Fading Rainbows - COVID19: Experiencing and Remembering the Pandemic

These lessons draw on an historical epidemic and think about how we remember it as a way to explore and allow expression of children’s experiences of the coronavirus. They draw on a historical scrapbook in the LSE Library and recorded conversations with academics on peoples’ experiences of the pandemic from around the world. It is part of a project with a pilot school and the LSE Festival.

The lessons embed Recovery Curriculum principles through encouraging discussion and reflection – these could be expanded in live online sessions or in the classroom when children return to school. It is an interdisciplinary mix of history, visual literacy, art / craft and PSHE. It is aimed at upper Key Stage 2 – Years 5 & 6 – but could be adapted for early KS3 Year 7.

Includes 3 videos to explain art techniques in scrapbooking - collage, text, mapping - along with some examples.

Outcomes:
• Learn about the 1918-20 Influenza Epidemic and understand that epidemics happened in history
• To understand that people were emotionally affected by events, such as influenza, in the past.
• To introduce forms of remembering around loss, e.g. war memorials, and historic events
• To enable the children to express their feelings about change in routine and freedom during the lockdown through art
• To recognise attachment and the importance of relationships, whether in a family, in a class, with friends or more short-term ones, like with health care providers or people doing deliveries
• To reassure children that worries and anxious feelings are shared and normal
• To individually and as a community, remember what is happening and create a message of hope for the future
• To build resilience.

There are resources and links listed at the end of these notes, plus a worksheet produced by an artist for each lesson to help children record their experiences of lockdown and the pandemic.

This is a pilot project so any feedback in the review section would be welcome.