International Women's Day Classroom Activities

Why International Women's Day belongs in the primary classroom

International Women's Day on 8 March is one of the more flexible cultural observances on the school calendar — it sits across English (biography and persuasive writing), HSIE (significant Australians, civics and citizenship), creative arts, and wellbeing. For primary teachers, it is a chance to teach biographical thinking, broaden the cast of historical figures students encounter, and connect classroom learning to ideas about contribution, leadership, and equality without it feeling forced.

The strongest classroom plans for International Women's Day pair a substantive learning intention with a manageable activity. That usually looks like a short biography study of one or two Australian or international women, a piece of writing or visual response that asks students to do more than colour in a poster, and a class discussion that connects the day to ideas students are already working with in HSIE or civics. The resources collected here are designed to make that planning fast — most are ready to print or project, several are full unit-of-work bundles, and the biographies cover scientists, activists, athletes, artists, and First Nations leaders so the day reflects more than one kind of contribution.

Picking the right women to focus on for your class

The single biggest planning decision is who to study. Younger primary classes (Foundation to Year 2) do well with one or two clearly age-appropriate figures whose contribution can be summarised in a short text and one image. Older primary classes (Years 3 to 6) can handle a wider cast and benefit from a comparison task — three or four women across different fields, a graphic organiser to capture contribution and challenges overcome, and a short writing task that synthesises across the figures.

Many Australian teachers build their selection around three lenses: at least one Australian figure (Cathy Freeman, Quentin Bryce, Edith Cowan, Faith Bandler, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, astrophysicist Karlie Noon, the Hon Linda Burney, among many others); at least one figure from a STEM or maths field to disrupt the assumption that science is for boys (Marie Curie, Ada Lovelace, Dr Cathy Foley, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith); and at least one contemporary or recent figure so the conversation is not entirely historical. The biographies in this guide are organised by year level and by field so you can quickly assemble a set that suits your class.

Activities that go beyond the colouring page

For Foundation and Stage 1, picture-book study works well. A read-aloud of a biographical picture book, a shared discussion using sentence starters, a simple writing or drawing response, and a class display can fill an English block beautifully. Several read-aloud lesson plans below match the Australian Curriculum English content for Foundation, Year 1, and Year 2.

For Stage 2 and Stage 3, biography-as-writing-task is the most popular approach. Students research one woman, complete a planning organiser, and draft an information report or a persuasive piece arguing why their chosen figure should be celebrated. This pairs cleanly with the information report writing guide and the persuasive writing guide for the writing-craft side. For HSIE-rich approaches, the HSIE Stage 3 collection and the Stage 1 HSIE collection include several units that connect Australian women's contributions to civics and citizenship outcomes.

For schools that combine International Women's Day with broader inclusion conversations, the Harmony Week activities guide is a useful companion since the two events sit only a fortnight apart in March.

Whole-school approaches

Many primary schools mark International Women's Day at a whole-school assembly or with a stage-by-stage rotation. Several resources below are scaled for that — assembly scripts, stage-rotation activity packs, and a parent-newsletter blurb teachers can lift directly so the day is communicated home before it arrives. The activity packs are designed so a single teacher can run a 40-minute rotation with minimal prep, which makes the day workable even when the calendar is already busy.

If your school keeps the day low-key, even a single English lesson built around one biography and one short writing task is enough to honour the date meaningfully. The aim is depth over scale — one woman studied properly is more valuable than a poster wall students do not look at twice.