An Elementary School Vision of 'Whirled Peace'

The idea of peace can mean a lot of different things to different people, but Wednesday, on the International Day of Peace, the students of and expressed their notion of the word through artistic pinwheels.

About 700 pinwheels could be seen twirling in the wind at each of the elementary schools as part of an international art and literacy project called Pinwheels for Peace. Students spent up to two weeks creating pinwheels with messages of peace and planted them in the front lawns of each school.

Sally Danforth, an art teacher at both schools, said she learned about Pinwheels for Peace from reading an art magazine. After talking with other elementary art teachers, they thought the project would fall in line with their discussions about reducing bullying in schools.

All 700 students from each school, from 4-year-old kindergarten students to fifth grade, participated in the project. Danforth said the classroom discussions varied at each grade level. Her 4-year-old students, for example, discussed what colors seemed more peaceful. Students in her second grade class were able to think about more lofty topics.

“We talk about words like peace, respect, sharing, getting along and kindness,” she said. “We talk about where do you find peace, and how do you show it with symbols.”

Pinwheels for Peace was started in 2005 by two Florida art teachers as a way for students to express their feelings about what’s going on in the world and in their lives. 

In the first year, groups in more than 1,325 locations throughout the world were spinning pinwheels on Sept. 21, with approximately 500,000 pinwheels spinning throughout the world. Last year, more than 3.5 million pinwheels were spinning in over 3,500 locations all over the world.