P.E.A.C.E. Projects 2022
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.
“We Are a Team” — Persona Doll Project
By Elvia De Anda
After hearing the teachers mention “we are the Lab School community,” the children in Room 1 began to wonder what it meant to be a community. One of the children, Thea, explained the following: “A community means it’s a team.” After hearing this the children shared more ideas about what it means to be a community:
“Helping people. Like if you see someone fall you help them up.” — Adrianna
“Everybody have important words.” — Hannah
“Don’t hurt friends and don’t hurt books because they can get hurt.” — Aileen
“Because they are part of our community.” — Thea
“We don’t hurt blocks and our friends, it’s kinda like we are a team.” — Andrew
“If someone hits a friend I’m going to walk away and tell a teacher and then pick them up.” — Kai
We read many books such as, “One” by Kathryn Otoshi and “The Big Umbrella” that supported the children’s ideas about our community. Children also worked together in cooperative games like “The Helping Game.” The materials and resources helped guide conversations around peer relationships, empathy, cooperation, and problem-solving strategies in our community.
The conversations continued and children agreed that the people, materials, and plants in our environments are all a part of our community. With this in mind, we introduced the “Room 2 Kids.” The Room 2 Kids are a set of 6 persona dolls that are a part of the Room 2 classroom. We explained how they often helped children when having to resolve a problem or wanting to spend time with a friend. The children then spent the next couple of days getting to know the Room 2 Kids. They learned about their home lives, hugged and invited them to play. This inspired Adrianna to sketch what her persona doll was going to look like; we knew we were ready to introduce our first persona doll to our Room 1 classroom. We brought him out and the conversation began, “This is Evan.” Teacher Veronica introduced him with the name Benjamin and Isaiah had given him. The following discussion evolved:
“How old is he?” — Teacher
“Maybe he’s 5.” — Hannah
“He’s 3 like me.” — Isaiah
“Actually, Evan is 4 years old.” — Teacher
“Like me!” — Thea
“I’m almost going to be 4.” — Hannah
The children have been spending time getting to know Evan. Through conversations with children, we learned that he has a wheelchair because “he broke his leg and he can’t walk very well.” But with help from friends, he can run and be outdoors with us in his wheelchair. Other things we have learned are “he’s scared of dragons” and has a “mommy and a daddy and he has a brother and a sister too.” He likes to eat “sauce with spaghetti and broccoli, panda express, pizza, salad and tomatoes and apples.”
Soon we will introduce a second persona doll. We want to give children time to get to know Evan and establish his relationship with children as well as the part he plays in our community before introducing a new persona doll. Children have asked to give Evan a hug and ask him if he wants to play. I feel so honored to be on this journey with the children as we continue building a respectful, caring, and peaceful community.
All pictures courtesy of CDES Department Lab School, Fullerton College, Fullerton CA
“Adventures Towards Peace: One Step at a Time”
By Michelle Hughes
The Critchlow Adkins White Marsh site is very appreciative and thankful for the opportunity to enhance their classrooms and create a peaceful environment for children and staff. The peace grant helped in enhancing indoor calming areas in the Pre-K classroom and school-age classrooms. We were also able to implement an outdoor calming area, water table, parent tools, books, manipulatives, and garden supplies for our center. Since we have implemented more peaceful activities, we have noticed a change in the children. For example, the children ask to go into the calming area and when they are feeling emotional or like they need time away they go right over to the calming area. They enjoy the peace and kindness books and understand what the calming area is for. They are happy to have a designated place for a calm down area.
We have noticed children showing kindness more to others and themselves. As teachers we have been modeling kindness and peaceful ways to express emotions. The children will notice how we handle situations as adults and learn from us. So, we try our best to handle each situation the best way we can and explain why we might feel a certain way. In the Pre-K classroom, the teachers noticed the children enjoyed the quiet area, they really enjoyed the morning yoga routine, and they chose sensory experiences more often. The teachers expressed the children really enjoy the garden growing and attending to it.
The children have been using the breathing techniques that they have learned that they didn’t know before. The teachers in the Pre-K classroom and school-age classrooms all agree the atmosphere has been more peaceful. We are all truly thankful for the peace project and peace grant. We look forward to continuing to create peace in our classrooms as much as we can and working with the children, families, and staff to create a safe, inviting, peaceful, calm, and kind environment for the children in our childcare program. Thank you very much for everything!!!!!
All pictures courtesy of The Critchlow Adkins White Marsh Site, Maryland
