Kindergarten-Grade 1

Child Rights Activities

There are overwhelming numbers of great resources from different agencies in Canada
and around the world. Here are a few suggested activities that might work for your
students, based on each learning goal listed above. These activities are designed to
engage young people (ages 5-7) to learn more about child rights, in honour of National
Child Day. The overarching theme is to explore building a sense of belonging/
connection. Activities also focus on the right to be heard (Article 4 and Article 12 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which discuss governments’ responsibility to
promote and protect child rights and their right to be heard).

What are the Learning Goals?

The learning outcomes of the workshop at the kindergarten and grade 1 levels are for
children to:
1. Learn about the 4 Be’s be healthy, be safe, be heard and be myself.
2. Learn the difference between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’, how they relate to ‘rights’ and
who can help protect your rights (i.e. who has ‘responsibilities’).
3. Activate children’s expression through their ideas/drawings about what is
needed for them to be healthy, be safe, be heard, and be myself.

Learning about child rights meets several BC Curriculum Connections for Kindergarten
and Grade 1 (Source: UNICEF)

We encourage you to choose the ones that will work best in your classroom and with
your students.

List of activities:
Activity 1. Introducing Rights
Activity 2. The Four Be’s
Activity 3. The Rights Web
Activity 4. Do we want it or need it?
Activity 5. Fishing for rights
Activity 6. Draw a postcard to the Mayor

Materials you will need:

  • Pencils and crayons
  • A ball of yarn
  • A small suitcase, box, or tote bag filled with items or images
    of the items with tags (including articles to the Convention of the Rights of the
    Child –CRC)
  • “Fish line” with magnets where kids can ‘fish’ for a match and a bag for placing the ‘fish’. We can lend a set for Victoria-based teachers.
  • Poster for the United Nations Child Friendly Convention on the Rights of the Child (Source: UNICEF.ca)
  • Child rights postcard 
  • A projector and the video given link.

Learning Outcome 1 – Learn about the 4 Be’s be healthy, be safe, be heard and be myself

Key Activities:

Learning Outcome 2 – Learn the difference between ‘needs’, ‘wants’,  ‘rights’, and ‘responsibilities’

Note: Activities 4, 5, and 6 are ideal in a setting where there are 3 facilitators and students rotate among the activities. One teacher can divide the group in 2 and invite students to do activity 5 on their own while the teacher facilitates activity 3 or 4.

Alternatively, the teacher will do one activity at the time, in 3 groups depending on numbers.

Key Activities:

Learning Outcome 3: Activate children’s expression through their ideas/drawings about what is needed for them to be healthy, be safe, be heard,
and be myself

Key Activities:

This outline is also available in Arabic – Grade 1 – Arabic