Part of Universal Children's Day is encouraging communication and connections with students around the world. If you have a connection with a teacher in another country -- or even in another town or state -- set up a video link or blog and communicate with them. Your students can share their classroom and themselves with students in a different location, and they can also learn about what it is like to be a child in a different classroom.
Choose a country that you or your students have interest in. For your Universal Children's Day activity, spend some time learning about that specific country. Read books, look at pictures, and make and eat foods that are eaten by children in the other country. You can use the Internet to learn about the country and to see see pictures and videos of how that country looks. You may be able to view live webcams of the country, which also teaches children about time differences: When it is day time in your country, it is night time in some parts of the world. By the end of the day, your students should know what it is like to be a student in another country.
Explain to your students that not all children are able to live the types of lives that they do. Embark on a charity project for students in another place. You can use an impoverished nation, or even choose a location in your own country that is impoverished. Spend Universal Children's Day collecting thing that you can send to children who will benefit from receiving them. This activity ties into the holiday because it helps children understand that while they may be in a place that celebrates them, there are still places where children don't have as much as they do. Helping others who aren't as fortunate teaches children that together, they can make a difference in the world.
Have a Universal Children's Day Celebration in which the students in your classroom celebrate where they or their ancestors come from, and their cultures. Have students bring elements from their own culture to share with the others in the class and encourage students to dress in traditional clothing from their own cultures, or the countries and cultures of their ancestors.
Universal Children's Day celebrates two different documents: The Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1959, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989. Both documents talk about how children should be treated in their homes, towns, and countries. Some rights listed in the documents include that each child has a right to a name and identity from birth, and that handicapped children should be provided with special treatment required by their condition. Have students, especially older ones, research the documents and read highlights of them. Students can study what those rights mean in their own lives, and can write their own bill of rights for their classrooms.