Introducing Acts of Peace...

What is Peace all about?

• Teacher considers this question by reading an age-appropriate book to the whole class about peace (biography, nonfiction, short story.) Suggested: Ghandi, MLK, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Oprah. Also highly recommended are: A Million Versions of Peace by Jennifer Garrison and One Thousand Paper Cranes: The Story of Sadako and the Children's Peace Statue by Takayuki Ishii.
• OR children (according to age levels) read relatively short but informative biographies or stories about people of peace on their own.
• In small groups of 3 to 4, children discuss what they learned about peace from the biographies or stories.
• Each group makes a chart to reflect what the children have learned about peace.
• Each group presents/shares its peace work with the whole class.

What are Acts of Peace?

• Teacher has an open discussion with children about Acts of Peace; together they brainstorm ideas on chart paper asking:
• What do Acts of Peace LOOK like?
• What do Acts of Peace SOUND like?
• What do Acts of Peace FEEL like?
• What do Acts of Peace TASTE like?
• What do Acts of Peace SMELL like? (Great fun!)
• In other words, children discuss and share how to recognize an Act of Peace when they see or hear or feel one.

What's an Intentional Act of Peace?

• Children discuss the difference between committing an intentional Act of Peace and simply staying out of trouble…
• Children are encouraged to think of and talk about an Act of Peace that they’ve already done: either yesterday, or some time in the past - for a parent or grandparent, a sibling, a friend, a stranger. When did they do some peaceful act toward someone else?
• Teacher and children may also consider what the difference is between a deliberate Act of Peace or kindness or consideration or honesty or thoughtfulness or forgiveness on the one hand, and a deliberate act of anger, jealousy, blaming, gossip, lying, revenge, hatred…or even war, on the other. What are the consequences of these various acts?
• How might little acts of anger or hatred or revenge lead to bigger and bigger acts of war? How might little Acts of Peace lead to bigger and bigger Acts of Peace?

Suggested Activity: Acts of Peace Notebooks

• Children then make their own Acts of Peace notebooks, draw and color the covers, write a starting date, and record “Yesterday’s Act(s) of Peace” that they’ve just remembered.
• The next day (and every day), children return to their journals to record “Today’s Act(s) of Peace”…beginning with One a Day…and gradually working up to Three a Day.
• The Acts of Peace notebooks may be hung around the classroom on a sturdy string, like a clothesline, and attached by multi-colored clips, so that every day, the children pick them off the line and keep them at their desks…to record their intentional Acts of Peace at the appropriate time.
• Note: In notebook journaling, Teacher may allow short phrases, incomplete sentences – even lists with bullets – so that writing Acts of Peace is never a burden and is age appropriate.

View One Thousand Acts of Peace website

• After a few days or a week of journaling daily Acts of Peace, Children view the website: www.onethousandactsofpeace.org
• Teacher and children take turns reading and discussing the HOME PAGE aloud (as much as is appropriate for the age level).
• Teacher and children go to the KIDS’ TAP link which is built specifically for kids, and read this page aloud and discuss suggestions for Acts of Peace…or TAPs.
• Children explore what a TAP might feel like – if someone TAPs them or they TAP someone else.
• Teacher and children go to KIDS’ TAP MESSAGE BOARD and read what other children have submitted and then submit their own Acts of Peace TAPs online.
• (Please Note: There is delayed publication on the website – as spam protection for children’s viewing – but the site is monitored regularly and all legitimate Kids’ TAP messages will appear as soon as possible.)
• Teacher might use the KIDS’ TAP MESSAGE BOARD as a way to help children learn basic computer skills. One or two children who are more “computer savvy” might show other children how to enter the information, as an Act of Peace.
• Teacher encourages children to write longer, more detailed Acts of Peace stories which they wish to submit online.

Discuss Acts of Peace Commitment

• When children have been practicing Acts of Peace on a daily basis, Teacher goes to the Acts of Peace Commitment link on www.onethousandactsofpeace.org and reads it through with the class.
• Teacher and children discuss what a personal commitment to Peace involves:
• How it is a way of thinking before they act,
• A way of feeling about themselves and other people,
• A way of choosing how to act in each situation.
• Teacher and children also consider how we all sometimes forget to do three Acts of Peace a day, or do them but then neglect to journal them…
• And how we simply renew our Peace Commitment and start again.
• Teacher prints out copies of the Acts of Peace Commitment PDF for children who wish to sign it and place it in their desks or on their locker doors, at home on their refrigerators or in their bedrooms, or in some other place where they (and their families) will be sure to see it every day.

Additional Acts of Peace Suggestions

• For further inspiration, Teacher and children go to Acts of Peace Suggestions on the www.onethousandactsofpeace.org website. Every child reads one Suggestion aloud and comments on it.
• Children are encouraged to add more suggestions to the list through the KIDS’ TAP MESSAGE BOARD.
• Every day – or perhaps once a week at a specific time -- children submit as many Acts of Peace stories and/or suggestions to the website as they wish, through the KIDS’ TAP MESSAGE BOARD. They choose their own funny faces and use only first names and home towns or cities. No personal information!
• Children continue to add their own Acts of Peace and Suggestions and watch them register and accumulate online.
• Children may also wish to DRAW WHAT PEACE LOOKS LIKE at the end of the KIDS’ TAP Page, just for fun.

Important Note: The website is currently available in Spanish and German, and the Home Page appears in both Italian and Chinese (standard and simplified), so that children may read the pages in the language most familiar to them. (More translations are in progress.)

Be sure to check out Teachers' TAP PEACE ACTIVITIES for further classroom projects.

We welcome your own experiences and suggestions for teaching Acts of Peace to all age levels. Please share them with other teachers on our Teachers' TAP Forum (as an Act of Peace.)

Or write us at info@onethousandactsofpeace.org .We'll add your ideas to our list of suggestions.

And please visit our website regularly to read more and more Teachers' TAP suggestions from around the world. Many thanks.