Peace lesson (by Lorita Zaharieva - Bulgaria)
Learning objectives:
After this lesson, students will be able to: Understand and explain what 'peace' is; discuss peaceful leaders in history; Write short sentences or poems about the topic.
1. Start the lesson with a famous song about peace.Show students a short video or pictures of friends, happy people and some pictures of war, aggressive people and crying children. Highlight the different words used to describe the peaceful and non-peaceful situations.
Introduce the topic of the lesson.
2. Step (talk about injustice, nonviolence) What do you think an injustice is? -Brainstorm
/“Conditions or acts that cause people to suffer undeservedly” quote from www.dictionary.com /
What injustices are YOU frustrated about? What would you like to change (self, community, globe) (Make a list on board). If students are hesitant to talk:
o Example: Someone has money to afford lunch while another kid doesn’t – economic injustice.
OR your friend has a pet poodle that they leave in the closet all day - animal rights.
Nonviolence
What is nonviolence? – brainstorm
/Define “nonviolence” – peaceful resistance to injustice/
What are the ways you could combat the injustices?
Make list a "nonviolent" way to fight injustice
Nonviolence isn’t just negation. It’s actively working against violence -- nonviolent leaders have used methods
such as protests, hunger strikes, street-theater, etc.
How can we use nonviolence in our lives?
• Get students in groups of 4-5, each group gets a specific injustice (from list students created on board) and must make a skit showing: what the injustice is and a nonviolent way to address that injustice
• 3m prep time for each group
• Each group presents their skit to the class
After each skit, classes says what their injustice was and what their nonviolent method was.
I have a dream... Write down one thing you want to change in your life!
What is peace?
Students try to give their definition.
Ask students to choose which of the definitions of peace they most identify with :
∙“freedom from trouble or worry”
∙ a feeling of mental or emotional calm”
∙ a time when there is no war or a war has ended
Can peace mean different things to different people?
What is conflict? How do we deal with conflict?
/talking about human rights/
Write on the board keywords!
Who is a peaceful person that you know? NOBEL PRIZE
3. Step
If you had to grade the world on its peacefulness, how would it score?
What can you do to help keep peace in your school and your classroom?
My wish for peace.
How can children promote peace in the world?