Brainstorm the things people need in order to grow up healthy and safe. Discuss the difference between needs and wants: needs are the things that we have to have and not having them will affect how we can grow and live; wants are the things that are nice to have but we can still be healthy and safe without them. Go through the list and decide whether each item is a need or a want and highlight in two colours. Make a display of needs using the heading ‘All people need ...’. Illustrate with words, pictures or a collage. Students can work in pairs to draw a person and record basic human needs around this.
Look at the United Nations list of the Rights of the Child. http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm. See how the class needs list fits into this list.
Try ranking the needs and wants from most important to the least important. This should promote interesting discussion.