What they will tell you:

• William Wilberforce (1759-1833) is one of the best known British abolitionists. He was a Parliamentarian, writer and social reformer.
• He was a close friend of William Pitt, the youngest Prime Minister in British history.
• Wilberforce campaigned for health care, educational and prison reform and legislation to prohibit the worst forms of child labour. However, his greatest political efforts concerned the abolition of the slave trade and slavery.
• In 1788-1789 he presented his Abolitionist Bill before the House of Commons for the first time. In a moving speech, he recited the horrific facts of slavery for three hours and ended with the words: “having heard all of this you may choose to look the other way but you can never again say that you did not know”.
• Despite Wilberforce’s efforts the bill did not pass. Year after year, he re-introduced anti-slavery motions but to no avail…

Arktel: The planet only children could save is a beautifully illustrated book by Menkit Prince.

It’s about three planets: Tarjez, Arktel and Earth. On planet Tarjez, we fast forward to what could happen if we keep going the way we are on Earth i.e. total destruction.

Children from Arktel witnessed the destruction of Tarjez and decided to take action because they saw similar trends happening in their world that could lead to Arktel’s destruction.

from http://www.planetarktel.com/Home.html

The Arktel website is not only about the book but also about how children here can save our planet.  It’s honest and straight-forward as well as being a brilliant educational resource for children, their carers  and their teachers.  It’s a heavy subject but unless we look it straight in the eye and acknowledge the crisis we are facing, we will never overcome it.  This book and its associated website challenges us not to get…

UPDATE:  Lancashire county councillors have rejected Cuadrilla’s application to drill for shale gas at Preston New Road.  Fantastic news and a huge relief!  Thank you to everyone who signed the petition.  Stay in touch with Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth because this is just the beginning.  According to the Guardian article, Cuadrilla will certainly appeal the decision and our Conservative government is extremely pro-fracking.  But we can stop them if we stick together.  A big thanks goes out to all the councillors on the committee who stood strong and voted against Cuadrilla’s application.

A critical decision on fracking is taking place in Lancashire. County councillors are set to either slam the doors on plans to drill for shale gas, or give way to the fracking industry.

After an initial vote, councillors have hit a deadlock. Seven have come out in support of fracking, with seven other councillors…

Make friends with cows

It’s easy, they’re lovely 🙂

Math and science are aspects of early childhood education that can be learned through plants.  Columbine and spider wart are two plants that have unique petals and leaves; each plant allows for children to learn about how a plant grows and incorporates numbers and patterns.

There are a couple of ways I will mention that a provocation for math and science can be set up for children to question, explore and learn from.  First I like to set up a potted plant or fresh cut flowers so that the children can admire the the plant and incorporate both art and literacy…

About:

These are tasty, light and flavoursome as well they’re incredibly easy to make if the dosa/crepes batter is handy. Personally, I’m particularly partial to a savoury muffin. You can whip up a batch in half an hour and have a perfect homemade offering to tuck into lunchboxes and picnic baskets, to enjoy as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack, or to serve with soup as a quirky alternative to a bread roll.

This recipe is versatile and can be adapted to be flavoured with whatever you might have on hand. You can include any veggie/greens for more

Makes: 10-12 muffins
Baking time: 18-20 minutes
Preparation time: 10 minutes

Do you know that American’s send 11 million tons of used textiles to landfills each year?  Many of these items are in great condition and simply get tossed into the trash can.  This averages out to about 65 pounds of textiles (clothing. linens, fabrics, etc) that head straight to the landfill.

Further, are you aware that synthetic (man-made fabrics) take many years to decompose (if they decompose at all-think about it, polyester is made from plastic water bottles and thus is essentially plastic).   It can take 30-40 years for nylon to decompose whereas cotton takes about 1-6 months.  (Clothing decomposes faster if it is cut into stripes).

Imagine, if you will, taking these unwanted textiles/clothing and turning them into something useful-a new creation!

Here are some pictures of jeans that have been rescued from the Goodlwill and upcycled.  What do you upcycle?  And which of these is your favorite…

Whether it be on your clothes, a cushion cover or a patchwork blanket – you can say it with knitting!

First of all decide what you want to write.  Then make a plan.

You’ll need some squared paper which you can buy or make yourself.  Each square on the paper will represent one stitch on your needle.  So number the squares and then mark out whatever you want to write in knitting.  Once you’ve worked out how many stitches wide your whole piece will be you can cast on in your background colour, and have your contrasting colour ready to use when you come to the stitches mapped out on your plan.  As you change colours you just string the other colour across the back of the knitting ready to use next time that colour is required by your plan – you don’t cut – just keep changing between colours…

There’s no need to print this out. Just save the picture; then open it in ‘Paint’ or equivalent picture editing program; increase size if necessary to make it a comfortable size to write on; choose a suitably-sized font and fill in the answers using the text tool.

Here are the answers

🙂

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crossword for kids