Foxton Locks WOW volunteers visit primary schools
FREE canal workshop and visit for schools in Leicestershire
Is your school in Leicestershire? Why not book a WOW volunteer visit to you school?
In June and July WOW education volunteers based at Foxton Locks in Leicestershire visited local schools. The children were engaged in a variety of lively activities that allowed them to learn more about canals and water safety.
The children were asked to consider a number of questions: What are canals? Why were they built? How are they different to rivers? To answer these questions and to emphasise the importance of water safety, various interactive activities took place over a two hour period.
The “Build a canal” activity based in a sandpit was particularly popular with the children. Who was going to be the engineer to plan the route? Who were the navvies to build the canal? What important job did the farm animals have in canal building?
A power point presentation provided the focus for class discussion: What were the differences between canals and rivers? How were the canals used? How do locks work? What is happening to canals today? What do the initials S.A.F.E. stand for?
A water safety quiz provided competition between different groups. Who could get the highest score? A booklet given to the children gave them the opportunity to consider all aspects of water safety near to canals, rivers and reservoirs. They were looking forward to using the questions at the back to test their parents!
Another highlight of the visit was the craft activity in which the children coloured, cut-out and assembled their own “narrow boat” to take home. This provoked much discussion: What colours should I use? What name shall I call my boat? Can I put curtains in the window? Will we get the boats assembled before the end of the lesson? These and many other questions provided an action-packed end to the session!
The children were very responsive to all the activities and the teachers commented on the enthusiasm and interest the visit had created for the children.
The Foxton team of education volunteers are looking forward to visiting other schools over the months ahead. If you are interested in booking a visit please register your interest by emailing WOW wow@britishwaterways.co.uk and we will contact you to arrange a date. Remember there is no charge for the visit or the resources provided.
We look forward to meeting you and your class!
Foxton Locks Education Volunteers
