Bringing Peace to Children

Just like you, recent events have rocked me to the core. As humanity’s ugly underbelly is exposed with mange and open sores that continue to bleed, I’m seeking hope. For me, it lies with children. I have seen first hand that these innocents desire justice and harmony. I believe children have the power to create profound change in our world. If there is ever to be true peace, it must transcend the generations. But first they must dream of the changes they want. Here are ten creative ideas I’ve used with my students. Let’s all begin the change.

1. Make Peace Cards.

2. Make an anti-bully poster.

3. Draw cartoons dealing a bully.

4. Paint a peace sign on a paper plate.

5. Create a Love the Earth card.

6. Make a dream board.

7. Photograph someone doing a kind act.

8. Create a dance high-fiving and smiling with your buds.

9. Film a video of yourself singing a peace song.

Colby Jeffers: Change the World

10. Paint a self-portrait.

Any more ideas? Share  and we’ll turn 10 to 10,000!

About Laurie: The author of The Pharaoh’s Cry,  Portal Shift, Kidnapped Smile, and Dragon Sky from the fantasy series The Artania Chronicles,  as well as the middle-grade Forest Secrets. Laurie Woodward  co-wrote Dean and JoJo: The Dolphin Legacy. Her poetry has been published in multiple journals and anthologies and she was a collaborator on the popular anti-bullying DVD Resolutions. Bullied as a child, Laurie is now an award-winning peace consultant, poet,  and blogger who helps teach children how to avoid arguments, stop bullying, and maintain healthy friendships. She writes on the Central Coast of California. More about her work can be found at artania.net

A Child’s Compassion

I’d been doing class meetings for several years and was pretty proud of the results. Bullying was down and my fifth graders were using assertive language. Still nothing could prepare me for the class meeting I had one day.

Now I work in a community with gangs, poverty, and drug abuse. And like many teachers I don’t want to know every sad story. Some are so heartbreaking it makes it hard to teach. But this one year I had students facing extreme challenges that were effecting everyone. One little girl had gone from Student of the Month to a gossipy taunting bully. Another joined in on the bullying while her  grades kept dropping until she was two years below where she’d been before.

I wondered why?

The school counselor and their parents soon answered these questions. The girl who had become a bully had recently walked in to find a family member hanging from the ceiling, the victim of suicide. That compounded with a single parent household and other relatives in gangs made her so angry she lashed out at whoever was nearby.

The second girl had a father who’d been arrested for gang activity in a loud raid on her home. His arrest was in the papers and she was so ashamed that she could barely focus in school. She often started to cry in the middle of class and asked to be excused. I tried my best to comfort her or distract her with a joke or interesting work.But when a child is missing her Daddy there is little a teacher can do.

Neither of these girls shared their pain with their classmates. Both were too ashamed.

One day the tension felt high so I called a class meeting. I cautioned the kids about the rules saying that this was private, not something to gossip about. We could share with our parents but not on the playground. Then like I often do, I started it off with acknowledging how proud I was to be their teacher, how honored I was to be part of their lives, and how much they meant to me.

I smiled at the girl whose father had been arrested and passed her the talking stick. She whispered in my ear, “I want to share about my dad. What do you think?” I told her it was up to her.

She turned the talking stick over in her hands as she spoke. “I know  I’ve been fighting with some of you guys. I’m sorry. But it’s because I’ve had hard stuff to deal with. My dad got arrested and I don’t know when he’s coming home.”

We all chanted, “Thank you for sharing as she started to cry in the arms of the child next to her.

I acknowledged her for being so brave before the girl who found the deceased family member had a turn. She looked at her sobbing friend with wide eyes and shared. “I haven’t been acting great. But it’s because I had a loss of my cousin.”

What happened next gave me chills. Three more children shared how a parent was in jail and how that loss haunted them. Other children tearfully shared their parents’ divorce and how lonely they felt. But as we went around the circle so many of these ten year-olds told their grieving classmates how sorry they were. Time and again I heard, “I’m sorry for your loss and I’m here for you.”

We passed the talking stick around multiple times that day and each time we did a new child revealed loss or pain. Each time we did his/her classmates spoke up in loving support.

And when we were finally done I held the talking stick and said, “We’ve discovered  something very special today. That we all have sad things to deal with. Things that are out of our control. But we also have this amazing communityto support and help us. I am so proud of how brave and kind all of many of you were. When you’re sad, remember this support and let it hold you up.”

Book Launched!

Are you an introverted author like me? Would you rather roll over hot

My new novel

coals naked than do public speaking? Do you break into a cold sweat just imagining being the center of attention?  We writers are a mixed bunch, but as observers, many of us shy away from taking center stage. Well, if you’re launching a new book, waiting in the wings will not sell copies. I know, I had a field of dreams attitude when I published Artania: The Pharaohs’ Cry. Write it and they will come. Well, they didn’t. Oh, I’ve steadily sold a few books, sure. But nothing like I’d imagined.

 

So when it was time to publish Forest Secrets I decided to do it right. Hot coals and cold sweats be damned. This time, I’d launch with a scream instead of whisper. We’d have a party and invite everyone, their cousin, their brother and their cousin’s cousin. But first I needed a venue.

I’d remembered that the owner of Toy Zoo: Anything Educational, Marc Canigiula, had suggested hosting an event at his bookstore when I told him I was publishing a new book. I  was scared to  ask but figured the worst he could say is no. So I headed over, marched inside, and with a gulp asked him if he’d like to host my book launch. My jaw dropped to the floor when he said yes. Not  only that, he’d help me organize the event.

I was flabbergasted and, I’ll admit it, overwhelmed. But I scooped my jaw off the floor and got to work. And the results? A resounding success. I had 75 people attend and sold close to 50 books.

If you are planning your own book launch, here are a few tips:

1. Start early. Post the upcoming publication on your social media sites. Get over your author humility and brag a little.
2. Print up invitations. I use Vista Print for quality and value, but there are reasonably priced printers everywhere. Make it look as professional as you can afford, Here’s mine:
3. Have a theme with activities for the attendees. Since most of Forest Secrets  takes place in the woods with mystical creatures, I had leaf coloring, green tape leading kids on a scavenger hunt throughout the store, and mask making.
   
4. Decorate your book signing table according to your theme. Here’s how I did mine.
5. Send out notices to local publications. Don’t just focus on newspapers. Be creative. Our school district newsletter did a write up that went out to thousands of employees.
6. But most of all, have fun! It’s your moment. Enjoy it.

Teach Kindness With Cursive

“If you build it, he will come,”  a voice in a cornfield whispers to Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams.  And he does. And they do.

We all have fields of dreams. Mine is to see children create peace.

One way for them to do this is affirming it. With words. With art. With deeds.

Or with cursive. Why not teach  cursive writing while affirming peace? The book Cursive Writing Practice: Inspiring Quotes by Jane Lierman does just that.  With quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt and Gandhi, she helps children visualize a better world.

If you want to do the same, you could buy her book on Amazon or create your own quotes with the following lesson. Either way, you will be instilling character and kindness in your students.

And that is what teaching is all about.

Objective: The learner will practice proper letter formation in cursive by writing kind sentences.

Materials: Class set of cursive reproducible, pencils, lined paper, board, chart paper or electronic whiteboard.

Procedure:

1. This lesson should be done after the students have already learned the alphabet and how to connect letters.
2. Review formation of some troublesome letters such as g & q or s.
3. 
4. Pass out worksheets. Have students read the kind sentences.
5. Model how to write sentences.
6. Allow students time to complete worksheets.

While the students write, watch them mumble the quotes. Knowing that they are internalizing positive sayings.

The following day, have students could invent their own kind sentences.    You’ll be amazed at what they come up with.

10 Ways to Use Art to Promote Peace

10 Ways to Use Art to Promote Peace.

Compassion Circle

Have you ever had a day that rocks you to the core? A day that makes you believe in humanity? Have you ever witnessed such powerful love you can’t help but cry? I have and it was in my fifth grade classroom. During a class meeting my students opened up and supported each other in ways that would soften the most hardened heart.

Now I work in a community with gangs, poverty, and drug abuse. And like many teachers I don’t want to know every sad story. Some are so heartbreaking it makes it hard to teach. But this one year I had students facing extreme challenges that were affecting everyone. One little girl had gone from Student of the Month to a taunting bully. Another kept stirring up girl drama while ignoring her schoolwork. Soon she was two years behind.

I wondered why?

The school counselor and their parents soon told me. The bully had recently walked in and found a cousin hanging from a rope, the victim of suicide. That, compounded with a single parent household and relatives in gangs, made her so angry she lashed out at whoever was nearby.

The second girl had a father who’d been arrested for gang activity in a loud raid on her home. His arrest was in the papers and she was so ashamed that she could barely focus in school. She often started to cry in the middle of class and asked to be excused. I tried my best to comfort her or distract her with a joke or interesting work. But when a child is missing her Daddy there is little a teacher can do.

Neither of these girls shared their pain with their classmates. Both were too ashamed.

One day the tension felt so high I called a class meeting. I cautioned the kids about the rules saying that this was private, not something to gossip about. We could share with our parents but not on the playground. Then like I often do, I started it off with acknowledging how proud I was to be their teacher, how honored I was to be part of their lives, and how much they meant to me.

I smiled at the girl whose father had been arrested and passed her the talking stick. She whispered in my ear, “I want to share about my dad. What do you think?” I told her it was her choice.

She turned the talking stick over in her hands as she spoke. “I know I’ve been fighting with some of you guys. I’m sorry. But it’s because I’ve had hard stuff to deal with. My dad got arrested. And I don’t know when he’s coming home.”

As she started to cry in the arms of the child next to her, we all chanted, “Thank you for sharing.”

I acknowledged her for being so brave and once again cautioned the students about the rules.

Next was the bully’s turn. She looked at her sobbing friend with wide eyes and shared. “I haven’t been acting great either. But it’s because I had a loss. Of my cousin.”

The kids stared at her with wide eyes. And compassion.

What happened next gave me chills. Along with the usual please-be-quieter-so-I-can- work, a couple of kids tearfully shared their parents’ divorce and how lonely it made them feel. Then two more children said they had a parent in jail and how that loss haunted them.  But between each difficult sharing was such empathy! Time and again I heard both boys and girls say, “I’m sorry for your loss and I’m here for you.”

We passed the talking stick around the circle multiple times that day and each time we did a new child revealed loss or pain. Yet every heartrending story was tempered with classmates speaking up with loving affirmations.

And when we were finally done I held the talking stick and said, “We’ve discovered something very special today. That we all have sad things to deal with. Things that are out of our control. But we also have this amazing community of support to help us. I am so proud of how brave and kind all of you were. When you’re sad, remember this and it will comfort you. We are so lucky to have each other.”

36 children. A talking stick. And a room vibrating in love.

I couldn’t help but cry.

Help Incarcerated Moms Connect with their Children through the Magic of Books

So many of my students have had parents on the other side of concrete and bars. This program gives needed emotional relief for them.

Michelle Eastman Books

The number of kids with incarcerated parents has increased nearly 80% in the last 20 years, according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. More than 2.7 million children have a parent who is incarcerated, and parents of another 10 million children have been incarcerated at some point.  The experience can be profoundly difficult for children, increasing their risk of living in poverty and housing instability, as well as causing emotional trauma, pain, and social stigma.http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/article/reading-inside

But, through programs like the Visiting Nurse Services of Iowa Storybook Project, some of that stress melt away when kids are able to visit their parent and read a special book together. Through an audio-tape reading program wherein imprisoned parents/grandparents read books to their children/grandchildren on tape, family bonds are strengthened and literacy skills improve as they encourage their children to read with them and in their absence.

The Storybook Project recruits…

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NPR Interview

Recently Tom Wilmer interviewed me for his award-winning PBS radio show, Journeys of Discovery. We chatted about peace education, my Artania novels, and how to stop bullying. Thanks, Tom, for a lovely morning! Listen to Woodward Interview

COMPARE/CONTRAST ESSAY: MY BEST FRIEND & I

If you’d like your students to see others’ strengths and those well as their own, try this writing lesson.  By focusing on the positive, children gain greater understanding and empathy. At the same time they are learning the common core standard of how to write a compare and contrast essay.

Objective: The learner will practice compare & contrast writing by creating an essay which illustrates how they are similar and different from their best friend.

Materials: Paper, pencils, white board or electronic whiteboard, lists of compare and contrast vocabulary.

Procedure:

1. Go over the parts of a paragraph:
   1. Topic Sentence: Tells what the entire paragraph is about.
   2. Supporting Details: Sentences that support/prove the topic.
   3. Conclusion: a creative sentence at the end that adds up all ideas.
   4. Tell the students that they are going to write a special kind of paragraph, called Compare and Contrast which shows how two things are the same and different.
   5. Display lists of compare/contrast vocabulary. (See below.)
   6. Tell the students that they are going to write their own compare/contrast paragraph comparing themselves to a best friend.

If desired the following Venn diagram could be used:

 

5. List of compare/contrast words and phrases for board: different, same, similar to, in comparison, in contrast, in common, one difference, on the other hand, however, thus.
6. Go over how to begin multi-paragraph essays with an opening paragraph with a thesis statement, body paragraphs with topic sentences and supporting details, and a closing paragraph with a conclusion.
7. Use the graphic organizer to guide students to write an essay. A sample frame might be as follows:

      Are you like your best friend? Have you ever compared and contrasted yourself with your best friend? Do you like finding the similarities and differences with him/her? My best friend, ___and I are both alike and different in many ways.

      ________ and I have many things in common. We both____ In addition, we share the characteristic of _________He/she enjoys ___________just like me

      My best friend and I are different too. On the one hand __________likes________but I enjoy_________. Another difference is that I____but___does not.

      Lots of people notice how that they are the same and different from their best friends. Although ______and I share some things but not others, we both love to hang out. It is awesome being his/her friend.

8. Students write essay, remembering to indent, capitalize, and put in end

punctuation.

Evaluation: Were students able to complete the essay with correct compare/contrast vocabulary?

I’ve had students then read their essays to the class. The pride of sharing that finished product shines on their faces!