Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on Monday. Many artists have written songs that you can use with your students in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. or at any other time of year when you wish to celebrate the concepts of peace, cooperation, caring and getting along with each other.

Peter and Ellen Allard have an incredibly awesome song on their Sing It! Say It! Stamp It! Sway It! Volume 3 CD called "Building a Better World." You can see and hear Ellen singing and signing this song on YouTube. If you are fortunate enough to attend a workshop presented by the Allards, Ellen may teach you how to sign the song. We learn by doing so although Ellen taught me how to sign the song many years ago, I can still remember what she taught me. After we had been introduced to the song, Ellen had us sing the song with her. We sat on the floor in a circle and as we sang we passed around an Earth beach ball. When the verse ended whoever was holding the Earth ball suggested another way we could build a better world. We then sang the song again, added that person's way to build a better world to the song, and continued to pass the Earth ball around the circle. Once again when the verse ended the person holding the Earth ball shared an idea of a way for us to build a better world, and the song continued...

Jack Hartmann has many songs that celebrate the concepts of caring, sharing, and getting along. Many of those songs can be found on his Getting Better at Getting Along, Learning to Love, and Follow a Dream CDs. "P-E-A-C-E" is from Jack's Follow a Dream CD. This song is sung to the tune of B-I-N-G-O so your students will learn the song quickly. I have created a reproducible activity for your students to use as they sing the song. You will find the directions below.

Instructions

Print out one copy of the P-E-A-C-E page for each student. Each student will only need one set of the 5 hands from the second reproducible. After you print copies of that page, cut the page in half so that each student gets one set of 5 hands. Have each student fold their P-E-A-C-E in half so that the letters are facing them. Have them cut on the lines that I have placed between each letter. They should only cut through one layer of the paper and should stop cutting each time they reach the fold. When they have finished they should see 5 flaps, one flap for each letter.

Have them glue their sheet of 5 hands inside of the folded paper on the section that has not been cut. When they lift up each flap they have created they will see a pair of hands. The first time the song is sung they will be singing P-E-A-C-E as you would sing B-I-N-G-O. When they sing the second verse they will lift up the "P" flap and clap their hands in place of singing "P". In the next verse they will lift up the "P" and "E" flaps and clap their hands in place of singing "P" and "E". Continue singing as you would B--I-N-G-O.