During the summer, many activities are taking place across the province to serve teenagers and children. These activities aim at creating joyful and meaningful playgrounds that help students relax after a stressful school year and recharge with positive energy.
Lively playgrounds
Provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism has recently coordinated with provincial Department of Education and Training, Youth Union and Thu Dau Mot University to successfully organize the 15th provincial Children's Fine Arts Awards 2025. This was considered as a cultural kickoff event for this year’s vibrant summer activities, aiming at creating a healthy and meaningful playground for youth and children, encouraging the development of art activities in and out of schools, actively contributing to the aesthetic education process for the children.
With their artistic talent, candidates were also inspired by their teachers at school to create stunning paintings that vividly and richly reflect the life happening around them. At the contest, the organizers received over 900 artworks, including both individual and group paintings from participants.
Looking at the colorful, lively paintings created by the children, it is evident that they not only have an innocent, but also profound perception of their surroundings. In addition to the familiar themes often seen in competitions such as environmental protection, homeland beauty, traffic safety and drowning prevention, this year's awards also featured new subjects and creative styles. Notably, there were paintings of marching soldiers, tanks entering the Independence Palace, or squadrons of planes flying national flags in the sky.
Artist Nguyen Van Quy, Head of provincial Fine Arts Association and head judge of the competition shared that aside from the required elements such as soft brushwork, balanced composition and harmonious colors, this year’s awarded paintings also needed meaningful themes, clear messages and a childlike innocence.
Sharing with the reporter about her award-winning painting this year, Doan Ngoc Bao Tram, a 7th-grade student at Nguyen Trai Secondary School in Phu Giao district said that she chose the theme of “Celebrating Independence Day” to create her artwork. This theme was based on the event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification recently held. “Through my artwork, I want to send a message to everyone that we should be grateful to those who contributed to the revolution, love our country more and be proud of our homeland and nation. This is a meaningful playground that helps us be creative, bring more joy and express our passion”, Bao Tram expressed.
A variety of activities
Nguyen Van Hue, Director of provincial Library shared that in addition to the fine arts awards, which attracted over 1,000 students, the library is also organizing many activities in response to the Month of Action for Children 2025. These aim at providing a healthy and educational summer playground and encouraging children to participate in library activities that promote reading culture. Summer activities at the library will take place from June 1 to August 10, 2025.
To help children discover and explore new knowledge through books and newspapers, a recurring activity will be a book and press exhibition. At the library’s lobby, 1,000 books and 500 newspaper issues will be displayed, especially for children, with themed decorations for each booth. In addition to books and newspapers, the library will also exhibit award-winning children's paintings in 2025 for visitors to admire.
Especially, the Summer Book Festival will be held in two sessions (June 10 and July 20). The event will include music and martial arts performances, book-based story telling contests, fashion shows with books, skill-building sessions on accident prevention, personal safety, reading strategies to excel academically, interactive games and fun activities to create a cheerful and engaging atmosphere.
In addition, during this summer, provincial Library has launched the “I Love the Library” campaign, starting from June 1st. Accordingly, children will earn points when they visit the library daily to read or borrow books from the children’s section; they can also earn points by introducing and bringing relatives and friends to the library to get reading and borrowing cards. The top 10 children with the highest points will be recognized and rewarded with gifts.
To raise environmental awareness and encourage creativity, craftsmanship and teamwork, the library is also organizing recycled craft activities during the two Book Festival days for children aged 6 to 14. The library will also host extracurricular events in collaboration with schools, language centers and skill development centers, offering book-themed activities.
Nguyen Van Hue emphasized that these activities not only help children explore and learn interesting things through books and newspapers, but also enhance their knowledge, thinking ability, creativity and life skills. They also help children develop talent and interests, reinforcing the importance of extracurricular education, meeting their needs for learning, playing, and entertainment, contributing to their overall development. The goal is to help them achieve better academic and personal results while promoting a learning society and nurturing cultural values in family, school and community life. |
This year’s children’s fine arts competition attracted 1,103 participants from kindergartens, primary and secondary schools across the province. A total of 244 outstanding artworks were awarded. These results not only reflected the artistic talent of the children, but also showed the richness and depth of their spiritual lives and their keen observations of the world around them. The large number of contestants confirmed this as a meaningful and exciting cultural playground, warmly embraced by schools and children aged 4–15. |
Reported by Hong Thuan-Van Hoa-Translated by Kim Tin
