Peaceful Friends - A Mini-Project

Every year in Kindergarten, we like to do a mini-project as we are getting to know one another that aims to build community, set classroom expectations, and give us some practice working together and helping one another. This year our class decided to do a project about peace called Peaceful Friends.

Room 140 set out to answer these two essential questions: 1. What does peace mean to me? And, 2. How can I be a peaceful friend? As final products, our class creating its own class book about what peace means to us, and two beautiful "Peace Beads Mobiles" (art installations which now hang above both doors in our classroom).

As mentioned in last week's post, we started this project by reading Todd Parr's wonderful book "The Peace Book" which describes how 'peace' can mean many different things to different people, but that it is essential for us to live, work and play together in a happy world.

Our class was inspired by Todd Parr's book and we wanted to make our own! First we brainstormed ideas about what we thought 'peace" meant to each of us. We discussed our ideas together and then every student drew their own picture to describe what their 'peace' was to them.

The next step in our Peaceful Friends project was for the class to figure out how we wanted to share our ideas with each other and our community. We already knew we wanted to make our own class book, but we also decided we wanted to make something that would remind us to be 'peaceful friends' whenever we looked at it! We decided to make a Peace Bead Mobile, or two! We could hang them above both the doors in our classroom so whenever we left the classroom and passed below them, they would remind us to be peaceful with others in our community. Now the fun really began, we had to make them!

Our class learned about symbols. The kindergarten students studied common symbols we have seen around our school, in our community and at home. We discovered there are two important things about symbols: symbols are a picture which stands for something, and they give us a message. We decided to make our OWN symbols of peace, and these symbols would be made into beads that could hang from our mobiles. These would be our Peace Beads.

We drew our first draft of our symbol using our ideas from our pictures about peace that we made after reading and discussing The Peace Book. Our class wanted hang our mobiles in a place where every one who entered our classroom could see them, so we knew they had to be our very best work in order to display them. The class decided in order to make our Peace Beads the best they could be, we could get some critique from one another about our symbol designs before we turned them into beads. We used our friends' critique to make multiple drafts of both our Peace Beads designs and our pages for our class book until we felt like they were ready to be made into final products.

Here are some First Drafts (left side) and the student's Second Drafts (right side) after getting some kind, specific, and helpful critique from their friends:

Peace means looking at the ocean.

Peace means resting at home.

Peace means giving hugs.

Once the students were satisfied with the symbol they had design for their own peace bead, it was time to actually make the bead! Our class used Shrinky-dinks, a special plastic sheet that you can cut and draw on with markers. The kindergarteners drew their final designs onto the Shrinky-dinks and then we watched as they magically shrunk in to toaster oven! Check it out for yourself - amazing!

Size Before... (about 3 inch diameter)

Size After! (about 1 inch diameter)

Since our class has been very interested in nature so far this year, we decided to hang our Peace Beads from sticks Ms. Haley found, which we painted in class to make them colorful and beautiful. Then we beaded twine to attach our Peace Beads with, and hung them from the sticks. The result was amazing!!! The pictures do not do them justice, they are absolutely stunning. Please stop by the class to see both of our hanging Peace Beads Mobiles in person!

We revealed our Peace Beads and our class book about Peace called Peace to the World to our families on Back to School Night on Friday. Also on display that night in our classroom was our self portraits. Each student made two self portraits, one drawn themselves using a mirror and crayons, and the other made with their 7th Grade Buddy's help using natural materials they found outside in our garden. The portraits turned out beautifully and show off our class's creativity and artistic talents! We were so grateful to our Big Buddies for helping us that we wrote and delivered thank you notes to them later in the week. Once again, the pictures do not do this artwork justice, you have to see them for yourselves!