Peace week has been going strong!
On Wednesday, we began to look at how we could overcome barriers to peace. To do this, we looked at someone who helped others overcome barriers – Harriet Tubman. We read I am Harriet Tubman by Brad Meltzer and discussed everything she had to do in order to over come different obstacles. We found she escaped slavery and then went back to help others escape on the Underground Railroad. We also found out she was a spy in the Civil War, spoke up for women’s right to vote, and welcomed anyone into her home…even if she did not have money at the time. At the age of 90, she built a home for African American senior citizens that did not have a place to live.
We then took the pictures of barriers to peace that we drew and wrote about on Tuesday and handed them out to someone different. This second person used the other half of the paper to draw and write about how someone could overcome that barrier. The students did a really nice job!
On Thursday, we started to discuss how we could be heroes for peace. We read the book A Little Peace by Barbara Kerley and discovered that even little things can help bring peace to anywhere. It could be a smile, joining someone in an activity they are doing, or just listening to someone. We were inspired by this book of photos and started to create posters by ourselves or with a partner with sayings about how we could bring peace to the school…and really the rest of the world. The students had a lot of great ideas.
On Friday, we had a closing ceremony for Peace Week. We saw all the great things that had gone on, and learned how we all are unique and have gifts to bring to help each other out and lead each other toward peace. We also learned from the PCCS Makes a Difference Committee that the school is going to be working with Motherland Rhythm Community to help bring clean water to Guinea in west Africa. There will be a lot more coming out about this, but we are excited by this opportunity.
The students finished the posters they started yesterday. We then took pictures and looked at how we could put them together into a book!