Free Online Resources

Documents and Guides

Teach Peace
Building on the remarkable success of the first edition, the Peace Education Network (United Kingdom) is delighted to present the second edition of Teach Peace revised and updated for 2016.
http://peace-education.org.uk/teach-peace

Talking to kids during COVID-19
Sesame Street has taken the fun-loving characters that we all love so much to help kids cope with COVID-19. They have uploaded videos where they help kids understand their worries and the rules of social distancing. They also take us through fun exercises to do while social distancing.
Sesame Street Caring for Each Other

How to Handle Bullying
This article can be used as a useful resource in guiding educators, parents, and youth to find the most efficient means of handling a bully. Through understanding the various forms of bullying and the viable strategies which can be used by those experiencing bullying, we hope to create a more comfortable and respectful learning environment for children both in and outside of the classroom.
How to Handle Bullying

 50 ideas for Anti-Bullying Week
The Anti-Bullying Alliance presents a series of suggested activities for Anti-Bullying week. Many of these activities have been suggested by children and young people and can be led and organized by them. Other ideas have come from the Anti-Bullying Alliance. Select, adapt, and build on the activities most appropriate for the children and young people with whom you work. Work with children and young people on all the suggested activities. Ask everyone to come up with their own idea!
50 Ideas for Anti-Bullying Week

Assessment Toolkit: Bullying, Harassment, and Peer Relations at School
This free 170-page kit has been designed for teachers, school administrators, and ministries of education to provide a standard way to measure the nature and prevalence of school peer relationship problems, standards for quality programs, and a common set of tools to assess the impact of school-based programs. It was developed in partnership with the Canadian Initiative for the Prevention of Bullying (National Crime Prevention Centre)
Assessment Toolkit – Bullying, Harassment and Peer Relations

Colman McCarthy’s Class of Nonviolence
The Class of Nonviolence is an eight-session class developed by Colman McCarthy, founder of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. It uses classics in peace and justice literature to teach peacemaking. The entire eight-session / 48 essay class can be downloaded as a PDF file for free.(206 pages)
Class of Nonviolence Colman McCarthy

Cooperative Facilitation Guide for Effective Conflict Resolution
This guide offers suggestions to teachers on how to explore issues such as overcoming stereotypes and prejudices, conflict transformation, and prevention of violence among young people in an interactive way.
Cooperative Guide to Conflict Resolution

Finding New Words: A Resource for Addressing Bullying at School
This resource provides a series of exercises for teachers and a lesson plan for students to more effectively address bullying by taking a stand, telling the truth, and building a stronger community at school. From www.racebridgesforschools.com
Finding New Words Resource

Fire it Up! Youth Activism Manual
This resource is filled with great ideas to get a youth group started in your school.
Fire it Up! Youth Activism Manual

Inclusive Schools Celebration Ideas
The kit materials will provide you ample ideas to assist you in planning for Inclusive Schools Week, including publications that speak to the benefits of inclusive schools, a lengthy list of celebration ideas and lesson plans, and materials to use in promoting the Week and inclusive practices in your community.
Inclusive Schools Celebration Ideas 2008

International Day of Peace Packet
The Center for Cooperative Principles offers this International Day of Peace: Education Resource Packet.
International Day of Peace Packet

Lift Off – Human Rights Curriculum from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland
Lift-Off is the second in the series of Lift Off materials, which have been developed for use in the primary school classroom to promote understanding and respect for human rights. It has been written for 8-10-year-old children by a team of experienced and practicing teachers from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Lift Off

Making a Difference in Bullying
A report by Debra J. Pepler & Wendy Craig, experts in bullying issues, examining the definitions of bullying and possible solutions to the problem.
Making a Difference in Bullying

Peace and Harmony Manual
This manual is meant to serve as a tool to be used in elementary schools to help raise awareness, dispel myths, and promote diversity, acceptance, and cultural understanding. The identified target group for this interactive presentation is students in Grades 4 to 6.
Peace and Harmony Manual

Peace Lessons from Around the World
Peace Lessons from Around the World, developed by the Hague Appeal for Peace is the fruit of peace education in all world regions, contributed by educators associated with the Global Campaign for Peace Education. Like its predecessor Learning to Abolish War, the initial teaching resource produced by the Campaign, the conceptual structure of “Peace Lessons” is based upon the four organizing strands of the Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century. Four lessons are presented under each of the four strands.
Peace Lessons from Around the World

Peace Week Planning Guide
In New Zealand, schools celebrate Peace Week each year in June. Peace Week is a national week designed especially to help schools educate students about peace issues. Peace education is about helping students to understand and manage conflict in their own lives and from a greater perspective learning how peace is fostered both nationally and internationally. This guide provides ideas for activities that your school could do to celebrate peace!
Peace Week Planning Guide

Reducing Bullying: Dr. Dan Olweus
Bullying in schools is a frequent and serious problem that is often a precursor of aggressive and violent behavior. Schools, in concert with parents and community members, can significantly reduce bullying behavior. This guide is designed to provide practical guidelines on how to reduce and prevent bullying behaviors.
Reducing Bullying: Meeting the Challenge Dr. Dan Olweus

The Kit: A Manual by Youth to Combat Racism through Education
This anti-racism resource was created by youth, for youth. It includes anti-racism information, tools, and resources. Educators, youth, community leaders, NGOs, peer educators, and anti-racism activists can all make use of this kit to take action to combat racism.
The Kit

The Road to Peace: A Teaching Guide on Local and Transitional Justice
With creative, thought-provoking, and innovative lesson plans, this comprehensive teaching guide introduces students to the concept of transitional justice through:

  • Lessons on the root causes and costs of war and conflict
  • Overview of human rights and different transitional justice mechanisms
  • Mock war crimes tribunal and mock truth commission role plays
  • In-depth country case studies
  • Individual case studies on human rights abuses
  • Investigative tools to study the need for transitional justice in the U.S.
  • Skill-building resources on how to apply reconciliation on a local level
  • Conflict resolution and peer mediation exercises
  • Transitional justice glossary
  • Resources for further study and action on peace and justice

The Seven Challenges Workbook: Cooperative Communication Skills
This workbook provides a structured, intensive exploration of seven challenging skills for a lifetime of better communication in work, family, friendship & community.
Seven Challenges Cooperation Communication Skills Workbook

Toolkit on Positive Discipline from Save the Children
Physical and humiliating punishments are recognized by the UN Study on Violence against Children as the most common form of violence affecting children the world over. Physical and humiliating punishment can be replaced by techniques of positive discipline. The Toolkit on Positive Discipline (designed primarily for South and Central Asia, but has great relevance to all countries) equips anyone who is involved with children – professionals, parents, teachers, and care-givers – with precise tools and concrete activities to raise disciplined children without using physical and humiliating punishments.
Toolkit on Positive Discipline

Time to Abolish War: Youth Manual
This youth agenda from the Hague Appeal for Peace looks at achieving the aim of building a culture of peace in the 21st Century through peace campaigns on issues including landmines, small arms, peace education, promoting children’s rights, stopping the use of child soldiers, abolishing nuclear weapons, and building an International Criminal Court. These are problems that affect the lives and futures of young people, and we can play a part in all these efforts to find solutions, alongside others working in the fields of human rights, the environment, humanitarian assistance, disarmament, and sustainable development.
Time to Abolish War

UNESCO Learning the Way of Peace
This guide comes to you as a gift from UNESCO. Educationists gathered from India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Maldives, and Sri Lanka at the Conference on Curriculum Development in Peace Education organized by UNESCO in January 2001 in Colombo, accepted that peace education should be an integral part of general education in their own countries and South Asia at large. They decided to produce a Teachers’ Guide to introduce Peace Education to schools in South Asia. So this is it!
Download the UNESCO Learning the Way of Peace PDF here (13.84 MB)

Websites

Browse through these websites for other valuable resources:

Australian Human Rights Commission – Human Rights Education Resource

The Australian Human Rights Commission has developed a new set of human rights education resources for teachers called rightsED. This kit aims to help students develop a critical understanding of human rights and responsibilities, as well as developing the attitudes, behaviors, and skills to apply them in everyday life.

Blueprints for Violence Prevention

This site contains information and materials about model programs that have been effective in reducing adolescent violent crime, aggression, delinquency, and substance abuse.

Celebrating Peace

This site offers free to teachers, peace pages which are activities to help students to learn of positive healthy choices for dealing with anger; other sheets include activities dealing with fear, and another activity helps center the individual prior to a peaceful discussion.

Children’s Music Network – Peace Resources

The Children’s Music Network provides a list of songs for children about peace and justice, resolving conflicts, and celebrating diversity.

Conflict Resolution Network

This site offers Conflict Resolution resources to build stronger organizations and more rewarding relationships. All CRN material on this website can be freely reproduced provided the copyright notice appears on each page.

Cultivating Peace

This site offers to download their latest resource called Cultivating Peace – – Taking Action containing ready to use student activities to support education in global issues, sustainable development, social justice, and active citizenship.

Educators for Social Responsibility

This site offers over 80 free lesson plans for educators on peace-related topics. There are also links to information about other available peace resources and programs for teachers, some that are free.

International Centre for Human Rights Education

On this site, you will find the Play It Fair Toolkit which was developed as part of the project “Preventing Racism and Discrimination: Preparing Canadian Children to Engage in a Multicultural Society.” The Toolkit helps to promote human rights, nondiscrimination, and peaceful conflict resolution within non-formal education programs for children, such as summer camps or after school activities.

Kids Club

This site offers peace and love craft activities such as games for download.

UNESCO is the lead agency for the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (2001-2010). For the year 2005, UNESCO has been entrusted with the drafting of a mid-term report, evaluating the contributions and activities of all participants and outlining possible approaches for the next five years of the International Decade. This report will be presented to the United Nations General Assembly at its 60th session in 2005. A PDF of this report is available here.

Peace Begins With You

This site offers a lesson plan suitable for elementary to high school students.

Peace One Day

This site celebrates the UN International Day of Peace on September 21 each year and offers a place to share your actions and ideas for actions for that day.

Social and Emotional Learning Resources

The SEAL materials are designed to provide a whole-school approach to promoting social, emotional, and behavioral skills. The materials provide a range of resources that can be used across the whole school.

Tolerance.Org

This site offers classroom activities geared toward teaching tolerance. These easy-to-use activities can be implemented directly or adapted for classroom needs.

World Peace Society of Australia

This site offers lesson plans on peace for teachers as well as other peace-related links.