Little citizens: ready to act

Use this project kit to help children aged 3-6 spot everyday risks around them and take simple, practical steps to prepare, respond and help others.

Two little girls enjoy walking together in a city park on a sunny day.

Kyryl Gorlov / Adobe Stock

This project kit is based on the Little citizens eTwinning project, in which children explored social and environmental issues in their neighbourhoods and local communities, proposed solutions and took action together with partner schools.

Developing resilience and preparedness skills encourages children to think ahead, recognise potential risks and explore simple ways to prepare, respond and help others.

Teachers who took part in this eTwinning project share their reflections in this short video:

Objectives

Through different activities, pupils can learn to:

observe their surroundings and notice everyday problems or potential risks
name what could go wrong and think ahead about how to prevent it
suggest simple, realistic solutions
take part in a small collective action that makes their school or neighbourhood safer, kinder or more sustainable
talk about their experience and what they would do differently next time.

Orientation

Before choosing an action with your class, explore together with your pupils which everyday topic to focus on. Through short discussions or observation activities, children can talk about things in their school and neighbourhood that concern or interest them. You can then help connect these observations to a broader theme, for example:

accessibility
helping others
caring for shared spaces (e.g. tidiness)
preparedness.

You can pick one theme or combine several across the year, depending on your pupils' interests and local context.

Collaboration

Activity 1: Notice and share

During a walk around the school or neighbourhood (or as a ‘weekend mission’ with families), ask the children to take photos or make drawings of something that worries them or could be improved.
Back in class, your pupils can share their observations and present their findings (e.g. on a large poster or floor map). They can then sort them into simple categories (e.g. ‘things that could hurt us’, ‘things we can fix’, ‘people who can help’).

Activity 2: Propose and compare

In small groups, ask the children to brainstorm and draw one possible solution or action for a chosen problem, using simple question to guide them (‘What could we do?’, ‘Who can help us?’).
Organise a short online meeting for the classes (or exchange recorded videos) so that pupils can show their neighbourhood problems and proposed solutions (through photos, drawings, stories). You can then encourage them to compare what is similar or different across countries.

Activity 3: Solving the problem together

After sharing their observations, invite the children to vote for a problem they have in common with their partner schools (e.g. they all notice a lot of rubbish in their neighbourhoods).
Together, explore what can happen when there is too much rubbish and who may be affected.
Then, guide the children in collaboratively creating a poster, banner or leaflet with simple messages about how to help solve the problem. The main version can be created in English, while each class also makes a version in its own language.

Activity 4: Take action

Each class carries out a practical action to address the chosen problem, such as a small clean-up, a playground safety rule or a ‘help card’ for younger children or grown-ups.
You can encourage the children to share their previously made posters, banners or leaflets with the neighbourhood.
Then, invite the classes to exchange photos, drawings or short videos of their action with partner schools, building a joint ‘book of little actions’ on the TwinSpace. You can use the StoryJumper online tool to create a digital book.

For inspiration, here are some photos from different activities in the Little Citizens eTwinning project:

Project activities at Tallinn Sõbrakese Kindergarten

Project activities at Kindergarten of Avlonari

Evaluation & Assessment

Evaluation should focus on children's participation, understanding and ability to suggest and carry out actions rather than on a final product.

You can observe how children take part in discussions and group work, and use simple visual checklists (such as faces or stickers) to help them self-assess how they felt about helping others or solving a problem. It is also useful to note whether children can name a risk, suggest a solution and describe the action taken, even briefly and in their own words. Teacher observations, photos and drawings can then be collected as evidence of engagement and understanding and shared with partner schools and families.

Follow up

You can promote a clean-up action in the school’s local community as a call to action for more people to join.

Project results can be shared on school websites and social networks.

For inspiration, here is a presentation of the final results of the Little Citizens eTwinning project.

Additional information

Age from:

up to 3
Age to:

6
Difficulty:

Easy
Target audience:

Teacher

Student teacher

School leader

Teacher educator
Education levels:

Early childhood

Little citizens: ready to act

Additional information

Topics

Education levels