The summer program for children aged 6 to 12, aimed to help them recognize and address environmental issues affecting the neighborhood, and propose potential solutions from a child-centered perspective through experiments and games. Each day of the week, they reflected on various topics: waste, consumption, urban centralization, water and transport. At the end of each week, participants presented their adult caregivers with concrete actions they could take within their own spheres of influence, becoming heroes who care for their immediate surroundings.

A group of adolescents aged 13 to 17 gathered for a week to experiment with visual arts, sound art and cooking, using plants as the central theme of their work. Through a range of artistic disciplines, they developed hybrid characters, and explored them through comics, music, photography, costume design, and cooking. They were able to engage in different artistic processes and spend five days together, also connecting with the neighborhood through walks around the area.

The start of summer is conducive to the sighting of some butterfly species in the city. Taking advantage of the season and the garden as a habitat for these species, a workshop was organized for children and caregivers, who learned about the butterflies' life cycle and worked together to create a shelter for chrysalises and butterflies ahead of the rainy season.

As part of the activities of the Children’s Lending Program, this workshop was designed for children to create kinetic sand based on cornstarch, salt, baby oil, liquid soap and colorants. This material helped children stimulate their senses and imagination; each child chose a different color to make their sand. Once they finished, they were provided with toys to play, creating a shared space for creativity and play.

Pequeños y cortos was a screening for children in the neighborhood, featuring animated films of varying lengths, from short films to feature-length works, exploring environmental themes. The format of this series revived the practice of voluntary permanence, already extinct in current film projections. Thus, the participants could leave the room for a moment and take a workshop to create optical toys that would allow them to learn the basic principles of traditional animation. This projection was carried out in collaboration with Sistema de Teatros de la Ciudad de México, with the Sergio Magaña Theatre as its main ally.

Between Noises and Whispers was a concert for babies and young children through ambient music. Listeners could relate to the experimental and calm music. Throughout four programmed sets, there were moments of relaxation, intervened by children who made sounds with their toys, and instrument interventions to create a lullaby. The adults accompanying the children were able to learn ways to contain and produce rhythms of entertainment through sound, this being a tool of care and respectful play.

This workshop aimed to provide caregivers with a variety of strategies to support and encourage motor development of babies aged 6 to 18 months. Through a variety of activities, exercises were introduced to support babies' first steps, develop body awareness, and create safe spaces for play and exploration. Blankets were used as the main tool during the session; babies were gently rocked to rub the floor with their back to encourage body awareness and movement. In another exercise, the children were placed on the blanket and walked around the room, making the journey a playful and sensory experience.

To introduce children aged 6 to 12 to the collection at the Children's Lending Program, a games and toys rally was organized. We began with a fishing game, using a string fishing rod to catch wooden fish.  Then we worked as a team to put together a puzzle, then we built some LEGO houses and ships, in order to create a story; and finally, with blocks we challenged the participants to build a bridge in the garden. These games develop children's skills, creativity, imagination and problem-solving, as well as learning how to work as a team.

For six months, the third generation of the Santa María la Ribera Children's Council developed a documentary work on neighborhood issues affecting children's ability to play in public spaces. As a result of this work, they developed a short film where, through characters made with household utensils, they pointed out polluted scenarios and how difficult it is for children to play in spaces that are not well designed or safe for them to play.

As part of the cycle of activities of the Children's Lending Library aimed at early childhood, this workshop was held with the objective of providing simple and practical tools to stimulate the senses of children in the neighborhood. Using accessible materials such as balloons and seeds, four balls with different textures were made, ranging from the finest to the coarsest grain. These balls were subsequently used to generate tactile stimuli that promote the sensory development of the little ones.

As part of the activities programmed by the Children's Lending Service, the children of the neighborhood gathered for an afternoon of camaraderie with the board games available in our catalog. The attendees engaged in team strategy games; afterwards they let their creativity soar with a block game and finished by collectively assembling a puzzle.

This edition of Little Fridays made our morning fun with the screening of "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish", where children from the neighborhood accompanied Puss in Boots on his adventure to reclaim his lives, through this film full of emotion and laughter. Together we enjoyed a story that allowed us to present to the attendees the wide catalog of toys available within the Children's Toy Library, a neighborhood service provided for children.

In this edition of Kids' Fridays, the children visited the exhibition "Here is a house", where they explored the similarities and differences of living in the Santa María neighborhood and in Milpa Alta. Within the facilities of the Museum of Geology, the participants took a tour of the exhibition and carried out the didactic interventions that make up the experience. At the end, both the children and their companions left a postcard to communicate with a friend from Milpa Alta. Additionally, they intervened the book with drawings, stamps, and photographs, leaving their interest in visiting the place that inspired the exhibition imprinted.

This activity was scheduled for mothers, fathers, and caregivers of early childhoods who are looking for early stimulation elements through toys from the Children's Lending Service. On this occasion, some toys and books from the collection were used to demonstrate some exercises replicable at home that allow visual stimulation in babies, as well as approaching children through secure attachment.

With the aim of promoting good eating habits in our children, a talk was given about the healthy eating plate. Subsequently, a tasting of a series of ingredients selected by the children that can be integrated into a healthy diet was offered. They finished by making rice balls, incorporating the previously reviewed ingredients. These were shared among them and also taken home.

In early 2026, the third generation of the Children’s Council presented work created by all three generations of children have created and that was shown on the display panels located within the Alameda sorrounding the Morisco Kiosk. The panels graphically reflect the achievements obtained through their proposals and actions; and invite more children in the neighborhood to be inspired and join this project.

Between February and April, the current directors created “El carrito de los remedios”: a cart they took around the neighborhood to identify problems affecting public space. From May to July, the council members worked on the production of a short film entitled "The Kiosk and the Battle for Santa María la Ribera" in which they used fantastical characters to denounce the challenges faced by children in the neighborhood.

In order to promote reading, affirm a sense of home identity, and foster dialogue about the diversity of homes, participating children engaged in artistic activities, active listening, and the sharing of opinions to collaboratively create a reading intervention using an accordion-style piece that simulates the facilities of Casa Gallina.

The children who frequently visit Casa Gallina suggested a sports workshop on ideas about safe bicycle mobility. The activities focused on teaching basic notions for responsible mobility through the city streets, as well as offering guidance and support to children who wished to learn how to ride a bicycle from a beginner level. The participants carried out a rally through the orchard facilities, in which they applied the measures they learned.

During this session, the participants created a portable ofrenda inspired by the figure of xoloitzcuintle as a symbolic mediator between different planes of existence.

The activity started from the narration of a legend, which served as an imaginative catalyst and conceptual framework for the exercise. From this, the children built a cardboard altar intervened in vivid tones and self-made crepe paper elements. Subsequently, they modeled a figure with aluminum and tape masking, integrated as the centerpiece of the offering.

“Little Fridays” is an initiative that emerged from children’s need to make the most of the last Friday of each month—set aside for teachers’ pedagogical council meetings—by engaging in artistic, sports, culinary, and community-oriented activities.

In this edition, the skate workshop for children was held, whose objective was to introduce the participants to the basic notions of this discipline. They progressively developed activities. It began with basic exercises, such as getting on the skateboard and maintaining balance, and later progressed to more complex practices, including performing turns on a ramp. As a result, we could observe how those who participated developed basic proficiency in using the skateboard use and showed greater interest in practicing skate.

The Children's Lending Program is a collection of childcare and development items such as strollers, bicycles, early stimulation games, musical instruments, among others, available for free loan to neighborhood residents. It has become a space for free play and exchange among children, as well as their adult guardians. The collection has been built mostly by donated items and reopens every 15 days.

The Santa María la Ribera Children's Council is an ongoing program of work sessions with children between the ages of 5 and 13 to create a space for child participation. The group has focused on conducting neighborhood assessments, creating a network of local businesses committed to child protection, creating reports on safety in the neighborhood, as well as strengthening their voice as agents of change and decision-making in the place they inhabit. The long-term objective of this project is to achieve safe mobility, autonomy, and self-care among children.

The summer course Ecopunk Summer, aimed at teenagers between 13 and 17 years old, was held. Through walks within the neighborhood, it was proposed that attendees would find ways to rediscover their environment by imagining new ways of inhabiting the city integrated into the ecosystem. During that week, urban exploration exercises were carried out, as well as the use of editing tools for social media and the use of artificial intelligence to design urban architecture for a possible more sustainable future.

Participants: 45 girls and boys, residents of Santa María la Ribera

The summer course City Kids: exploring Milpa Alta was held, where girls and boys participated in artistic, cultural, planting, and food-related activities, all linked to the territory of Milpa Alta. Under the guidance of mediator Martha Garay, the participants explored this region through playful dynamics. During the course, they were accompanied by a craftswoman, an illustrator, and a writer from Milpa Alta, who shared their knowledge about traditions such as the Chinelos dance, the use of the loom, and the creation of pigments, among others. Additionally, the participants visited the exhibition Rains and Dry Spells. The Ancestral Vision of Time in Milpa Alta, where plastic artist Melissa Paredes led an artistic activity with the participating children.

The program “El Huertito” aims to recover and adapt green spaces within the facilities of preschools and kindergartens in the neighborhood. For the implementation of this project, during the month of April, we worked with the Elena Zapata kindergarten. The goal was to create living classrooms and learning gardens for the school community. For the first sessions of this program, the discovery of and approach to seeds was encouraged through games and stories, to then move on in a second stage to direct work with them involving germination, planting, and continuous care of the garden.

In a single session, toddlers had the chance to approach, through play, the musical expressions that surround our local nature, accompanied by traditional music and dancing from Veracruz.

Workshop for children that shared stories, legends, songs and words, led by professor Jesús Hernández, who developed a methodology to learn didxazá (Zapotec) in Ixtepec, state of Oaxaca. The workshop focused on understanding the link that exists between language and cosmovision, using music as a learning tool that connects feelings and understanding.

The summer course City Kids – Exploring Milpa Alta was held, wherein girls and boys participated in artistic, cultural, planting and nutritional activities, all linked to the territory of Milpa Alta. Under the guidance of mediator Martha Garay, the participants explored this region through entertaining dynamics. During the course, they were accompanied by an artisan, an illustrator and a writer from Milpa Alta, who shared their knowledge on traditions such as the Chinelos dance, how to use a loom and create pigments, among others. Furthermore, the participants visited the exhibition Rainy and Dry. The Ancestral Vision of Time in Milpa Alta where they artist Melissa Paredes led an artistic activity with the children.

The summer course Ecopunk Summer was aimed at adolescents aged between 13 and 17. Through a variety of walks in the neighborhood, the participants were asked to find ways to rediscover their surroundings, imagining new ways of inhabiting the city, that are integrated to the ecosystem. Over the course of that week, they held urban exploration exercises and learned how to employ editing tools for social media and to use of AI to design urban architecture for a possible, more sustainable, future.

From the cosmos to the Earth, children discussed the main scientific theories regarding the origin of life on Earth, collected minerals from the Casa Gallina garden to analyze them in a microscope searching for traces of stardust, and made collages to create their own living beings, assigning them biological characteristics as well: the type of food they eat, mobility and symbiotic relationships with other organisms.

One of the most emblematic theaters in Santa María la Ribera hosted the première of the short film La Santamasimbiosis, created by girls and boys from Santa María la Ribera during the Holobiont Neighborhood workshop led by Gabriela Martínez, Diego Suárez and Andrea Fernández. The show included screenings of the shorts Nanita Pahtli (Traditional Medicine), El zapateado mágico (Magical Dancing) and El camino de la serpiente (The Route of the Serpent), produced by Cine bajo el cielo A.C. and made by children in the communities of Tlaquilpa, Playa Vicente and La Cuesta in the state of Veracruz. As well as El mensaje del bosque (The Message From the Forest), made by Taller sentir naturaleza, in the communities of La Cumbre, Crecencio Morales and Zitácuaro in the state of Michoacán. The girl and boy who participated put up an exhibition in the theater's gallery, to complement it with the elements of their short films. After the screening they answered questions and comments from the public in attendance.

La Santamasimbiosis is an animated short created by girls and boys in the framework of the workshop “Holobiont Neighborhood”, held in Casa Gallina during 2021. Based on its narrative, the families who attended the screening participated in a game of collective character creation that addressed the notion of interspecies symbiosis.

The artist Emily CD created a mural inspired by plants that hold significance for the users and inhabitants of the Tlatelolco and Casa Gallina gardens: cress, hoja santa, white strawberry, xonacate, sunflowers. Both communities spoke about their experiences in urban agriculture and their links with the plants depicted in the mural.

Over the two sessions of My Imaginary Garden, girls, boys and adults were able to recognize various gardens located in the neighborhood. Through walks in the gardens and Casa Gallina’s orchard, they recognized the diversity of plants and flowers, along with the characteristics of the species living there. Each participant was able to create an imaginary garden using different artistic techniques by means of observing neighboring gardens.

Hands to Earth was a cycle of workshops where very young girls and boys learned the basic elements of urban agriculture and orchards through their senses. With sessions focused on germination, a sensorama, dispersion of balls of seeds and self-watering plant pots, the children and their tutors learned about agricultural processes and how to replicate them at home.