8 Classroom Activities for the International Day of Peace

What is the International Day of Peace?

Every year on September 21, schools, communities, and organizations around the world pause to observe the United Nations International Day of Peace. Established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1981, this day calls on everyone to observe 24 hours of nonviolence and ceasefire. Since 2001, the date has been fixed to September 21, giving educators a reliable anchor point in the school calendar.

But here’s the thing — peace isn’t just the absence of conflict. For students, understanding peace means building the everyday skills that make communities work: empathy, respect, healthy communication, and the ability to celebrate what makes each of us different. Those are skills worth practicing long after the calendar page turns.

Whether you teach kindergarteners or 5th graders, the International Day of Peace is a natural springboard for cross-curricular lessons in social studies, English language arts, and social-emotional learning. The activities below draw on ClickView’s U.N. International Day of Peace topic resources to give you ready-to-use ideas for the classroom.

Classroom activities for the International Day of Peace

1) Write poems for peace

Poetry and peace have a long shared history. Each year, UNICEF invites children from conflict-affected countries to share poems about how conflict impacts their lives and their hopes for the future. Bringing that same spirit into your classroom gives students a personal, creative way to explore what peace means to them.

Start by introducing students to the basics of poetry form. ClickView’s Short Form Poetry video is a great way to build foundational knowledge, and What Are Acrostic Poems? walks students through the structure they’ll use.

• Ask students to write an acrostic poem using the word PEACE, where the first letter of each line spells out the word.
• Encourage them to write about what peace looks like in their family, school, or community, or how they’d promote peace if they could.
• For younger students (grades K–2), consider working as a class to co-write a single poem on chart paper.
• For older students (grades 3–5), invite volunteers to share their finished poems aloud.

Remind students that there’s no single “right” answer here and that the goal is reflection, not perfection.

2) Explore why peace is difficult

This activity works well as a class discussion or think-pair-share. It gives students a chance to grapple with a big idea: if everyone wants peace, why is it so hard to achieve?

Screen ClickView’s Why Is Peace Difficult? video from the Think like a Global Citizen series, then guide a whole-class conversation using prompts like these:

• What are some reasons the video gives for why peace is hard to maintain?
• Have you ever had a disagreement with a friend or family member that was difficult to resolve? What made it hard?
• What’s one thing our class could do this week to make our school a more peaceful place?

This is a strong entry point for grades 3–5, but even younger students can participate with simplified prompts. You might also pair it with the Global Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions video to connect the conversation to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.

3) Get to know peace activists

Learning about real people who championed peace helps students see that peacemaking takes many forms — and that ordinary people can make extraordinary change.

ClickView’s collection of peace activist videos is a great starting point. Divide students into small groups and assign each group one peacemaker to research:

• Malala Yousafzai: Critical Thinking — education advocate and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• Mikhail Gorbachev — leader who helped end the Cold War
• Teddy Roosevelt: One of the Toughest Presidents — president who brokered peace agreements abroad

After watching, each group should prepare a short presentation covering:

• The peacemaker’s early life and what shaped them
• The injustice or conflict they worked to resolve
• What inspired them to take action

Groups can present orally in two to three minutes, create a poster, or record a short video. What matters most isn’t the format — it’s the conversation that follows about what peacemaking looks like in practice.

4) Learn about Alfred Nobel and the Nobel Peace Prize

Who decides who receives the world’s most famous peace award? And why was it created by someone who invented dynamite? Those questions alone are enough to hook a room full of curious students.

Screen ClickView’s Alfred Nobel video from the 100 People Who Made History series. Then use it as a launchpad for discussion:

• Why do you think Alfred Nobel chose to create a prize for peace?
• If you could give a peace prize to someone in your school or community, who would it be and why?
• What qualities do you think a peacemaker needs?

For an extension activity, have students design their own “Classroom Peace Prize” and nominate classmates who demonstrate peaceful behavior. It’s a fun way to reinforce positive actions throughout the year.

5) Foster healthy relationships

Healthy relationships are the foundation of a peaceful community, but building and maintaining them is a skill — one that takes practice at every age.

ClickView’s Relationships video from the Miniclips: Wellbeing series explores what makes relationships positive or negative. The accompanying activity booklet helps students examine the difference between helpful and harmful interactions at home and in the classroom.

You can also use Let’s Create Relationships as a hands-on follow-up. In this video, students work through creative activities designed to strengthen their connections with peers.

• After watching, ask students to identify one relationship in their life they’d like to strengthen and write down one action they could take this week.
• For younger students, use role-play scenarios to practice positive relationship skills like sharing, listening, and taking turns.

6) Develop and practice empathy

Empathy might seem like something that comes naturally, but knowing how and when to empathize is a learned skill. It’s also one of the most powerful building blocks for peace and when students understand someone else’s perspective, conflict becomes easier to navigate.

Start with ClickView’s What Is Empathy? video to lay the groundwork, then move into Understanding and Caring and I Can Show I Care for practical, student-friendly examples.

• Have students pair up and practice “empathy interviews” where each partner shares something that happened to them recently, and the other practices listening without interrupting, then summarizes what they heard.
• Create an “empathy jar” where students drop in notes describing kind or empathetic actions they witnessed during the week. Read a few aloud each Friday.
• Discuss as a class: how does showing empathy help prevent conflicts before they start?

7) Celebrate diversity and respect differences

Understanding other cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives is essential to promoting peace. When students learn to appreciate differences rather than fear them, they’re building a foundation for a more tolerant world.

ClickView’s Respect Diversity video asks students to view a piece of public art and then create art of their own that celebrates diversity in our world. It’s a hands-on, creative way for students to connect with each other and explore different cultures and perspectives.

• Before watching, ask: what does the word “diversity” mean to you?
• After the activity, have students share their artwork with the class and explain what aspect of diversity they chose to celebrate.
• For an extension, pair this with Celebrate Strengths, where students identify and share what makes each person in their class unique.

The message here is simple but powerful: our differences make our community stronger.

8) Uplift and support one another

It’s not always easy to see our own strengths, even adults struggle with this too, whether in job interviews or everyday conversations. Helping students identify and celebrate their strengths doesn’t just build their own confidence. It helps them recognize and appreciate the strengths of their peers, which is a cornerstone of peaceful, supportive communities.

ClickView’s Celebrate Strengths video guides students through a creative, hands-on activity where they explore their own strengths and share them with classmates.

• Have each student write three strengths on a card, then pair up and share one strength they admire in their partner.
• Create a class “strength wall” where each student’s name is displayed alongside positive qualities their classmates have noticed.
• Use Trust Each Other as a follow-up activity where students collaborate on an illustration about an important topic and practice giving and receiving constructive feedback.

When students feel seen and valued, they’re far more likely to treat others with the same respect.

Tips for weaving peace education into everyday lessons

The International Day of Peace falls on September 21, but the skills it highlights — empathy, respect, communication, and collaboration — deserve attention all year long. Here are a few ways to keep peace education alive in your classroom beyond the observance day:

• Connect to current events. When age-appropriate news stories arise, use them as discussion starters about conflict resolution and peacemaking.
• Build it into morning meetings. Start each day or week with a brief check-in question about kindness, empathy, or community. Even a simple “what’s one kind thing you noticed this week?” goes a long way.
• Revisit the vocabulary of peace. ClickView’s Peace etymology video from the Sir Linkalot series is a quick, engaging way to explore where the word comes from — and Peace and Piece makes a fun homophone lesson, too.
• Use video as a regular teaching tool. The ClickView U.N. International Day of Peace topic page brings together all the resources referenced in this guide, making it easy to revisit throughout the year.

Peace education doesn’t need to be a standalone unit and is most effective when it’s woven into the fabric of your classroom culture. The more students practice these skills in everyday moments, the more naturally they’ll carry them into the world beyond school – which can only benefit society.

Sources

1. United Nations. “International Day of Peace – 21 September.” United Nations, https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-of-peace.
2. UNICEF. “Poems for Peace.” UNICEF, https://www.unicef.org/poems-for-peace.
3. United Nations. “Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.” United Nations General Assembly, 1999.