Such an important word, peace. It holds feelings of warmth and joy, stillness and strength, color and light, wonder and hope. I cannot think of a better time in our school year to begin such a valuable conversation and to encourage children to think beyond the celebrations of the holidays, to practice sharing peace with their family and community. I used our morning message work to scaffold conversations and reflections about the word peace, asking questions from a favorite book; What does PEACE feel like?
On the first day, Monday, 12-18-17, I asked, What do you know about Peace? Children nestled into the rug, closing their eyes to picture the word, to think about what they know. Children could tell that this was important work we were about to begin, their voices strong, but quiet. When sharing their thoughts, they asked if they could come to the front of the room.
On Tuesday, I began to invite the children up to write their thoughts on our morning message. Every morning message was a new question about peace, an invitation for children to come to the front and record their feelings - using our writing strategies, such as stretching a word, to write independently. If they needed help, they asked their peers.
In the below photographs, OM writes, sending warm thoughts. Before our morning greeting, we always look to see (and count) the community members not with us. If a child or adult is missing, we close our eyes and send warm thoughts to them. Recently, OM was out sick for a few days. When he returned we asked if he received our warm thoughts - he did! He said they helped him to feel better. How beautiful that a week later he writes; peace looks like sending warm thoughts.
What we do in Kindergarten is important.
On Friday, we reread the children's morning message work from the week, noticing their writing and thinking deeply about their words. I asked one final question, What is peace? I've transcribed their words below. Wishing you all peace in the New Year!
What is Peace?
JF - Peace, to me, is being kind and helping our community by doing my job. Oh, and my little dog!
WM - Peace is being kind.
AM - Peace is love.
ML - Peace is riding Tucker, being with horses, and being with my community.
OC - Peace is being in the green zone.
CM - Peace is snuggling with my mom and playing with Beckett. Oh, and listening to quiet music and being with our community!
AR - Peace is when everyone is calm.
KC - Peace is being quiet.
GK - Peace is being in the green zone and Christmas presents.
RC - Peace is being in a quiet room with my mom and dad.
TJ - Peace, to me, is quiet.
DM - Peace is laying on the snow and looking up at the sky.
ZM - Peace is sleeping and seeing unicorns in my dreams.
TW - Peace is sleeping with mom and dad at night and seeing the moon shining beautiful.
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