National Child Day

Lesson Plans, Games and Activities – Non-Government Web sites

Child Rights Related Activities and Curriculum Sites for Children and Youth (Primary/Secondary)

Educational Levels Legend:
Below Grade 2
Grades 2-4
Grades 5-7
Grades 8-10
Grades 11-12

Australian Human Rights Commission
A series of activities on children's rights aimed at helping secondary students to: understand the difference between rights and wants; research important aspects of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; appreciate important rights; and consider the rights issues that children in Australian immigration detention centres faced prior to policy change.

Canada's National History Society - Discover Your Community - Lesson Plans 
Numerous lesson plans targeted at students in different Grades on themes in Canadian history such as the environment, First Nations, French Canada, national politics, immigration and women. Aims to make students more aware and appreciative of Canadian heritage.

Canadian Child Care Federation
A set of resources such as short stories, discussion sessions and other activities to help build partnerships between families and child care practitioners in support of children's social well-being. Workshop topics include: cultural identity, self-esteem, language and literacy, positive social behaviour, and families.

Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children – Resources
A variety of resources on children's rights, including: a series of booklets on the Convention on the Rights of the Child in Canada for people who work for or with children; a curriculum resource on Children's Rights and Global Citizenship for Grade 11/12 students; and an information guide on children's rights in Canada.

Centre for Diversity - Teacher Resources - Films on Diversity and On-line Learning
A film library (mainly DVDs) for teachers looking to borrow films on a range of topics, including different religions, the Holocaust, mental illness, prejudice, racism, diversity, homophobia, and more. Films are categorized by title and topic, and a brief description of each film is provided along with its rating (G, PG, R).

Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement
Information booklets for educators on a range of topics such as: adult-youth partnerships; youth engagement; young men who are positive leaders in their communities; risk-taking and adolescent brain development; and holding discussions with youth.

Child Rights Centre - Cape Breton University - Resources and Curriculum
Offers a number of teaching resources on children's rights, such as: the Fighting Hunger the Rights Way curriculum for Grades 4-6 and 7-9; Wants and Rights cards to download for the classroom; Qs and As on children's rights; curricula for Grades 6, 8 and 12 in English and French; and Teaching Children's Rights Through Art curricula for Grades 10-11.

CyberDodo
A cartoon series for younger students featuring CyberDodo, a universal ambassador of the Environment (season 1) and the Rights of the Child (season 2). In season 2 (40 episodes), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has assigned CyberDodo the mission to inform and educate on the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Topics include child trafficking, abuse, refugees, obesity, drugs, child abduction, famine, torture, and more.

Deal.org  - Toolkits and Presentations - Relationship Safety, Gangs, Bullying
Grade-specific interactive presentations, activities, icebreakers and fact sheets on relationship safety, youth gangs and bullying for students of all ages.

The Educators Network – Child Rights Lesson Plans                                          
Lesson plans and activities for students in Grades 6-12 based on six core questions relating to child rights, such as: “How have children's roles and rights changed over time?” and “How can students become advocates for their peers?”. The activities include group brainstorming, discussion, reading and research.

Equitas - International Centre for Human Rights Education - Play It Fair Toolkit
 
A user-friendly resource, available in English and French, which integrates informal human rights education and multicultural training into summer camp programming for children aged 6-12. Topics include: human rights, inclusion, anti-discrimination, intercultural relations and peaceful conflict resolution. Ideas for games and activities for campers are provided, as well as useful information for staff.

Free the Children - Resource Guide and Lesson Plans
A resource guide for the school year that fits into Ontario's curriculum and offers support for teaching secondary students about children's rights. The guide provides logistical information, activity ideas and lesson plans. Topics include: education, health, poverty, sustainable development, global citizenship and social issues. Classes are encouraged to participate in the Adopt a Village, Change the World program. Teachers can sign up to receive weekly lesson plans that accompany Craig and Marc Kielburger's column in the Toronto Star / Vancouver Sun.

Global Dimension - The World in Your Classroom Curriculum
An online database of teaching resources which support global, intercultural and environmental understanding for all age groups and subjects. Users can quickly search through a wide range of resources and background material by subject, topic, age range, price and keyword/title.

Heroines.ca - A Guide to Women in Canadian History - Learning Resources K-12
Facilitates and encourages classroom study of the role of women in Canadian history by providing links to teaching modules, lesson plans, projects, study guides, activities and other information. Certain resources are Grade-specific, while others can be used for all ages.

Histor!ca - School Programming  & Lesson Plans - Immigration, Ancestors, Culture
A professional development site for new ideas on how to teach Canadian history, including lesson plans designed by curriculum specialists. Examples include the “Historica Minutes” movies and “Footprints” sport history documentary series. Most lessons are suitable for Grades 4-12 and teachers can search by province/territory, time period, grade and keyword.

Human Rights Education Associates - Children & Youth - Activities & Curriculum
Provides information on child and youth rights; instruments of protection and promotion; and American protection and service agencies. Also offers links to classroom training materials for pre-school to high school teachers. Lesson plan topics include: refugee children, child labour, children's rights, and children with disabilities.

Human Rights Education Associates - Child Rights - Resources, Curriculum, Activities
A resource library listing of publications on children's rights.

Human Rights Resource Centre - University of Minnesota - Educational Material
A collection of resources on human rights produced by non-profit organizations and independent publishers, including more than 50 curricula for students of all ages, guides, videos and other educational aids. Topic Book 2 of the Human Rights Education Series focuses exclusively on children's rights.

John Humphrey Centre - Educational Resources
Resources to help teach and engage students on human rights issues, including: bilingual guides for 12-16 year olds on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; a resource for teaching Grade 9-10 students about human rights, citizenship, quality of life and communities; two DVD lesson plans for Grade 10 students on the development of peace and human rights, global citizenship, and youth action; and nearly 100 interactive human rights games and activities for youth.

Oxfam United Kingdom - Education Resources and Lesson Plans
A series of lesson plans on children's rights for Grades 3-5 to help students explore the difference between wants, needs, and rights. Activities include designing a poster, debating issues, and writing letters in support of children's rights.

Partners in Human Rights Education - Education Manual
A manual for teachers who would like to introduce human rights in their educational practices. Designed as a basic introduction, with a range of age-specific activities for younger and older children. Topics include: diversity, responsibility, the universality of rights, justice, conflicting rights and taking action beyond the classroom.

Save the Children Canada - School Resources
Curriculum guides and learning games for primary and secondary students which focus on the experiences of children in developing countries and the role of international aid in child education. Materials including videos, photo essays and information booklets are available in multiple languages. Requests for classroom speakers are accepted.

Save the Children United Kingdom - Teachers Guide
Offers practical information on children's rights and their importance to society, as well as ideas on how to introduce and incorporate rights education into the curriculum. Suggests learning activities for students of all ages such as a class charter, learning games, and group or class discussions on specific topics and case studies.

Teaching Tolerance - A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Centre - Classroom Activities and Kits
Easy-to-use teaching tools that can be implemented directly or adapted for specific classroom needs. Users can search for activities by grade, academic subject and tolerance topic (e.g., race, gender, health, etc.). Magazines, storybooks and activity kits are also available for teachers, librarians and others in the education community.

This is My Home - A Minnesota Human Rights Education Experience - Curriculum and Toolkit
A set of resources and information to help integrate and simplify human rights education in K-12 schools. Resources includes age-specific and multi-lingual human rights questionnaires, posters, videos, and curricula.

United Nations Association in Canada - Learning Activities, Resources and Programmes
The United Nations Association in Canada works closely with the educational communities in every province and territory to build their capacity to educate young people from a global perspective.

United Nations CyberSchool Bus - Resources and Activities
A project designed to help secondary students understand human rights, gain a sense of themselves as people, and take action. Teachers can register their class for the project, which consists of resource documents on the web and real-time activities such as a community-based human rights project. Inspiring stories of students defending and promoting human rights in their communities will be collected for a global atlas to be published online.

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization - Associated Schools Project Network
A network of 8,000 schools in 177 countries (ranging from pre-schools to secondary schools) interested in carrying out activities to improve the ethical, cultural and international dimensions of education through effective teaching. Schools are encouraged to conduct pilot projects on four main themes: world concerns and the role of the UN; human rights, democracy and tolerance; intercultural learning; and environmental concern. The network diffuses information to develop best practices.

UNHCHR - ABC: Teaching Human Rights
A guide offering advice to teachers on how to foster human rights awareness and action among primary and secondary students. Topics include: nurturing a sense of self-worth and respect for others, and stimulating independent thinking while building skills for active citizenship. Suggested learning activities require few extra materials and focus on participation, imagination and critical thinking.

United Nations Youth Unit - Indigenous Children and Youth Leaflet
An information pamphlet on the rights and issues of indigenous children. Members of this group are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations as they often find themselves caught between their indigenous language, customs and values and those of the wider community.

UNICEF Canada - Resources for Teachers
A series of resources written by Canadian educators for use in classrooms, with a focus on encouraging ‘critical literacies' in interdependence, diversity, children's rights, global citizenship, and peaceful conflict resolution. The curriculum-linked materials target elementary and secondary students, and in some cases are tailored to specific provinces. Through the lessons, students explore the causes of poverty and inequity and are encouraged to envision a better world. UNICEF speakers are also available for school visits.

UNICEF - Child-Friendly Activities
A series of games, activities and guides to help students of all ages learn about the issues facing children and youth around the world. Topics include: international aid, charitable work, water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS, birth registration, and basic child rights.

UNICEF Magic - Child Friendly Versions of the UNCRC
Links to the full-text version of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 58 languages, as well as child-friendly versions in English, Farsi, German, Macedonian, Norwegian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Tetum, Turkmen and Welsh.

UNICEF - Resources for Teachers
Provides information about UNICEF's priorities for helping children, as well as country overviews, real life stories and statistics on children from over 180 countries. Other resources include: support for teachers' professional development in child rights; web resources for teachers working with students on media projects; educational videos; and information on the education of girls around the world.

UNICEF United Kingdom - Education Resources
A database of classroom resources developed within a framework of rights and responsibilities to support many curriculum areas and age ranges. Users can search for publications and other resources by age group, subject and theme. Themes include: attitudes, bullying, child exploitation and labour, citizenship, gender, health, poverty, survival, tolerance and more.

World Vision Canada - Educational Resources
A resource for Grade 9-12 students to introduce the complex causes and impacts of rising global food prices; as well as a teacher toolkit of global education resources for Grades 2-8 (classroom-ready activities and videos to engage and inspire responsible global citizenship). Additional videos, activities and guides are available for all ages on international relief and development, HIV/AIDS, human rights, and water/the environment.