Like many things about the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, families are going through various stages of coping with this new reality at home…We’ve seen denial that the novel coronavirus was a threat, to eventual acceptance that it was here and it was real, to panic-buying and empty shelves, to #CancelEverything and the ultimate retreat indoors. We’ve gone through baking and cooking projects (sour dough, and more), living room concerts and DIY haircuts…
Many families are now starting Week 7 of social distancing, and with public schools in Ontario remaining closed at least until the end of May (and likely longer), there is ongoing need for learning resources that students can use to continue their learning from home.
One thing I’ve heard from parents with younger kids is that there is worksheet fatigue…While worksheets can be a great way to organize and plan bigger projects, and while they offer families some flexibility for focused independent work, they aren’t always terribly exciting to younger learners, and don’t always engage and include learners with exceptionalities.
One Literacy / English-based activity that is easily scaled and individualized for each learner and their age, and is engaging and topical, is a Covid-19 Time Capsule Activity.
The idea is that we are living through history and want to commemorate this historic period for future reflection using a few guiding principles. While you can certainly use worksheets if this works best for your learner (this is one great free resource), you may also want to engage more tactile learners in other ways.
You can even make this a family project by having each family member make their own artefact time capsule for posterity (yes, this includes you — favoured zoom wine you wish to bury?). You can then pack your individual time capsules into one joint family capsule. Some ideas: Adults can create a time-specific scrapbook. Older learners can focus more on symbolic artefacts and even produce their own highly visual digital time capsule, by using free tools such as Pinterest or Google Sheets creating something akin to a vision board, or do a video diary by recording quick videos in closeup of what their day was like. Here is a step-by-step process of how you can even use Google Slides to create a digital time capsule (it will automatically force you to create your own personal copy of the docs and the slides so your child can edit it).
If they require guidance for what to include in their video, you can have them respond to the following:
- Rose – Something positive that went well that day
- Thorn – Something difficult or challenging that they’ve been working through
- Bud – An opportunity or something they look forward to cultivating
For more tactile learners, your child can customize a container such as a box, bottle or a hollowed out book, and place “artefacts” (objects), newspaper clippings, pictures if you have a printer or polaroid, drawings and the like that are reflective of what they are experiencing right now. Draw your learner’s attention to their senses (what is a common sight, sound, smell, taste, touch in their new day-to-day), as well as to describe their feelings. Remind your learners that there are no right or wrong things to include here, but that whatever they include should be reflective of how they are spending their days and what they are observing around them. Ask them to imagine how someone who finds this time capsule 30 or 50 years from now might be able to understand what this time was like.
As with any time capsule, its key is its “timeliness,” so set a timeframe for what time you wish to encapsulate, and then commit to “closing” this time capsule on this day (you may choose to close it the first day that social distancing restrictions are significantly eased). You may even choose to commemorate the closing of the time capsule with a family ceremony, if you’d like. This can be an ongoing project, and can include the creation of one “artefact” per day. Add dates, and get creative.
If you wish to share your results, tag me on Instagram @ms_ks_korner — I would love to see your creations!
sp*rk curiosity 