Once again, the students and staff at Link Elementary World School celebrated the International Day of Peace on Friday.
What is the International Day of Peace? The International Day of Peace "Peace Day" provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982.
In 2002 the General Assembly officially declared September 21 as the permanent date for the International Day of Peace. By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to work in cooperation for this goal (from
http://www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/).
As a World School, Link participates and celebrates in this day every year to spread words and thoughts of peace around the world.
The day was filled with messages and actions of peace. As the students entered the ceremony in Link’s Children’s Peace Garden, they listened to a bilingual (Spanish/English) song, “Wavin’ Flags” by K’naan to embrace the action of
sending peace through the waving of flags.
The ceremony began with Link’s Spanish teacher, Danielle Bovelle-Jackson, welcoming the children in Spanish and continued with fifth grade student Coby explaining what the International Day of Peace meant to his fellow students.
Teacher and IBO PYP (Primary Years Progamme) Coordinator, Christina Calandrello, spoke about the school-wide action. “As a World School, we all work together to perform actions that impact both our local and global community. This year, you all worked collaboratively to create Peace Flags that will send our messages of peace out into the world with every gust of wind. They have been attached to our Peace Pole in our garden and will stand as a visual symbol of peace for our school and community.”
At that point, students from each grade level (grades K-5) spoke about their projects of peace (see below for more
information). Third grader Michael stated, “Our grade decorated ribbons with symbolic peace messages. We are all communicators today and hope to share our messages of peace with our Link Community. Peace can mean many things like making a new friend, smiling at someone and loving yourself."
"As the pinwheels spin, we are spreading our peace messages throughout the world,” shared first grader Casey about their Peace Pinwheels.
Second graders Lily, Hunter and Serina proclaimed, “The second graders have been busy thinking about and discussing peace and what it means to us. Through
our conversations, the students realized that people all over the world have the same hopes for peace. We then
decided to research how people say peace all over the world…….If you look inside the flags we made, you too can learn how to say peace in that country’s language.”
Ms. Calandrello continued the ceremony by honoring the students of Link that performed Peace Student Actions. “Students who perform Student Actions are leaders in modeling what it means to be a global citizen.” Each student was awarded with a peace pin, card and honored with a round of applause from their classmates. With the help of Link’s ESL teacher, Laura Hagen, the students were then reminded about the “Suitcase” Project which made a connection to the PYP Learner Profile attributes and
Attitudes.
As the celebration came to a close, Link’s Principal, Mrs. Francine Cuccia, encouraged the students to “perform actions of peace both within and out of the school community” and highlighted all the hard work and dedication the students and school put into the day. She then explained that Link with observe a “moment of silence” at 12:00 pm, which will happen all around the world today.
With assistance from Link’s music teacher, Cindy Kimmel, the students sang along to “We Are the World” as they returned to their classrooms to continue to celebrate the day. For Link Elementary World School, the message
of peace continues to spread through the community and the world.
Grade level projects:
Kindergartners created Seeds of Peace. The brainstormed words that meant peace to them and decorated each leaf to spread their words like “seeds in the wind.”
First graders created Pinwheels that held their messages of peace. When the pinwheels spun, the
messages of peace were sent out into the world.
Second graders made Peace Flags that contained a message of peace and how to say “Peace” in the language of the country represented.
Third graders created Peace Ribbons that all carried individual expressions of peace, kindness and respect for self and others.
Fourth graders created Symbols of Peace after researching peace symbols from around the world.
They hung them of the Children’s Peace Garden fence for all to enjoy while working in the garden.
Fifth graders created a Peace Posters after researching peace makers from around the world. The created a written piece for each poster to share their research and celebrate these peace makers.
