town or city their setting is located in.
- Look at aerial views of the setting, encouraging children to comment on what they notice, such as recognising buildings, open spaces and roads.
- Show simple maps to the children and offer opportunities for them to draw their own maps of their immediate environment, or maps from story settings.
- Highlight the importance of community and how people support each other. You could remind them of community art from the pandemic and how ‘rainbows’ brought people together. Research other community projects.
Learning links
Development Matters (2021) Expressive Arts and Design: Provide opportunities to work together to develop and realise creative ideas.
Extension activities
Revisit SDG 1 and research homes around the world. Introduce the word ‘slum’, share images and discuss how it would feel to live there.
Revisit SDGs 1, 2 and 3. Discuss the importance of why everyone needs a place to live, somewhere to sleep or shelter, and homelessness.
Learning links
Development Matters (2021) Communication and Language Encourage children to talk about a problem together and come up with ideas for how to solve it. Give children problem-solving words and phrases, such as ‘so that’, ‘because’, ‘I think it’s…’, ‘you could…’, ‘it might be…’.
Development Matters (2021) Understanding the World Share non-fiction texts that offer an insight into contrasting environments.
- Extension activities
- Share A Place to Stay: A Shelter Storyby Erin Gunti and Esteli Meza, which shows a women’s shelter through the eyes of a young girl. It includes reasons why people become homeless.
- Discuss why children feel it is important to have their own place to live.
- Watch this short film of families talking about their experiences of being homeless in the USA: https://bit.ly/3nTEIqt. Pause to discuss what the children say and how it makes them feel.
- Read My World, Your World by Melanie Walsh. It has the message that the world is full of all sorts of people, speaking different languages and living different lives, but deep-down, people are the same.
- Talk about how you could help those who are not as fortunate.
Learning links
EYFS (DfE, 2021) Understanding the World involves guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community. The frequency and range of children’s personal experiences increases their knowledge and sense of the world around them.
Diane Boyd is a senior lecturer, early years, at Liverpool John Moores University, d.j.boyd@ljmu.ac.uk.
FURTHER INFORMATION
- This series explores meaningful and practical ways to introduce young children to UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). See also ‘All about…Early Childhood Education for Sustainability’ by Dr Diane Boyd, www.nurseryworld.co.uk
