The Primary school included a learning engagement or a check-in question on this day to explore the “International Day of Peace” at an age appropriate level. Having our students think and reflect on Peace allows us to place our guiding statements, that form the ethos of MIS, in to a real world context and provide personal connections for them.
Our Mission statement refers to “Learning in our diverse community encourages the development of appreciation and tolerance for different world views and opinions.” You will see how this is reflected at various levels of complexity in the different grade levels, it is not necessarily about the work produced, more about the thinking behind their statements. So, what were some of the things they had as learning prompts and what did our learners have to say:
EY1, our youngest learners, listened to a story being read “What Does it Mean to be Kind” written by Rana DiOrio and illustrated by Stephane Jorisch and then they discussed how they are kind and how others are kind to them.
Photo 2
Peace is inked to a number of attributes in the IB Learner Profile; most obviously “caring”.
This is what ‘Peace’ means to some of the EY2 learners
Aarna: No fighting
Abhay : Eating Junk, like pizza. (This youngster already understands “comfort eating!”)
Arha: Taking care of somebody
Maya : A good stranger who does good things.
Alison: When I am happy.
Advika : Not when you get mad at others. Peace is when you are happy.
EY3 were asked “What do you think peace is? What does peace mean to you?
Deana– Peace is speaking softly and not being cranky. I can take a deep breath to stop being cranky (self-management and emotional regulation skills).
Vibha– Peace is just relaxing
Zaara– Thinking about something good
Jack– When I play with lego – (knowing how to find your inner peace)
Aaradhya– Peace means to feel very calm and when I wake up in the morning I take a deep breath and it makes me calm (using mindfulness practices independently)
Izia– When I play on my own
Aloys – Feeling quiet
Here we can see how it links to “Encourage Responsibility” from our Mission: “ global citizenship is built on the understanding of our own well-being and that of others. We develop our sense of empathy, respect and tolerance and take action based on our learning, making positive contributions locally and globally.
P1 used their morning Check-in – “When you close your eyes and think of peace, what do you see?”
Jioh– When I close my eyes l think of peace the blue sky and a big smile.
Mohamed– When I think of peace I think of a jungle.
Jayveer– When I think of peace, I see lots of balloons in the air.
Omkar– When I close my eyes and I think of peace, I see playing on the beach in Mauritius.
Namanpreet– When I think of peace, I think of mini candles floating in the river at night.
Sua– When I close my eyes and think of peace, I see birds flying.
Ms Devaki also used the Information Literacy session to develop the theme of peace with P1: she shared It’s Too Noisy By: Robert Rosen and Illustrated by: Marcin Piwowarski, from Epic our online resource. The book is about a girl named Annie, who loves to read and wants to read a book but every place she chooses to read is very noisy. Therefore, she tries to find a quiet place to read and is finally successful.
After reading the book, the learners discussed how they feel when they read and what environment is best for reading. P1 learners shared their thoughts around this and said that we need a peaceful environment to read which helps us to visualize and enjoy the story. Here we see the learner’s being able to reflect on themselves as learners and knowing and verbalising what works best for them. They added that our school library is an example of a peaceful place to read quietly.
They also made connections to the ongoing unit of Inquiry and being able to make “smart choices” and the Kelso’s wheel of choice. They connected this to how Annie solved her small problems when she couldn’t find a quiet place.
P2, started their day by watching:‘I am Peace’ by Susan Verde and Peter Reynolds
Image Credits: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34324424-i-am-peace
This helped them added their reflections linked to the International Day of Peace:
Ishaan “I like to be alone.”
Siyun “Good morning! I will share peace with everyone.”
Arjun “I hug my mom to feel peaceful.”
Louis “I feel peaceful by doing mindfulness for 10 minutes. And taking deep deep breath: inhale/exhale”
Sahil “The birds are peaceful for me”
Eunjoon “When I play games. I am peaceful”
P3 also leveraged their morning question to think about the special day and front load an engagement that is part of the current unit of inquiry. “What does peace mean to you?’
Saanika: ‘I think peace is calm and quiet and also when you are relaxed.”
Jaynah ‘To me peace is being relaxed and free of stress.’
Jo-Rell ‘Peace means happiness ,freedom and calm.’
Seoyun ‘I think peace means is no fighting and free.’
Ishan ‘Peace is when there are no conflicts around.’
Akshaj ‘Peace is a feeling that we feel when we are happy and satisfied inside our hearts and it also means that we can live in happiness and no fights or stress and no one getting hurt inside.’
Zuzana ‘Peace for me is to be calm and mindful.’
Lina ‘I think peace is be kind with others and be great with others.’
P3 are also working on a blog post linked to peace and their unit of inquiry that they will share soon with the community.
P4 The morning check-in question was:
“Today is the International Day of Peace, what words come to mind when you hear the word ‘PEACE and why?”
Hayato “When I hear the word ‘PEACE’ the words kind, peaceful, happy come to my mind because those words are like the word ‘PEACE’.
Kibeom “When I hear the word peace the words that come to my mind are love, happy and joy.”
Hanseo “Good morning I think the word peace means no fighting”.
Norah “When I hear the word” PEACE” the words come to my mind are harmony and love!”
During the homeroom Google Meets, first the learners watched a video on International Peace Day The video talked about the purpose and reason behind the UN’s International Day of Peace and when it is celebrated.
The learners then had a discussion offering their ideas and thoughts:
Jiwon: “The world is full of violence, so we celebrate this day to be peaceful”.
Zoya: “The whole world will be destructed if there was no peace as everyone would think just of war”.
Aryan: “United means two countries coming together to support each other. They solve countries problems and help people with starvation (they help people with food, like some countries do not have enough money to get the food so they help them with that)”.
Chloe: “They make sure the countries have a conversation with each other instead of fighting.”
This led to a follow up engagement the next day: The learners watched a video to understand what the United Nations is and how it functions:
United Nations – explained l CBC Kids News ( click on this link to watch- child friendly)
The video covers how and when the UN came into existence, how many countries operate as part of the UN and what are some services the UN offers.
One of the students, Miraya, shared that after watching the video she started doodling the symbol of peace on her home’s window with special markers. Later, the students were asked to reflect on their understanding of the video and here are some of the short reflections:
Miraya: We need the UN to make the world a better place to live in
Jinyul After world war 2, UN came into existence to help people
Ohnyoo: UN was made to maintain peace in the world
Benjamin: The UN tries to prevent people from fighting – after World War 1 and World War 2 the UN started making sure that the people live in peace.
P5 Had two prompts: a video and a song.
They were asked to find out about the International Peace Day by watching a UN promotional video and then listening to a well-known song. Below is the firsts slide that was shared with the learners to allow them to do the engagement independently and whenever they wished during the day.
Click on the link to watch the video ‘International Day of Peace’
Now listen to version of the John Lennon’s famous song ‘Imagine’
What are some of the things mentioned in the song that are causing conflict and need to be resolved to have peace in the world?
Here are a couple of responses that address the learning prompt after the song:
Andre -The conflicts are littering, polluting, robbing, stealing, kidnapping and murdering and so on.
Maxence -Things that are mentioned in the song that causing conflict and war are: religion, greed, hunger, countries and people to fight for.
Maryam’s response – Countries, religion, hunger, greed, possession.
Here we see how the IB Mission is linked to the International Day of Peace and our school’s guiding statements: “The IBO aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.”
Continued from the newsletter first page due to the amazing community response:
I will campaign/fight against injustice in our world to bring about peace
A rough translation of a line from a German song that was in my head on this day – “Mein Bester Freund”.
“나는 우리의 평화를 위해 불의에 맞서 싸울 것입니다. ” (Jinyul and Seyoung Kim – Korean)
hare campana y luchare contra la injusticia para traer la paz al mundo (Adrea – Mexican)
- શાંતિ લાવવા માટે આપણા વિશ્વમાં અન્યાય સામે ઝુંબેશ / લડત ચલાવીશ.
Hu Shanti lavava mate apana vishvama anyay same jhumbis / ladat chalavis.
(Sanikaa and Aarti -Gujurati)
سأحارب الظلم في عالمنا لتحقيق السلام
(Ms Anne –Lebonese)
Thank you to all our families that responded to my direct request for translations, we will look to include other languages and families in articles moving forward as we celebrate the rich linguistical backgrounds of our MIS community.
Compiled by Ms Helen Sharrock- Primary Principal with contributions from the Primary community at MIS.
Work Cited
International Baccalaureate Organization. PYP: From principles into practice. “Programme Resource Center.” October 2018. MY IB. Accessed. 30 September 2020.
“International Day of Peace.” Internationaldayofpeace.Org, internationaldayofpeace.org accessed 30th September 2020.
Lucas, Jean. “Imagine – John Lennon (Boyce Avenue) [LYRICS].”
YouTube, 13 July 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yhsxnY0moU.
Accessed 22 Sept. 2020.
MIS. “Mahindra International School – Mission Statement.” (2019).
RootedInPeace. “INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE PROMOTIONAL VIDEO.” YouTube, 3 Aug. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=80&v=OZjbzYi8d5U&feature=emb_logo. Accessed 21 Sept. 2020.
Additional credits
CBC Kids News
I am Peace’ by Susan Verde and Peter Reynolds published 2017 Harry N Abrams
It’s Too Noisy! By: Robert Rosen and Illustrated by: Marcin Piwowarski – Ready Readers
What Does it Mean to be Kind – Rana DiOrio – 2015 by Little Pickle Press