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Peace Walk art at red gables

Celebrating Peace at Red Gables

Tiffany Townsend, Director of Marketing & Communications
This fall, the Red Gables Campus was filled with the sounds of Chinese poems and Spanish songs, the movement of scarf dances, and the sights of wishing stars and paper sculpture flower gardens. While these might sound like elements of a multi-cultural festival, they were student creations that lined the walkways and hallways of campus as part of the Path of Peace.
The Peace Walk was the culmination of a cross-disciplinary project inspired by the International Day of Peace on September 21. Teachers of Lower School Specials—Art, World Languages, Music, Library, Technology, and Science—coordinated efforts to create a unit on peace for students in Kindergarten through Grade 5. “We thought bringing peace into our curriculum in this difficult year would be a perfect way to enrich our curriculum and develop a sense of community,” explains Chinese teacher, Caitlin Harris.
 
“The Specials teachers look for ways to collaborate on themes during the year in the hopes of offering a richer learning experience for the children—learning that they experience in a variety of ways with different specials teachers, and learning that occurs over a longer period of time, giving the students a chance to do a deeper dive into the topic,” shares Technology Integration Specialist, Terri Schulz. “The children really shine when they have the opportunity to develop an understanding of a topic over time. They use their talents to the fullest because they can study a theme and contribute their own strength to a group effort—the touch of an artist, the beat of a musician, the experimental enthusiasm of a scientist, the perfect pitch of a foreign language, the knack for technology, the empathy and leadership needed to work together.” 
 
Many elements of the project were inspired by readings such as Todd Parr’s The Peace Book, It’s Ok to Be Different, and Love the World; Susan Verde’s I am Human: A Book of Empathy, and various Spanish and Chinese poems. In kindergarten and first grade, students learned scarf dances in music and created handmade peace crowns and artwork based on the poems they read about endangered species. 
 
Grade 2 students decorated the hallways with wishing stars, fall leaves, and snowflake art and sent Chinese postcards of peace to local senior assisted living facilities. Third graders painted rocks with messages of peace in Chinese and Spanish and displayed them around the campus for others to view and then took them home to hide in their communities. 
 
In fourth grade, students learned a Spanish song about peace by the Columbian singer Juanes, which was performed at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in 2016, and for art, they made Peace Monsters parade lawn art. 
A beautiful, hand-painted butterfly wall was contributed by the fifth grade students, who also developed Chinese activity books for their younger schoolmates to enjoy. 
 
Through these projects, students explored different themes related to peace, such as peace is working together for a common goal; peace is taking care of animals; peace is learning a new language; peace is everyone having a home; peace is taking care of elders, and peace is being in nature. 
 
For Spanish teacher Edimary Morales, her favorite part of the project was the process: “Seeing how students got excited about learning a poem or a song in Spanish, seeing them make the connection to the peace unit in Spanish, Chinese, music, and art, I loved watching them use their talents to the fullest, and the end product was just beautiful.”
 
In the process, students discovered ways they could contribute to a peaceful planet by learning about other cultures and the world around them, helping others, and making their school, community, and the world a better place to live through kindness, tolerance, and generosity. 
 
As Harris shares, “We hope the students take notice of how they and others in their communities can and do contribute to a more peaceful world. Making beautiful music and art, thinking of others, appreciating those you love, demonstrating curiosity about the world around them, and helping neighbors all help make the world a more peaceful and loving place.” 
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Red Gables Campus (K–8)

Nashville, TN 37205
(615) 383-0661

Frist Campus (9–12)

Nashville, TN 37221
(615) 301-5400
Ensworth is a coeducational, kindergarten through twelfth grade, independent day school.