Walk in Peace, Live in Harmony

​"Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by humanity through the child"
-Maria Montessori

​In times of uncertainty, teaching peace to children becomes a vital and compassionate mission. Often, children might have heard about peace but may not fully grasp its meaning.

By instilling values like understanding, tolerance, and conflict resolution, we provide children with essential tools to navigate the complexities of a world marked by conflict.

While Maria Montessori's influence on the Children's Garden curriculum is broad, there is a distinct focus on her work with Peace Education. Her approach emphasizes instilling a sense of global citizenship and fostering values that contribute to a cooperative world.

Montessori's philosophy views peace as more than just the absence of conflict but the presence of justice, empathy, and understanding. She believed in nurturing children's innate kindness and cooperation through practical activities that encourage collaboration and community building. Montessori's vision aims to empower children as ambassadors of peace for a more compassionate and interconnected global society.

The Montessori Peace Flower: The Four States of Peace Awareness: 

Peace manifests in various forms and layers, prompting a contemplation of its nature and practical implementation. Delving into how peace can be practiced involves examining potential applications. The Peace Flower diagram gives a simple and clear plan for teachers and parents to follow.

Self Awareness - An awareness of how we are thinking, feeling, and behaving.  It means being mindful about thoughts, words, and actions.

Community Awareness - An awareness of other people in the community and the nature of relationships we have with people, especially people with whom we interact every day.  Community radiates out from each individual to include family, other students, teachers, school staff, neighbors, shopkeepers, etc.

Environmental Awareness - An awareness of what the earth needs to stay healthy and how individuals, communities, and cultures treat the earth.

​Cultural Awareness - An awareness and appreciation of the differences in people’s attitudes, beliefs, practices, customs, and social behavior.

​In Early Childhood, we spend a significant amount of time on the first petal of Self Awareness.  We want to help identify and name all of the various feelings the child will have, and help them know that all feelings are okay and give them tools to process their feelings in a healthy way.  Continuing to move outward, we want to show them what appropriate actions they can do with these feelings.  We then want the child to begin to contemplate and meditate upon their actions before they are performed.

While concentrating on the first petal of self awareness, our overall goal is to help the child move from a less egocentric state to one of community, environmental, and ultimately cultural awareness.

Peace Flowers 

An indigenous practice that we utilize everyday is holding a talking circle. They are a great way to bring everyone together to ground, take deep breaths, sing, listen, learn and share – which is also the foundation for a peace circle. Utilizing our Peace Flowers we help children feel more comfortable speaking and sharing while teaching how to actively listen.

First, we pick our colors and fold our paper back and forth, accordion style! 

Then, wrap the pipe cleaner steam around the middle. 

Lastly, carefully separate each layer of tissue paper and give your flower a good squishing to help it hold shape. 

(Optional: You can trim the edges so the ends are rounded before separating)

The Peace Flower method of problem solving allows children to recognize and express their own feelings as well as learn respect for the other child’s feelings.

A basket containing the peace flower is made available to the children at all times.  When a conflict arises one child will get the Peace Flower. While holding the Peace Flower the child can express what they did not like or how they feel to the other child. When they are done they pass the flower to the other child.

Respect for the other persons turn to talk is stressed. The children are encouraged to use “I” words such as “I didn’t like it when you hit me”. We use kind language when holding the Peace Flower.

When the two children reach a solution or simply get over their difficulty they put their hands on the flower and say, ‘we declare peace’, or ‘friends’.​

Spreading Peace through Symbolic Art! 

Peace Poster

Peace on Earth Plates! 

Picasso's Peace Doves

This heartfelt tale brings to life the cherished symbol of global harmony—the dove—while also introducing young children to the renowned artist Pablo Picasso

​We created our own doves of peace with water colors and a print of Picasso's - The Dove of Peace.

Breathing Beads 

Whenever life gets tough the first thing we can do to center ourselves is BREATHE.
These breathing beads help you slow down and keep track!
We start with coloring our popsicle stick. 

Then we thread beads onto our pipe cleaner. 

Next we tape our beaded pipe cleaner to the popsicle stick. 

The finished product: 

Now we're off to counting our breathing! 

Peace Yoga 

Great activity to get kids moving, breathing, and being at peace! 

We had a conversations about what it looks like to be peaceful. Here were some of the kids responses: 
​
-"Taking deep breaths"
-"Getting a hug from someone" 
-"Playing kindly"
-"Someone sharing with you and you sharing back"
-"Letting someone borrow a toy" 

Peace Books 

A lovely mindfulness meditation!

Parachute Cooperation 

The synchronized opening of our group parachute shows the strength that arises when everyone comes together. By working in tandem to all lift the parachute the kids are being exposed to harmonious collaboration. This fosters a sense of community awareness, understanding and unity. 

Moments for Gratitude

"Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." - Melody Beattie 

For circle time, we each took turns drawing a straw and using the correspondent color to express our thanks. 

For our gratitude turkey, we envisioned each "feather" with what we were thankful for, writing out our messages of joy, and placing them inside our turkey as a token of our gratitude. 

Students were prompted with "I'm grateful for..." and here were some of their responses: 
-"Momma"
-"The sun" 
-"My puppy"
-"Plants from the garden" 
-"My warm bed" 

Thank you Lunch Bunch Helpers! 

Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

Oh the suspense of waiting for the hunt to begin! We had to close our eyes while all the letters were hidden away.
It was a blast thinking up all the people, places and things that corresponded with each letter.
​Extra special if you could find the letter in your name! 

Drumming, Shaking, and Singing along! 

Story Time with Mica Sun

Mica effortlessly blends music into his story telling. Can't help but want to sing and dance along! 

Sweet Banana Squash 

A simple delicious recipe especially when you have a surplus of squash and don't know what to do with it! 

Ingredients: 

• 1 medium banana squash, scooped out and cut to bite size 
• 2 TBS olive oil 
• 1/3 cup of honey 
• pinch of salt 
• 1 tsp of cinnamon (saving some to sprinkle on after it cooks!)

This recipe can be done easily (and mess-free) in a plastic bag. Just throw all the ingredients in give it a good shake, set the oven to 450, and cook for 15 minutes! 

Kid approved!

Sweet Friends!

See you Next Time!