Ways to help the environment
In Grandma’s Footsteps, Hy Knowshole reminds us that we all have a role to play in having clean air, and a healthy and safe planet. You can follow in their footsteps by taking action on air pollution and climate change, watching the weather, and sharing the story with others.
What can I do about air pollution?
Like the family of Knowsholes in Grandma’s Footsteps, you could try out ways to make the air cleaner on Earth. Children and adults could have a go at:
Walking, cycling, scooting, or using public transport instead of a car
Turning off the car engine when sitting in traffic
Avoiding burning things
Using low-chemical cleaning, DIY and personal care products
Talking to other children and adults about how they can make less air pollution too
Making your own clean air campaign by drawing posters or writing letters to people in your local area
In Grandma’s Footsteps, people living in Etherley and Palloncini try to protect themselves from dirty air. You can also protect yourself from air pollution in the area you live. Children and adults could have a go at:
Getting fresh air inside by opening windows, but closing them when there is lots of traffic outside
Opening windows when cooking, cleaning or burning candles
Ask your parents or carers to service the boiler in your home to make sure it isn’t releasing harmful gases
Using fragrance-free hand soap, body wash, shampoo
Keeping away from the edge of the road when you are walking or scooting
Walking, cycling or scooting along quieter roads or at quieter times
What can I do about climate change?
Hy Knowshole set off to find out what the people of Etherley should do about the city being out of balance. Like Hy, you could try out ways to protect our planet from climate change. Children and adults could have a go at:
Walking, cycling, scooting, or using public transport instead of a car
Using less energy by turning off lights, televisions or games consoles when not using them
Eating less meat and dairy
Switching to a renewable energy supplier
Using less water, by taking shorter showers
Reducing what you buy, reusing things, and recycling what you can
Talking to other children and adults about how they can tackle climate change
Making your own climate change action campaign by drawing posters or writing letters to people in your local area
What can I do to watch the weather?
You can keep a weather diary, just like the Watchers in Grandma’s Footsteps.
Take notes about the weather each day and perhaps record what it is like in the morning and the afternoon. Go outside, or open a window, and notice if it is warm, sunny, cloudy, rainy or windy. Or, is it a mixture?
If you want to study the weather more, you could:
Record the temperature at different times of the day
Measure rainfall or discuss different ways you could measure it
Note down the clouds you can see – perhaps even identifying the types
Measure the wind speed and direction or learn about how wind is formed
Think about how air pressure affects the weather
Record sunrise and sunset times in different seasons
Join the conversation online
Follow #GrandmasFootstepsStory on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
If you’ve read Grandma’s Footsteps, you might like to recommend the story to someone else.
You might also like to write a review of Grandma’s Footsteps on social media. Maybe start by describing what the story is about in a couple of sentences, or saying what you liked about it.
