Peacemakers and peace-breakers

Use this lesson in face-to-face or online teaching to promote the values of peace, respect and tolerance in your primary classroom.

Author
Katherine Bilsborough

The United Nations' International Day of Peace is on 21 September. Its aim is to get governments and individuals around the world to commit to 'peace above all differences'. By promoting peace, respect and tolerance in the classroom, teachers can help to instil important values in their learners that will help them be responsible citizens.

There are two versions of this lesson plan – one for face-to-face teaching and an adapted lesson plan for teachers providing online classes.

Face-to-face classroom lesson

In this lesson, learners classify people into peacemakers and peace-breakers. The lesson starts by looking at different ways of saying and writing the word 'peace' around the world. In the main part of the lesson, learners focus on peacemakers and peace-breakers in a classroom context. Information is presented in a fun way through a jigsaw reading activity in which pupils practise saying letters of the alphabet. The lesson finishes with learners collaborating to make a poster for the classroom.

Aims

  • To celebrate the International Day of Peace
  • To promote the values of peace, respect and tolerance in the classroom
  • To encourage pupils to use English creatively
  • To practise saying letters of the alphabet

Online classroom lesson

In this lesson learners talk about peace in the context of the classroom and brainstorm classroom rules that help support peaceful resolutions to conflict. Then they work in groups and expand their ideas out to the context of family and friends, after which they discuss the other group's ideas and rank them. Finally, they apply the ideas to practical scenarios and imagine or perform dialogues that illustrate positive and not so-positive ways of dealing with conflicts.

Aims

  • To review classroom rules
  • To encourage learners to apply ideas to other contexts
  • To promote the value of peaceful resolutions
  • To develop discussion and evaluation skills
  • To apply ideas to practical scenarios and practise speaking skills

Age

Primary (8–11 years)

Level

CEFR level A2 and above

Time

40–45 minutes (face-to-face) or 60–80 minutes (online)

Materials

The lesson plans and materials can be downloaded below. In addition, for the face-to-face classroom lesson, you will need some card and colour pencils or crayons for the poster.

Important: Please read

Included in the teachers' notes for the online classroom lesson, you will find guidance and advice for what teachers need to know and do before and at the beginning of an online class. Please read the lesson instructions carefully before using them. They are for guidance only, and designed to be used with the most common online platforms. You may need to adapt the lesson to the format and online platform you are working with.

A combination of the lesson plan for online teaching and the lesson plan for face-to-face teaching can be used in 'hybrid' situations, where some students in the class are studying from home and others are physically in the classroom. Classroom material for the online lesson is provided as a PDF.

Language Level

Comments

Submitted by Inno100semana on Sat, 03/02/2024 - 07:58

My pleasure to thank the great work done to produce these livelier lesson plans. They are really helpful.

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Mon, 03/04/2024 - 10:20

In reply to by Inno100semana

Hi Inno100semana

Thanks for your feedback - we're glad you are enjoying using our resources!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Djibson 52 on Sat, 10/02/2021 - 15:18

This lesson plan is Splendid ! Thank you for the brilliant work.

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Mon, 10/04/2021 - 13:05

In reply to by Djibson 52

Thanks for the feedback Djibson 52  - we hope you and your students enjoy the lesson,

Cath

TE Team

Submitted by Citlalli on Sat, 09/05/2020 - 19:51

I was just reading the interesting material in this website, and I found your lesson,which I think  is perfect as we are at the beginning of September! 

Thank you very much!

Submitted by AlesGal on Sat, 07/25/2020 - 03:30

Talking about rules and behavior,  children are always eager to give respect and be respected. So every class is really competitive and they interact respecting every rule and feel comfortable with their every day life at school.   

Submitted by Tahira ajmal on Sun, 09/23/2018 - 12:00

This example of lesson plan was quite helpful. thanks.

Submitted by Fouda79 on Tue, 09/21/2021 - 22:49

In reply to by Tahira ajmal

It suits all the students needs in a good way 

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