Voices of the Heart Peace Poems
3rd grade, Sandra Kim and Shayna Cribbs
At the time of International Peace Day, the children were going to be working on Pinwheels for Peace in art. We were trying to make a connection for kids. Peace is such a big idea – so hard for them to grasp what it means to them.
At the time we were also working on mapping and map legends, so this book (by Ed Young) with its symbols and pictograms was perfect. The book is all about the heart – what joy means to the heart, what resentment means to the heart, and it uses Chinese characters as inspiration for collages. There actually isn’t a page about what peace means to the heart, which was great because the kids could come up with their own ideas and pictograms.
First we read though the book and talked about the symbols. Some are straightforward and some are not. Then we had a class discussion about peace and what it means – in the world, to us. We talked about how peace feels to each of us – how your heart feels about peace or when it is peaceful.
After reading the book, we brainstormed as a class about different pictograms that might symbolize different words or feelings. Using the ideas they had come up with for symbols, I modeled one example of an art piece for them.
The children did a rough draft, planning their symbols and their colors. It’s really important for them to go through a planning process with any project, art as well as writing. They start to get used to the elements of planning in whatever they do.
Before they came to me with their draft, I had them do a partner sharing – sort of a peer consultation about their plan. Then I met with each of them before they did their final version.
