A set of seven digital animations created by and for children, first introducing the project and then one for each activity during Phase One (English school holidays - July-August 2020). These combine stop-start animation, cartoons, line drawings, collage and photographs to visually communicate the project as well as illustrating the variety of creative possibilities. There are six weeks of activities, each with a theme and an associated activity sheet with creative resources which provided a digital and printable text to prompt, stimulate and encourage children’s reflections.As the UK moved into lockdown in March 2020 and schools closed for almost all children, we began developing our ‘Corona Chronicles’ research with children. The research was designed to support children to visually chronicle life during the coronavirus pandemic and what supports their wellbeing. We developed a creative approach to meet the specific challenges of carrying out research with children during a time when the pandemic measures meant face-to-face research was not possible. A set of seven digital animations were created by and for children, first introducing the project and then one for each activity during Phase One (English school holidays - July-August 2020). These combine stop-start animation, cartoons, line drawings, collage and photographs to visually communicate the project as well as illustrating the variety of creative possibilities and the encouragement to work with 'any combination of these’. There were six weeks of activity in this first phase of the project, each with a theme and an associated activity sheet with creative resources which provided a digital and printable text to prompt, stimulate and encourage children’s reflections. The six themes were developed from research by the Children’s Society Ways to wellbeing: Exploring the links between children’s activities & subjective wellbeing (2014) which have been adapted to help children to reflect on their experiences during the pandemic. The activity sheets and videos are freely available to anyone interested in supporting and/or researching with children during the pandemic.

A set of seven digital animations created by and for children, first introducing the project and then one for each activity during Phase One (English school holidays - July-August 2020). These combine stop-start animation, cartoons, line drawings, collage and photographs to visually communicate the project as well as illustrating the variety of creative possibilities. There are six weeks of activities, each with a theme and an associated activity sheet with creative resources which provided a digital and printable text to prompt, stimulate and encourage children’s reflections. Sixteen children, aged 9-10 (school year 5) from four schools located in some of the most disadvantaged wards in the UK participated in the study. Children who are vulnerable and disadvantaged are included in the sample. This includes children who are disadvantaged economically, for example children who are in receipt of or are eligible for free school meals and children living in families who are in receipt of low-income benefits/Tax Credits. The sample also includes children who have been in the care of their local authority and have either lived with foster parents or are children who cannot be brought up within their birth family, and have become full, permanent, and legal members of a new family. Children who are vulnerable are included, for example those growing up with adversities that could affect their lives, wellbeing and life chances, and are likely to be more at risk under lockdown (Andrew et. al., 2020; Armitage and Nellums, 2020). Children with special educational needs, children of key-workers and digitally excluded children are included in the sample.