Learning Outcomes

• Decide what is fair and what is unfair.
• Discuss how having rights can help to make children’s lives better.
• Discuss what rights we think are important.
• Watch an animation about the Rights of the Child.

Introduction

Start by: Thinking about what we need to be happy.

1. Ask each child to draw a picture of themselves and to write their name beside their picture (or write their names for them, as appropriate).

2. Support the children to discuss what they need to have happy lives (their suggestions might include having people who care about them, food to eat, a home to live in, opportunities to play, etc.). Encourage the children to draw on a wide range of ideas – for example, if they are focusing on play, you might encourage the children to think about other needs they have such as having food, having clean water to drink and for washing, being able to get healthcare if they are sick, having someone to care for them, being safe, etc.

3.  Support the children to focus on and illustrate their shared ideas. Create a display
with the children, which places their self-portraits at the centre and surrounds
these self-portraits with the children’s illustrations of what they feel they need to
be happy.

Development

Develop by: Thinking about rights

4. Display the Illustrations of Unfair Situations on the whiteboard. Ask the
children what they think needs to change in each picture to make the child in each
picture happy. Support the children to relate these images to their own illustrations
and to use the terms ‘fair’ and ‘unfair’ to discuss them.

5. Ask the children whether they think that things should be fair for all children and
why? Introduce the word ‘right’ and explain it with reference to the illustrations
– for example, use the image of a child with very little food to introduce children’s
right to food.

6. Watch the animation https://www.childrensrights.ie/childrens-rights-ireland/un-convention-rights-child.

Plenary

Finish by: Thinking about who has rights.

7. Show the children the Illustrations of Children’s Rights. Through discussion of the images,
support the children to identify what right is represented in the illustration.

8. Introduce the children to the idea that all children have the same rights because
they are all human beings and explain that these rights have been agreed by people
around the world.

9. Support the children to reflect on the questions ‘What have we learned?’ and ‘What
would we like to learn more about?’