Make a magnificent monument

You’ll need

Camera or phone
Clean items of recycling
PVA glue
Sticky tape
A4 paper
Pens or pencils
Something to protect surfaces (for example, newspaper or tablecloths)
Maps of your local area
Local history books or leaflets

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and setting up this activity

Look up local monuments such as statues, plaques, and historical places.
Create a walking route that passes about four monuments. You could start from your usual meeting place or from a monument – and it’s up to you where you finish. You could check to see if a local museum or tourist centre already has a suggested route.
Prepare some information about each monument you’ll pass so the adults (or older young people) can explain a bit about each.
Make sure everyone knows they’ll be going on a walk. Get parental permission and give them a list of things to bring, including trainers or walking shoes, a water bottle, and clothes suitable for the weather.
Think about any other material you may want to use to make the monuments. For example, foil, wood, salt dough, clay, craft materials or natural materials.

Running this activity

Everyone should split into groups and at least one adult should be with each group.
The groups should set off on their walk. They should follow the planned route and see if they can find any more monuments along the way. You might want to set groups off at staggered times or have different routes, so they don’t all bunch together.
Whenever a group reaches a monument, they should see if there’s any information on or near it. If not, the adult should have some information to share.
Everyone should think about what they know or can find out. Is the monument about a person or thing? How does it link to the local area? Why’s it there?
Someone in each group should take pictures of the monument.
Keep going on the walk, pausing to repeat steps three to five at each monument, until they reach the end of the route.
Back at the meeting place, lay out pictures of monuments and any information, books, or leaflets. It’s great if you can print the pictures for this.
Give everyone a pencil and some paper.
Everyone should imagine the monument they’d like to create. Is it a statue, a building, or something else? Does it look like any of the monuments they saw on their walk?
Think about the materials they’d like to use to make their monument. They should label their drawings to show what they’ll use for each bit, then write a list of things to gather.
Let everyone gather their materials and take what they need.
Everyone should use the glue and sticky tape to put the materials together and create their monument.
Once everyone’s finished their monument, they should give it a name. They could also come up with a story about who built it and why it exists!

Reflection

This activity helped remind everyone that they’re a local citizen as they discovered a bit about the history of local monuments. People may have walked past these monuments before without really stopping to look – maybe some people even walk past them often. Why do you think people have monuments? People might think about remembering important events, commemorating brave or important people, or celebrating things. What did people learn about their local area from the monuments?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Outdoor activities: You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
Online safety: Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.
Phones and cameras: Make sure parents and carers are aware and have given consent for photography.