No David! I’m a Peacemaker!

A few weeks ago, sweet Julie over at Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten wrote this great little post about Peacemakers & Peacebreakers.  Immediately, I was smitten…absolutely IN.LOVE with her idea.  In our Social Studies curriculum for the first few weeks of school, we’re supposed to teach the littles about rules, people who make rules, consequences, etc.  Julie’s Peacemaker activity was just TOO perfect not to implement!!! 

We read No David!, David Goes to School, and David Gets in Trouble.

Of course, the kids got a giant kick out of the bare bottom picture of David running through the street.  They just LOVE David…as naughty as he may be :)  I had already read “How to Fill a Bucket” and introduced bucket filling, so my firsties were immediately all, “David is being a BUCKET DIPPER!!!!!!”.  LOVE.  It was the perfect segue into talking about the differences between Peacemakers and Peacebreakers.  We made a couple of anchor charts with their ideas of what each looks like…

After brainstorming a little about Peacemakers/breakers we made little {Julie Lee inspired} Davids with speech bubbles that said, “I’m a Peacemaker when I…”  Seriously, this goes along SO well with our bucket fillers!  Our campus is about to relaunch Rachel’s Challenge {LOVED this last year} in a couple of weeks, and this goes along great with that initiative, too!! 

I just LOVE using this vocabulary in the classroom!!!  So fitting and age appropriate!The whole grade level is going to hang these on a huge “We are Peacemakers!” bulletin board out in our hallway! 

I made up a cheesy little peacemaker promise/pledge/pact that I had my kids sign.  We said it over, and over, and over again and when they signed it, they had to pinky promise they’d *try* their best to be a Peacemaker ALL the time :) 

“I will be a Peacemaker today & everyday.  With all my actions, in all my thoughts, and in everything I say!” 

Keeping the peace in first grade isn’t always easy.  Kids say and do things that aren’t always very kind.  So, I set up a little “Peacemaker Conflict Corner” in my classroom where the kids will sit and “talk it out” when they’re having problems with each other {I’m hoping this nook isn’t used very often ;)}  

I made a little Peacemaker guide to problem solving, too…just incase they forget how to resolve their issues :)  You can click on the pic to download a copy if you want :)

Graphics courtesy of Scrappin’ Doodles

If you haven’t checked out Julie’s original post on peacemakers, go now!