During the Covid-19 pandemic, children and adults are even MORE in need of the emotional intelligence skills that are at the heart of the POP-UP Festival. In past years, most POP-UP Festivals were in-person events, often with large groups of people together. Some communities can continue to do that, but for most of the world, we will need to adapt. PLEASE follow World Health Organization guidelines when planning your events, and only gather groups in-person if it’s safe to do so.

Fortunately it’s easy to participate in POP-UP Festivals safely with family-based POP-UPs and Virtual/Online POP-UPs. Here are tips:

Family-Based POP-UPs

The POP-UP Festival activities are perfect for a small group — such as a family! We suggest setting up a regular time for a family POP-UP Festival (just for example, every Saturday after lunch). Before you start, please help each family  member to take the pre-survey: http://6sec.org/popup/pre

  1. Pick one of the activities to do together as a family.
  2. Gather the materials described.
  3. Do the activity together and have a creative, playful, emotionally engaging learning time together.
  4. Post your family’s insights about the experience on social media along with pictures (if culturally appropriate) to share what you’re learning and invite others.
  5. If you have space, create a “gallery” where you collect your weekly family POP-UP creations… culminating in a special party on UNICEF World Children’s Day (November 20)

Then, after you’ve completed your series of activities, please help each family member take the post-POP-UP survey to help us assess the effectiveness of the project: https://6sec.org/popup/post

Virtual/Online POP-UPs

Here are two ways POP-UP Hosts can share the joy and learning of POP-UP Festival online:

One-Activity online POP-UP Festivals — with one Host

Many-Activity online POP-UP Festivals — with many Hosts

To host one activity (at a time) we suggest:

  1. Pick one of the activities in the Virtual Collection (these include tips for doing online; you are welcome to use ANY of the activities if you have experience adapting lessons to an online format yourself.
  2. Invite a group of participants (such as the children & adults in one classroom) to meet online at a specific date/time. Depending on the children’s ages, if could be children or children plus an older helper (eg a sibling or parent)
  3. In your invitation, tell the adults/older helpers what materials they will need to collect for the activity; we suggest sending a link to the activity page so the helper can see exactly what’s needed. See the sample invitation below
  4. In your invitation please share our PRE event survey: http://6sec.org/popup/pre
    Encourage all participants to fill it out (parents fill it in for kids). This survey helps us measure the effectiveness of our program.
  5. At the start of your online session, if applicable, have time for “check in” where participants say hello and share one of their feelings today.
  6. After giving instructions, you can play music while participants do the activity.
  7. Then, if technology allows and if applicable, you can make break-out groups online for small-group sharing
  8. At the end, ask a few participants to share one thing they liked about the activity
  9. Finally, remind everyone that we’re learning about emotions and the Sustainable Development Goals to celebrate UNICEF World Children’s Day on November 20!
  10. Send out the POST event survey to all participants so we can get results and learn how to improve the event: https://6sec.org/popup/post

 

Sample invitation – customize to suit your plans

It’s POP-UP Festival time! We’re gathering online for a POP-UP Festival in partnership with UNICEF World Children’s Day to learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals and emotional intelligence (see 6sec.org/popup for background).

This week’s activity: Emotion Garden

Materials needed: Please see this page and gather the materials listed here –

https://popup.6seconds.org/activity/emotion-garden/

Time and date:  [insert]

Location: We will meet here [insert URL]

Ages: This activity works well for people of all ages. Children under 6 will need an “older helper” when cutting out their flowers and writing words.

Safety: Every child joining needs a teen or adult in the room to supervise safe and respectful behavior. This person should log into the event and help the child participate in a way that’s safe and also appropriate in your family culture.

Hosted by: [insert names of hosts]

Help us out: Before you arrive at your POP-UP please take this PRE Event Survey to help us measure our program (and help your child take it too): http://6sec.org/popup/pre

Many-Activity online POP-UP Festivals

For ambitious POP-UP Festival Hosts… consider collaborating to do the same process above, but with many different activities. For example, you could have 10 hosts collaborating, and each 30 minutes during an afternoon, start a different activity!

It’s not quite as celebratory as meeting together in a park on a beautiful day of learning together… but you can create a safe, joyful, and memorable online event.

More Tips Online!

Please sure to share your ideas on our POP-UP Festival Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/eqpopup

Get even more Support!

In addition, experienced POP-UP Mentors will be holding free online sessions to learn and practice these ideas together. Check the Facebook group for more information.