In this age group, you can anticipate that children can focus for around an hour at a time on any given topic in this age range. Reading and writing are often involved, but the tasks focus mostly on the interaction between peers and with the teachers.
Teaching materials provide opportunities for students and teachers to co-create a peaceful classroom environment where children can celebrate their differences.
Children are encouraged to think of their own experiences and link them to topics being addressed. They are also encouraged to work in pairs or groups and listen and take in other people’s perspectives.
Video and audio materials for this age group tell stories of a refugee child of the same age as the pupils through discussion of upbeat, familiar and relevant topics such as why people might leave their home, their new home-life, hobbies, toys, new school life and future dreams.
Click on the links below to download the teaching materials. You can use the curriculum, the guides, the video exercises and learning activities as you see fit. Download the Teaching About Refugees Lesson Plan template to prepare or use your lesson planning tools.
Main curriculum about refugees, asylum and migration
This main curriculum for children aged 9 -12 focuses on building socio-emotional skills and facilitating peer relationships, celebrating diversity, understanding new arrivals in the classroom and creating a peaceful environment in the classroom. Activities take 10-20 minutes.
Integrating teaching about refugees, asylum and migration in your class activities
This module contains guidance and ideas on how to introduce the topic in various settings in your classroom. Activities take 5-15 minutes.
- Download the thematic guide
- Activity sheet: Refugee numbers activity
School activity guide for 9 – 12-year-olds
This practical guide contains some suggestions for activities that can be done with the class or with others in the school community, like parents and siblings. Some activities are short; others can take up to a couple of hours.
Video exercise
Watch this video with your students and use the video exercise lesson plan to do a couple of activities and ask a few questions. You can vary the length of the activity as you like. Activities take 15-30 minutes.
Malak and Takwa’s story
Malak and Takwa are eleven year old twins from Syria. They fled the war with their father, a karate teacher, their mother and their sister and three brothers. The family first went to Jordan and were then resettled to Luxembourg, where the twins are now going to school. They recently bought a rabbit. Malak wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up.