🌼 April Cultural Calendar for Early Childhood
April is a month full of opportunities to explore kindness, inclusion, storytelling, nature, health, and creative expression. Whether honouring neurodiversity, connecting with the Earth, or celebrating books and movement, this month offers rich provocations to inspire children's learning and wonder.
🤪 1st April – April Fool’s Day
✨ A playful day to celebrate jokes, laughter, and creativity.
📖 Invite children to explore silly dress-ups, joke books, or role play. Embrace the fun with gentle pranks like coloured water in the drink bottles or upside-down signs. Focus on what makes us laugh and how humour helps us feel connected.
🧠 EYLF Links:
Outcome 1 – Sense of wellbeing and joy
Outcome 5 – Expressive communication
Practice – Learning through play
💙 1st–30th April – Go Blue for Autism (World Autism Awareness Month)
✨ Honour the spectrum of neurodiversity and celebrate inclusion in your classroom.
📖 Share stories with autistic characters, offer sensory-friendly learning spaces, and wear blue to show support. Reflect with children on the many ways people think, learn, play, and communicate. Focus on strengths, acceptance, and empathy.
🧠 EYLF Links:
Outcome 1 – Secure and supported identity
Outcome 2 – Responding to diversity with respect
Principle – Equity, inclusion and high expectations
📚 2nd April – International Children's Book Day
✨ A global celebration of storytelling and the love of books.
📖 Host a book parade, invite families to read aloud, or create a cosy book nook filled with favourites. Celebrate illustrators and authors, and encourage children to create their own picture books.
🧠 EYLF Links:
Outcome 5 – Engagement with texts
Practice – Literacy-rich environments
Principle – Partnerships with families
💙 2nd April – World Autism Awareness Day
✨ Promote understanding, acceptance, and inclusion for autistic children and families.
📖 Build on the month’s theme with visuals, stories, and play experiences that affirm neurodivergent voices. Provide calming sensory options and celebrate what makes each child unique.
🧠 EYLF Links:
Outcome 1 – Sense of belonging
Outcome 2 – Respecting difference
Practice – Responsiveness to children
💙 2nd–8th April – Autism Awareness and Acceptance Week
✨ A dedicated week to deepen understanding and nurture inclusive environments.
📖 Explore feelings and communication differences through puppets, visuals, or small group chats. Involve children in creating a class poster showing “all the ways we shine.” Provide sensory breaks and quiet spaces.
🧠 EYLF Links:
Outcome 1 – Emotional wellbeing and understanding
Outcome 2 – Celebrating neurodiversity
Practice – Inclusion and reflective practice
🌿 2nd–13th April – Nature Play Week
✨ Connect children to nature through outdoor adventures and unstructured exploration.
📖 Encourage muddy play, bushwalks, loose parts, climbing, and collecting. Offer nature journaling, sensory trays, and time under trees. Reflect on what nature teaches us and how it makes us feel.
🧠 EYLF Links:
Outcome 2 – Engagement with the natural world
Outcome 3 – Health and physical wellbeing
Practice – Holistic approaches and learning environments
🐾 4th April – World Stray Animal Day
✨ Show compassion for animals in need and talk about how we care for pets.
📖 Learn about animal shelters and foster carers through storybooks or local outreach. Set up a dramatic play animal rescue or adopt-a-pet corner with plush toys. Talk about empathy, kindness, and responsibility.
🧠 EYLF Links:
Outcome 2 – Caring for living things
Outcome 1 – Compassion and emotional understanding
🩺 7th April – World Health Day
✨ Celebrate healthy choices and explore what helps us stay well.
📖 Talk about eating, sleeping, moving, and washing our hands. Set up doctor’s kits, yoga, and hygiene songs. Invite children to share how they look after their health at home.
🧠 EYLF Links:
Outcome 3 – Health and physical wellbeing
Practice – Holistic teaching
Principle – High expectations and equity
🚀 12th April – International Day of Human Space Flight
✨ Spark curiosity about space, astronauts, and the wonders of the universe.
📖 Read stories about space, explore moon sand or star-themed crafts, and talk about Earth as our home. Build rockets with recycled materials and imagine what it would be like to float in space.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 4 – Inquiry and curiosity
Outcome 5 – Engagement with texts and symbols
🎨 15th–21st April – World Creativity and Innovation Week
✨ Encourage children to think big, take creative risks, and explore new ideas.
📖 Offer open-ended materials for art, construction, movement, and storytelling. Ask “what if” questions and celebrate experimentation over perfection.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 4 – Creative thinking and problem solving
Practice – Learning through play
Outcome 5 – Expression through multiple forms
🏞 17th–25th April – National Parks Week
✨ Discover the value of protected natural places and local ecosystems.
📖 Explore photos of national parks, take a nature walk, or invite families to share their favourite bushwalking spots. Talk about looking after wild places and the animals that live there.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 2 – Connection to nature and environment
Practice – Environmental sustainability
🏛 18th April – World Heritage Day
✨ Learn about special places and stories that connect us to culture and history.
📖 Talk about historic buildings, natural wonders, and cultural landmarks. Invite children to share places important to their families and communities.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 2 – Belonging to community and culture
Outcome 5 – Sharing stories and experiences
⛏ 18th April–18th May – Australian Heritage Festival (Theme: Unearthed)
✨ Unearth stories and traditions that empower children to be caretakers of culture.
📖 Share stories from Australia’s past, including First Nations histories. Use role play, storytelling, music, and artifacts to help children explore how people lived, worked, and connected to the land.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 2 – Understanding culture and history
Principle – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives
Practice – Culturally responsive teaching
🌏 22nd April – Earth Day / International Mother Earth Day
✨ A powerful day to reflect on how we protect and honour the planet.
📖 Explore how the Earth gives us water, air, plants, and animals. Talk about recycling, composting, and caring for nature. Create Earth art using natural or recycled materials, and plant something together.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 2 – Environmental responsibility
Practice – Sustainability
Outcome 4 – Engagement in inquiry
🍬 22nd April – Jelly Bean Day
✨ A sweet way to explore colour, counting, and fun food play.
📖 Use jelly beans (real or pretend) for sorting, patterning, colour recognition, and counting games. Create jelly bean artwork or a pretend shop in dramatic play.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 4 – Numeracy and fine motor
Outcome 5 – Expressive arts and play-based communication
📖 23rd April – World Book and Copyright Day
✨ Celebrate authors, illustrators, and the stories that shape us.
📖 Explore book making, read favourite stories, and talk about what it means to create and share ideas. Invite children to “publish” their own book with a title page and illustrations.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 5 – Literacy and creativity
Practice – Learning environments and text engagement
🐧 25th April – World Penguin Day
✨ Learn about penguins and their icy habitats while building empathy for wildlife.
📖 Share stories and videos about penguins, explore cold-climate animal play, and make penguin puppets or habitats. Talk about how we care for animals and wild places.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 2 – Respect for living things and habitats
Outcome 4 – Inquiry and exploration
🌺 25th April – Anzac Day
✨ Honour those who served and reflect on peace, courage, and remembrance.
📖 Read age-appropriate picture books, create poppy artworks, or share a respectful moment of silence. Talk about community helpers, bravery, and ways we support others.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 2 – Connection to community and history
Outcome 1 – Wellbeing and resilience
👩💻 25th April – International Girls in ICT Day
✨ Promote gender equity in technology, coding, and communication.
📖 Introduce simple tech play like robots, coding games, or walkie-talkie communication. Celebrate female inventors and innovators. Encourage every child to see themselves as creators.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 4 – Technological curiosity and confidence
Principle – Equity and inclusion
🐾 26th April – World Veterinary Day
✨ Learn how vets care for animals and why it matters.
📖 Set up a dramatic play vet clinic, read stories about animal care, and talk about how we show empathy for sick or injured animals.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 2 – Caring for animals
Outcome 1 – Compassion and responsibility
💞 28th April – Pay It Forward Day
✨ Encourage children to share kindness and help others.
📖 Brainstorm simple acts of kindness—helping a friend, tidying the room, or drawing a card. Create a “Kindness Tree” where children add examples of giving back.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 1 – Social and emotional wellbeing
Outcome 2 – Community connection
🦺 28th April – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
✨ Promote safe play, hygiene, and looking after ourselves and others.
📖 Talk about safe hands, walking feet, tidy spaces, and what we do when someone is hurt. Explore safety signs or role-play first aid and care.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 3 – Physical safety and wellbeing
Practice – Learning through routines and experiences
💃 29th April – International Dance Day
✨ Celebrate movement, music, and expressive joy through dance.
📖 Play music from around the world, try different styles of dance, and invite children to create their own moves. Talk about how dancing helps us feel happy and strong.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 3 – Gross motor confidence and coordination
Outcome 5 – Communication through movement
🎷 30th April – International Jazz Day
✨ Explore rhythm, sound, and creativity through jazz and improvisation.
📖 Introduce simple jazz rhythms with clapping, instruments, or body percussion. Listen to jazz music and invite children to draw or paint to the sound.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 5 – Listening and sound awareness
Outcome 4 – Creative expression through the arts
🦮 30th April – International Guide Dog Day
✨ Recognise the important role guide dogs play in helping people live independently.
📖 Read books or watch videos about guide dogs and the people they assist. Talk about helping others, accessibility, and how animals can be heroes too.
🧠 EYLF Links: Outcome 2 – Respect for difference and inclusion
Outcome 1 – Understanding empathy and assistance
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