Celebrating International Women’s Day can be a wonderful opportunity to educate and inspire children through storytelling and engaging activities that highlight the achievements and stories of women throughout history. Here are eight incredible children’s books accompanied by creative activities that you can enjoy with the young ones to mark this special occasion:
Books:
1. “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls” by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo
2. “I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World (Young Readers Edition)” by Malala Yousafzai
3. “Rosie Revere, Engineer” by Andrea Beaty
4. “The Paper Bag Princess” by Robert Munsch
5. “Ada Twist, Scientist” by Andrea Beaty
6. “Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World” by Cynthia Chin-Lee
7. “She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World” by Chelsea Clinton
8. “Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World” by Kate Pankhurst
Activities:
1. For “Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls”: Create a ‘Rebel Girl’ portrait gallery – after reading, have the children draw portraits of their favorite women from the book; hang these up to create an inspiring gallery.
2. For “I Am Malala”: Hold a discussion session where children talk about what education means to them and write letters of support to girls around the world who are fighting for their right to education.
3. For “Rosie Revere, Engineer”: Engage in an engineering challenge – provide recycled materials and challenge kids to build their own contraptions or inventions.
4. For “The Paper Bag Princess”: Role-play exercise – children can reenact scenes from the book, focusing on themes of independence and courage.
5. For “Ada Twist, Scientist”: Science experiment day – conduct simple science experiments that encourage curiosity and questioning, much like Ada’s character.
6. For “Amelia to Zora”: Biography project – children select one woman from A-Z in the book and conduct a mini-research project on her life and achievements.
7. For “She Persisted”: Quote reflection – read about the women in the book and then ask children to pick a quote from it that inspires them and create a poster or a bookmark.
8. For “Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World”: Time machine game – students can ‘travel’ back in time in an imaginative play setup to meet different women from history featured in the book; they prepare questions to ask and imagine what answers they might receive.
These books not only educate but empower young readers to dream big and understand that with resilience and determination, they can break barriers just like the phenomenal women before them!
