Saturday, January 17, 2015

Bringing More Peace to Our School

Every Tuesday, my 4th graders get together with our 2nd grade buddy class for some buddy time to read together or to complete a project.  This is a fun time for the students to get to know each other and for my 4th graders to mentor the younger kids.

This past week, we used our buddy time to talk about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the concept of peace.  Unfortunately, for a lot of kids these days, peace is not something that is a part of their everyday lives. More and more kids are struggling through poverty, violence, and loneliness than ever before.

We wanted our kids to know that even if the world around them may not be always peaceful, they could still do something to bring more peace into their lives.  They had the power to do that.

We talked about how the dove is a symbol for peace and passed out a dove template that we had copied onto white cardstock.  (You can find the template here.) We asked the buddy pairs to talk
about ways they could bring more peace into the world and to write it on their dove.  They then colored the doves, made wings (accordian folded a piece of color paper) and we hung strings from the doves.

The Peace Doves now have a home in the hallways outside our classrooms.  As students and adults walk by, they can read our students ideas for ways to bring more peace into the world.



Standing underneath the doves, it is hard to not feel peaceful.

How do you celebrate Dr. King and peace in your classroom?

3 comments:

  1. This is beautiful - what a wonderful reminder for staff and students!!

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  2. The doves are symbolic of the connections your students are making. Did you use a text for this activity? I need to find ways to partner my students with others. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. I love this! I teach 2nd grade and I'm about to start meeting regularly with a 4th grade room. I'm looking forward to seeing what else you've done with this.

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