Children's Day Activities for Kids: 9 Games to Play at Home

Come to our Children's Day fair! Every page is a stall, and you get a balloon to colour after each one.

10 minutes a day, in any order
Printer, crayons, scissors, a dice
Indoors, at a table or on the floor
Real pages from our pack

Children's Day activities for kids work best when the day feels like a party that is all about them. Print a few pages, set up a pretend fair at home and let your child visit one stall at a time: draw themselves, spin a spinner, wear a crown, play a board game and give a kind friend an award.

Below are nine printable stalls from our Children's Day Fair pack. Each one takes about ten minutes and needs only a printer, crayons and scissors. Play them on Children's Day itself or spread them over a week, whichever suits your family.

A printable fair map with a winding path past nine stalls and a numbered balloon above each stall to colour after finishing its page

The fair map: colour a balloon after every stall.

What can children do on Children's Day?

Children can do anything that celebrates being a child: play, make something, talk about their feelings and do something kind for a friend. The nine stalls below are a simple way to do all of that with paper, and each one is separate, so you can pick the ones your child likes best.

Nine Children's Day stalls to visit at home

Print one page, visit the stall together and colour the matching balloon on the fair map. Take the stalls in any order.

0 of 9 done

Me Booth: a portrait and a dream
Your child draws their face, writes their name, colours one birthday candle for each year of their age and circles favourites such as fruit and toys. Then they draw themselves doing a dream job. Read each line aloud and let them draw first, writing second.
Spin Stall: make a spinner and move
Cut out the hexagon on thin card and push a short pencil through the dot to make a spinner. Spin it and do the move on the edge that touches the table: jump, wave, stretch, clap, bow or point. Tick a box each time, then take turns spinning and copying each other's move.
Face Tent: name the feeling
Look at six faces together and circle the right feeling word for each: happy, scared, proud, angry, sad or surprised. Then read little fair moments, such as a balloon floating away, and draw the face your child would make. The page ends with calm ideas to tick, like three slow breaths or a hug for a teddy.
Crown Stall: make a paper crown
Colour the crown and two strips, write who you are on the 'I am' band, then cut out all three pieces. Tape the strips to the crown at the tape tabs and let a grown-up fit it round your child's head. Tick up to five things they are good at and colour a jewel for each.
Rights Rainbow: every child has rights
Read six simple rights together and colour each stripe of the rainbow by its number: to play, to learn, to be safe, to be heard, to have a name and to be healthy. Then look at pictures and decide which right each one shows, and crack a small secret code to reveal a message.
Game Tent: The Fair Race
Cut out balloon counters and race from the Gate to the Prize Tent on square 30 with a dice. Heart squares ask for a kind thing and then a move forward, and the Big Wheel gives a ride. Two to four can play, and nobody needs an exact roll at the end, so the game stays friendly.
World Stall: six Children's Days
Six tickets show Children's Days around the world: 14 November in India, 5 May in Japan, 20 November for the whole world, 30 April in Mexico, 1 June in many countries and 23 April in Türkiye. Colour each stamp, write each card's letter in its month on the year ribbon and trace a rose.
Friend Booth: kind friend match
Draw a line from each friend moment, such as a friend whose tower falls down, to a kind thing to do, such as helping build it again. Then fill in the names on a Best Friend Award rosette, cut it out and give it to a friend, saying why they are kind.
Prize Hunt: bingo around the home
Each player gets a bingo card of things to find, like something round, something soft or a book you love. Hunt round the home, tick each find and say 'Prize time!' with a happy dance when you get three in a row. The 'Me!' square is free: draw yourself.

Which day is Children's Day?

There is no single date. India marks Children's Day on 14 November, the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru, and the United Nations has Universal Children's Day on 20 November. Japan celebrates Kodomo no Hi on 5 May, with carp-shaped streamers called koinobori, Mexico holds Día del Niño on 30 April, and Türkiye's national holiday for children is on 23 April. Many countries use 1 June.

14 November: Children's Day in India
20 November: Universal Children's Day, the day the United Nations agreed the rights of every child in 1989
5 May: Kodomo no Hi in Japan
30 April: Día del Niño in Mexico
1 June: International Children's Day, celebrated in many countries
23 April: National Sovereignty and Children's Day in Türkiye

Because the dates differ, you can celebrate on whichever day suits you. The pack's World Stall page lets children find all six dates on a year ribbon.

👋How to talk about children's rights with young children

Keep it simple: every child has the right to play, to learn, to be safe, to be heard, to have a name and to be healthy.
Ask your child which right matters most to them and why, and listen to the answer without correcting it.
Link rights to everyday life: playing at the park, going to school, telling a grown-up when something is wrong.
Mention that these ideas come from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, agreed in 1989, which says they apply to every child everywhere.

What do these activities build?

Key Takeaway

Self-expression, feelings words, kindness and fair play

The stalls give children practice in talking and drawing about themselves, naming feelings, taking turns in a board game, being kind to a friend and moving their bodies, with colouring, cutting and tracing along the way. They are everyday play, not a test, and there is no right way to finish a page.

How can I make Children's Day activities easier or harder?

Change the stalls to suit your child

Little ones

Read the words aloud and let your child draw instead of write on the All About Me page.
Start with the spinner and the crown, which are mostly colouring, cutting and moving.
Play the Prize Hunt as a team, with a grown-up reading the clues.

Older kids

Let them read the rights and Children's Day tickets to the family.
Ask them to write who they would make a crown for next, and why.
Have them teach The Fair Race to a younger brother, sister or friend.

Where can I find the Children's Day printables?

All nine stalls come from our Children's Day Fair pack, which also has a grown-ups' guide, a certificate and an answer key, in colour and in an ink-saver black-and-white edition. See the full set on our Children's Day worksheets page. For calm ideas to go with the Face Tent, read our guide to calm down activities for kids. Want to make the crown step by step? Try our Children's Day paper crown activity.

Questions parents ask about Children's Day activities

When is Children's Day?

In India it is 14 November, and the United Nations marks Universal Children's Day on 20 November. Other countries choose different dates, so you can celebrate on any day you like.

How long do the activities take?

About ten minutes a page. One stall a day for nine days works well, or play three or four on the day itself, and stop while it is still fun.

Do I need to print everything?

No. Pick the stalls your child likes. The crown, spinner and board game need thin card and scissors, and the rest work on ordinary paper with crayons.

Do I need to print in colour?

No. The pack also comes in a black-and-white colour-in edition that saves ink, and children can colour the pages themselves.

Can I use these in a classroom?

Yes. Each stall is a separate page, so a class can visit them in groups, and the Prize Hunt and The Fair Race work well in small groups.

How do I explain children's rights to a young child?

Keep it to six simple ideas: to play, to learn, to be safe, to be heard, to have a name and to be healthy. Use examples from their day and let them say which matters most.