The P.E.A.C.E. Projects is an initiative to sponsor and mentor early childhood educators in promoting peace education for young children in the classroom and/or community.
P.E.A.C.E. Projects 2026
Critchlow Adkins Children’s Center, White March Site
This year the CACC White Marsh Site has been very fortunate to participate in the peace project. We are thankful we were able to have this opportunity to bring more peace to our childcare center. The White Marsh Site children participated in many different activities to help promote peace in their classrooms.
One thing we wanted to focus on this year was spreading kindness in the community and inspiring others. The school-age children created posters to hang in the community at various locations in the area including library, post office, restaurants, community center, elementary school, White Marsh site classrooms, and Critchlow Central office. The children enjoyed creating the posters with friends, individually, or with a teacher. They worked very hard on the posters, and the posters were enjoyed by others in the community.
This year we also wanted to use art to promote peace in our classrooms. The school-age rooms focused on “art therapy” and worked on different pieces of art for an end of the school year art gallery. The children made canvases, had a visit from the school art teacher, did oil pastel art, watercolors, kindness rocks for the rock garden and more.
The children really enjoyed the items purchased with the peace grant. For example, they loved the Tibetan Chime bowl. Each classroom had a Tibetan chime bowl purchased for them and the children truly enjoyed it! The children also enjoyed materials purchased to enhance our indoor calming areas such as, sensory cubes, sloth plush, and materials for the outdoor calming.
The Preschool and Pre-k classroom stated the peace project has helped in many ways including social and emotional growth, creativity, and positive interactions with others. The peace project created calming spaces, encouraged teamwork, and promoted kindness with hands-on activities.
When reflecting on the peace grant we came to the conclusion that this year the peace project brought our center opportunities to enhance our rooms and bring a more peaceful environment for the children in our care. Continuing to bring peace and the children working on expressing their emotions/feelings is a working progress and we will strive for them to try their best and guide them in the best way we can. We noticed when asking the older school age friends to work on the various art projects they were more interested when asked to make something that makes you happy. This was a big hit when the children were asked this in regards to making something kind. We will continue to work on encouraging peace, kindness, and working together in our classrooms.
We are truly grateful and thankful for our center experiencing the peace project this year. Thank you!
Michelle Hughes CACC WMS
