Primary Years

Celebrate Children’s Week! Activities and inspiration

Prep to Year 3

Children’s Week is a celebration of all the things that make children special. It is a chance for the community to gather and recognise the unique talents, rights and achievements of children.

Children’s Week celebrates the right of children to enjoy their childhood.

This booklet contains ideas and activities that can be used across a range of settings – from early childhood centres, schools, libraries, community groups to home based learning settings.

The activities are designed to be open-ended, so they can easily be adapted depending on the resources, time, and abilities of the children in your setting.

The activities are designed to be flexible – use some ideas together with your regular activities or plan a series of sessions that build up to a larger celebration at the end of the week – it’s up to you.

Celebrating Children’s Week as a community is a great way to share the messages of Children’s Week with the wider community, raising awareness of children’s rights and the work of the UNCRC.

How to use this bookletThis year’s Children’s Week

National Theme for 2021 is based on UNCRC Article 15.

Children have the right to choose their own friends and safely

connect with others.

Understanding Article 15This year’s theme celebrates Article 15 - Children have the right to choose their own friends and safely connect with others.

Primary SchoolDuring the Primary School years, students need to navigate through more complex friendship issues. As they mature, children start to explore different interests and activities.

Parents and carers can support children in their friendships and activities by:

Providing an empathetic, listening ear when they are having friendship issues, but don’t get involved unless they ask you to.

Allowing children to make their own choices about their friends

Providing opportunities for them to socialise and connect with their friends

Allowing children to explore a wide range of social activities that interest them.

Every child is special and should have a safe, happy and healthy upbringing.

The United Nations, along with countries around the world, developed a set of rights to help every child reach their full potential. This document is known as ‘The Convention on the Rights of the Child’.

Talk to the children about their rights and explain why they are important.

Why are Children’s Rights important?

Younger children (3-12)Here are some simple examples for discussion:

to be treated fairly no matter what

to have a say about decisions affecting you

to grow up healthy in a clean environment

to live with your family

to be safe no matter where you are

to get an education

to play and have fun!

This short video from UNICEF Australia explains the meaning of ‘rights’ in a fun and engaging way: youtube.com/watch?v=V1BFLitBkco

These rights apply to all children from around the world.

What are Children’s Rights?

You have the right to live and grow up healthy

You have a right to live with your parents as long they look after you well

You have the right to be heard

You have the right to special care if you have been badly treated

You have the right to be raised by both of your parents and this should be supported by the government

You have the right to be given news and information, and it should be told to you in a way that you can understand

Children who live in a different country to either of their parents have the right to get back together as a family

If your family cannot look after you, you have the right to be looked after by people who respect your religion, culture and language

You have the right to a registered name and nationality

You have the right to clean water, healthy food and a clean environment

You have the right to be treated fairly and respectfully

You have the right to privacy

You have the right to support from the government if your family doesn’t have much money

You have the right to an education

Children who come to Australia as a refugee from another country have the same rights as children who were born in Australia

You have the right to rest, play and join in with lots of different types of activities

If you are disabled, you have the right to special care and support

You have the right to remain in your country

You have the right to meet other children by joining groups

You have the right to be protected from violence

You have the right to express yourself as long as you don’t hurt others

If you don’t live with your parents, you have the right to have your care reviewed often

If you have been adopted, what is best for you is most important

You have the right to enjoy your culture, no matter where you are from

If you break the law, you have the right to be treated fairly and not be put in prison with adults

Some resources to help children learn more about Children’s Rights

Share picture story books on children’s rights

I Have the Right to Be a Child by Alain Serres and illustrated by Aurélia Fronty

Welcome by Barroux

There’s a Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins

Alfie’s Big Wish by David Hardy

The Little Corroboree Frog by Tracey Holton-Ramirez and illustrated by Angela Ramirez

Respect by Fay Stewart-Muir Sue Lawson and illustrated by Lisa Kennedy

The Mighty Girl website (https://www.amightygirl.com/) has aged based and thematic book recommendations for social justice issues.

Your school or community librarians should also be able to guide you on book ideas.

Social and environmental justice events such as:

the 40-hour famine

hosting a walk-a-thon for an environmental cause

Clean Up Australia Day

Host a book drive

Donate books to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Celebrate with a song

Celebrate with the Children’s Week song, ‘Children of Australia’. The song, ‘Children of Australia’ by Don Spencer can be used as a welcoming song to Children’s Week celebrations, and as a literacy activity through reading the lyrics.

Young children

This short video from UNICEF Australia explains the meaning of ‘rights’ in a fun and engaging way: https://youtube.com/watch?v=V1BFLitBkco

Middle years

Behind the News (https://www.abc.net.au/btn/) from ABC Education have aged based short videos explaining children’s rights and the UNCRC.

Looking for some Children’s Week celebration inspiration? We’ve got you covered! Here is a list of some easy ideas you can do to celebrate Children’s Week.

Ways to celebrate Children’s Week

1. Host a dress up dayShow the students how much their rights mean to you and organise a fun dress up day! Blow up some balloons, bake some cupcakes and let the kids imaginations run wild as they dress up as their favourite character or animal, or letter themed costume.

2. Organise a morning teaInvite parents, grandparents or special friends to join children for a yummy morning tea to celebrate Children’s Week. Invite guests to bring a plate to make it even easier!

3. Create a time capsuleMake a time capsule on the theme of children or childhood. Ask children to place memorabilia such as drawings, stories or even photos in the time capsule to be opened in 10 years’ time.

4. Go on a family fun dayOrganise a special family fun day for parents and children to enjoy with lots of fun activities like tug-o-war, potato sack races and egg and spoon races. Or even a day out to the beach or a park!

5. Create an art exhibitionAsk children to draw colourful pictures of their family having fun together and showcase all the beautiful artwork on your walls. You could even invite parents, grandparents or special along to see the artwork.

Going online? In these uncertain times, you may need to shift your celebrations to an online format.

Here’s some ways to celebrate online without losing the fun.

Host a singalong or sea shanty session

Have a guess that baby competition – use pre-submitted photos to create a slideshow of baby photos and guess who’s who

Scan artworks and turn them into an online gallery or slideshow

Host a shared cooking class online – send out the recipe and ingredients list beforehand (or make up boxes that can be delivered)

Zoom with a local aged care home

Make a new friend with a pen-pal. Establish a pen pal relationship with someone somewhere else in the world. Join up with your family, friends or classmates. https://www.penpalschools.com/ and https://www.epals.com/#/connections are a great starting point

UNICEF has a series of Kahoot quizzes on children’s rights

At this age, children are recognising their place in the community and are expanding their understanding of their roles in their family, school, community, and groups. As they navigate friendships and their social roles, they are building on their sense of self – who they are, what their skills and talents are and what makes them special.

Key messages for Children’s Week at this age are centred around their rights to play, have friends and participate in activities.

Prep to Year 3 Activities

Activity 1 – People power artworksTrace the outline of each child on large pieces of paper (or have pre-drawn outlines ready).

Children can decorate these paper people and write inside “I have the right to…” for each article of the Convention (https://www.childrensweek.org.au/resources/rights-of-a-child/). Display these paper people so that others can see them and learn about children’s rights.

Alternatively, decorate the cut-outs with:

What makes me special – have children write the things that make them the same/different to others

Online learning tip: This concept could be adapted to online classrooms or learning environments by having children create a PowerPoint about one of the articles, a vision board for their future, or a ‘If I were Prime Minister for a day’ presentation.

Activity 2 - Patchwork quiltIn this activity, children will create a ‘patchwork quilt’ style display for the classroom or school entryway.

After discussing the theme of Children’s Week, hand out squares of coloured paper and invite each child to draw what it means to belong to a group. They might show school, community, sports or family groups and can use words with their images to create deeper meaning.

Assemble the squares to create a patchwork quilt.

Activity 3 - Games day Host a games day for children as a celebration of play and games.

Your games day might include:

Cup games with plastic cups, such as building the tallest pyramid, bowling or relay races

Cooperative games such as tug of war or Pictionary

Dancing games, such as Freeze and Bobs and statues

Children creating their own games for other classes to play. They can create their own set of rules and need to communicate them clearly to the other class.

Tip 1: An indoor alternative - Create a snakes and ladders game with a rights/responsibilities focus.

Activity 4Printable letters sheet (next page)

Community Celebrations: If hosting a community event consider displaying Indigenous flags and have an Acknowledgement of Country at the start of the event.

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