Next Gen Nursery Rhymes

To Romina, with love!

Special thanks to: The Butterfly Patch, Thames Ditton.

Miss Priya and Miss Williams.

Texts by: Camila Avilés Ilama Illustrations by: Camila Avilés Ilama MA Sustainable Design Kingston School of Art Kingston University London ©2019

The London Bridge, a historical landmark of England, is transformed into a welcoming symbol with this rhyme.

The song focuses on building ourselves up while celebrating our unique cultural heritage. What better place to do that than London?

The classical lullaby of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is set as a conversation where this magical being shares with a child how the world looks like from its position.

It talks about waste management from the recycling perspective as well as our role in keeping our planet tidy.

Clean energy comes from harnessing the natural resources our planet already has in responsible and safe ways.

The rhyme of It’s Raining, It’s Pouring introduces to children the concepts of Water Energy (Hydropower) as well as Wind Energy.

Protecting our environment has to do with so much more than just keeping the oceans plastic-free and saying no to animal poaching.

It is deeply rooted in our everyday decisions, whether it is our diet or how we share with others the harvest of our lands.

Mary, Johny is a take on the traditional rhyme Johny, Johny. It intends to be a conversation starter for parents to discuss water and food, a privilege not all have.

Also, a female name is introduced too as well as the possibility to reply to either the father, the mother or another guardian-figure like a grandparent; keeping equality in mind.

Head, shoulders, knees and toes is a rhyme that gets us up and moving thanks to its easy coreography. For this book, another equally important section of our body is incorporated: our mind.

The idea is to remind the little ones that a healthy person is one that takes care of both body and spirit.

Last but not least, the rhyme of I’m a Little Teapot is used to exemplify that objects can be repaired or who knows... even repurposed into something new.

In a world that promotes consumerism, we must set an example for younger generations to view objects as more than just discardable or replaceable items.

Want to do more?

Options-a-plenty!

Visit the Good Life Goals website for easy tips on how to be the change our world needs at www.goodlifegoals.org Check out the United Nation’s Act Now website for resources, challenges and more at www.un.org/en/actnow/ Or share this rhymes with family and friends so the Next Generation grows stronger!

Next Gen is a nursery rhyme book that is interested in normalising the aspects that sustainability deals with through rhyme, repetition and song. The stories are inspired by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and their individual targets to keep it educational and accurate.

Simply put, the traditional melodies we all know with a twist!

It intends to be the first nursery rhyme book that changes kids understanding of the world we live in by celebrating diversity, instilling environmental protection, promoting responsible consumption and more!