El Día de la Paz

This Saturday, January 30, is "El Día de la Paz" in Spain. It is to honor the life and message of Ghandi and is similar to our celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. This past week in school I have been teaching the children about Martin Luther King Jr. and why we celebrate his life and dream in the United States. I created a story book with pictures and bolded words such as "freedom," "equality," "civil rights, "boycott," and "African American" for the children to learn. I also gave them a coloring sheet that says "I have a dream" with a giant dove on it and below the image the word, "peace."

I also played a "game" with them to help them understand the inequality that African Americans experienced in the US in the time of MLK . I told them the right side of the classroom no longer had any rights. They were not allowed to speak during class, go to recess, go to the bathroom or talk to any of the kids on the left side of the room. I told them they were ugly, stupid and annoying to everyone. The children on the left side of the room could always go to recess and the bathroom whenever they want and were all good boys and girls. We continued class for 5minutes in this roleplay and then after we discussed how the children on the right side of the room felt without having any rights for what seemed like no particular reason at all. They all understood the message that we are all equal and should have the same rights no matter what our physical, or in this case geographical differences are.

The activity I really would have liked to do was something I found online. You take a white egg and a brown egg and you talk about the differences between them. Then you turn around and crack them both open and show that even though they are different colors, they are the exact same on the inside. Just like people! The main problem with this is it is impossible to find a white egg around here.

Above is a picture of the mural that the kids made in honor of this holiday.