Ten Activities for Kids During a Pandemic

While COVID-19 has affected everyone deeply, immigrants and refugees to the United States are particularly vulnerable. Here are ten activities for you and your kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews to do during the pandemic!  How can we continue to learn, grow in our understanding, and support immigrants and refugees?

1. Watch a video

about global refugees from FilmAID and talk about what you noticed. FilmAid uses film and media to amplify the voices of refugees. 

2. Create a poster

welcoming immigrants and refugees to your community. Post your creations on social media. (Consider including what you like about your community, including resources that might be helpful to newcomers, share why you are happy for them to join your community.)  

3. Make a family prayer jar or mealtime fact jar about immigrants and refugees. 

30 Days of Prayer Jar 

30 Mealtime Facts Jar 

4. Chose a book to read as a family and discuss it.

Some ideas: 

Migrant by Maxine Trottier 

We Came to American by Faith Ringgold

Goodbye, 382 Shin Dang Dong by Frances Park

The Name Jar by Yansook Choi

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez by Kathleen Kroll

The Distance Between Us: Young Readers Edition by Reyna Grande 

5. Practice letter writing skills

by sending a thoughtful letter to your Congressional representative. Share how immigrants and refugees have made a difference in your life and community. 

• Be brief. Use your own words and personal stories.

• Close the letter requesting action. 

• Thank the Congressperson for his or her time. 

• Find addresses here.

6. Create a school kit for refugee students

through Mennonite Central Committee. Kids who have been forced to flee their homes continue to need supplies to further their learning.

7. Think about immigration through play.

Help young people imagine leaving their homes for a new place. Give them one small suitcase or backpack. Encourage kids the put what they think they might need in the bag. Talk about their choices. Discuss what essential items they might need for a long journey like medicine, a blanket, flashlight, food, water bottle, bandaids, a stuffed animal, or a small toy. Ask how they might decide what to bring along or what to leave behind. 

8. Connect with your family about their own immigration journey.

During social distancing grandparents or relatives love phone calls or video calls from young people. Interview a family member about what countries your relatives immigrated from to America, or if your family is Indigenous, or if they came to the United States through slave-trade. 

Hint!  The Immigration is Our Story Project is a great place to get started!

9. If your family has extra resources

consider gathering funds for an organization that might help immigrant families during the COVID-19 crisis. (You could even make this a math lesson by figuring out how much gas money your family has saved by not driving as often and donate that amount.) Support an organization below or find one local to your area. 

Immigrant Families Together

Raices

Families Belong Together 

KIND: Kids in Need of Defense 

Innovation Law Lab

10. Have a conversation about essential workers.

Talk about the importance of keeping the food supply chain going so people do not experience hunger. Many people who work at grocery stores, restaurants, meat-packing plants, farmworkers, truck drivers, delivery personnel are immigrants and refugees to the United States. Talk about what we can do to protect these workers. Ask whether we honor their contribution through respect, fair wages, insurance, and documented statuses. 

Interested in more ideas to do with your family? Check out lisavanengen.com and the book And Social Justice for All: Empowering Families, Churches, and Schools to Make a Difference in God’s World.

Photo by Rachel on Unsplash