Suggested Level: Lower to middle primary
Learning outcome: Students develop an awareness of the things that are needed to sustain a healthy and safe life. These needs are then linked to the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child.
Materials and resources: Poster paper and pens; PowerPoint.
Resources: Needs and Wants – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Zj2NtFcDmI
Illustrated version of the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child –
https://www.unicef.org/voy/meeting/rig/righome.html
Suggested activities:
- Discuss the difference between needs and wants. Emphasise that needs are the things that we have to have and not having them will affect how we grow and live. Wants are the things that are nice to have but we can still be healthy and safe without them.
- Assist students in identifying the essential requirements for healthy growth and development. List them on the board. Ask students to give examples based on their own experiences.
- Decide which items on the list are needs and which are wants.
- Try ranking the needs and wants from the most important to the least important
- Make a posters or collages using the heading “All people need….” Display the completed posters in the classroom.
- Look at the illustrated version of the UN Rights of the Child and compare the class list to these. Do ‘needs’ match up with ‘rights’?
Reference: Thinking global: Global perspectives in the lower primary classroom Rebecca Reid-Nguyen.