Family Permaculture lesson ideas:
To be developed into lesson plans

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People: self care
  1. Thich Nhat Hanh pebble meditation
  2. Meditations from 'Relax kids' book
  3. Natural craft and imagination enhancing activities: 
  4. Clay and stick creatures
  5. Puppet making and magical creatures
  6. Willow weaving
  7. Earth loom weaving
  8. Natural dying
  9. Felting
  10. Story stick making
  11. Many more from kids art resource books, so long as they fit with and enhance the ethics of permaculture
  12. Storytelling
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People: community building
  1. Working together to make story pictures on the ground out of natural and found materials
  2. Earth loom weaving
  3. Interactive games that initiate co-operation not competition
  4. N.V.C. practice for children and families (From Marshall Rosenburg)
  5. Theatre and storytelling in a group
  6. Group singing and chanting
  7. Gratitude and blessings at meal times
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Gardening skills
  1. Making seed bombs together
  2. Many activities in Roots Shoots Buckets and Boots book
  3. Many activities for young children in Gardening with Young Children
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Food
  1. Wild foraging, and then making juice/cordial/tonics/cakes/other recipes
  2. Use Neals Yard, Natures children and Evies kitchen books to prepare meals both with the children and for the children
  3. Making pickles and jams -kombucha and kimchee for older children
  4. Forage and identify from the garden, pick and prepare (to strengthen association of where food comes from)
  5. Mushroom harvesting
  6. Drying apple rings and other seasonal fruit
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Natural environment
  1. Natural dying and felting 
  2. Role play theatre games of the science of soil, water and air
  3. Using our bodies and natural objects to make patterns we see in nature
  4. Treasure hunt/bingo to find specific patterns in nature, from pre-made cards of patterns
  5. Finding natural pigments and body painting
  6. Make a bird feeder
  7. Making bird, bee and bug houses. 
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Built environment
  1. Building from sticks, stones, clay, string
  2. Sandpit modelling, with water added to create river/pond etc
  3. Tree houses/fairy houses (depending on age, time, and ability)
  4. Building a wormery
  5. Cardboard box castles 
  6. Cob building, small scale (eg fairy house) or together with adults
  7. Develop ideas for house (from drawings, story, etc) for magical/fictional creature, and build
  8. Make a den/shelter and use the space for story's and feasts..
  9. Building a giant birds nest
  10. Making a waterwheel
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Observation skills
  1. Observing our bird, bee or bug house over the length of the course. recording on a large chart what we see and how often.
  2. Animal tracking
  3. Treasure hunts
  4. Owl eyes and sit spots
  5. Making sun dials
  6. Tracking sun and moon in other ways
  7. Looking for patterns in nature
  8. Pond dipping - identifying insects and animals 
  9. Collect snails/caterpillars/insects/frogspawn on first day and record them over the course
  10. Tracking with sticks (from Stick book)
  11. Butterfly/bird making in 3D - to hang on string, and flutter.. make realistic from pictures
  12. Mandala making - with natural objects and with natural paints
  13. Observing and identifying animal poo
  14. Many other ideas from Run Wild book

Listening skills
  1. Owl ears - how many sounds can you hear?
  2. Listen and repeat games
  3. Birdsong ID - listen, slow it down, copy, record our own version, and speed it up to play back to the birds!
  4. Think and listen activities
  5. Listening skills games - listen to instructions and complete fun tasks
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Reading the landscape
  1. Mapping, with toy farm animals and 3D materials/ lego/playdough
  2. Mapping the garden through drawing and physical interaction, with strings, ribbons, chalks etc
  3. Tracking the flow of water - waterwheels, dams and canal making
  4. Tracking the sun through making a sundial
  5. Measuring by pacing
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Design skills
  1. Inputs and outputs games for animals/children
  2. Sandpit modelling of potential garden site - using animals and toys to create the scene.. adding water
  3. 3D model making, creating an ideal home/neighbourhood/school layout, can build in paper and/or recycled materials 
  4. Sector games - using different coloured flags children can dress up as sun and wind and find their places and run around after identifying where they flow in the garden
  5. Introducing mind maps 
  6. Zone ID - home, school etc.. drawing out together
  7. Digging swales
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Trees
  1. Tree ID, from found leaves/bark/seeds, and ID cards
  2. Identify birds and insects that like each specific tree, make them a bird/bug box
  3. Story of The man who planted trees - can also be in puppets
  4. Create a woodland log book - catalogue things seen in the forest

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Appropriate technology
  1. Water power - building water wheels
  2. See saw power - develop lesson ideas?
  3. Bicycle power - develop lesson ideas?
  4. Wormery and composting
  5. Candle making
  6. Lantern making
  7. Cob oven building (with adults)
  8. Many more ideas in Earth, water, fire and air book